Charged up: What I learned on a day without power

Abstract

One morning, the power went out across the whole campus. It was a sunny fall day, so light poured through the open windows and it was comfortable to be inside without air conditioning or heat. It’s not important why the power went out or why it was difficult to anticipate when it would be restored. It’s more important to share what I learned about what students value about the library by staying in the building that day. As a librarian and an applied anthropologist, I have spent more than 25 years observing students in the library. Talking with, teaching, and watching students at points of need is the best way that I know how to engage in participant observation with students in the library. These are some things I learned about our students that day, but they also lead to a bigger question. With an aging infrastructure throughout much of the US and the extreme weather conditions associated with climate change that can bring disaster, are we as prepared as we could be?