Whether you’re printing your professor’s slideshow or doing a marathon essay, Glenn G. Bartle Library is there for you. But sometimes, it isn’t. As helpful and convenient as our school library is, sometimes Glenn can be a total bitch. Here are the five scenarios you’ve encountered that have you leaving the Pods in utter frustration.
1. The Empty Chair
They’re probably at the bathroom, right? The empty chair is infuriating because you have one quick assignment to print, and this open computer is just taunting you. So what’s this guy’s deal? Is he at the printer, grabbing a quick snack or saving his seat while in class? No matter what, it’s a selfish technique that is tearing up student after student.
2. Face Down, Books Up
Bartle is a minefield of sleeping people. Take every step carefully because there are people passed out around every corner, including, unfortunately, at the computer desks. Who cares if these kids were up all night studying or tearing down the house at JT’s? Printing and getting to class on time is the priority, not watching that guy drool all over his chemistry textbook.
3. Computer in Front of Computer
Is this guy’s work so intense that he needs two monitors? We doubt he’s watching the stock market fluctuate and day trading in between classes. There are plenty of other spaces to plop down and bang out some work on your MacBook Pro. Learn how to use multiple tabs on a browser, and save everyone else the misery of another desk wasted.
4. The Social Media/Gamer Types
We’re not talking about casually stalking your friends’ Halloween photos in between reading chapters of sociology. We’re talking about the student who has Pinterest open in one tab, BuzzFeed in another and Twitter on their phone.
Gamers using the Pods are even worse. That League of Legends stream may have 100,000 viewers and someone is fresh off a pentakill, but your assignment has a deadline, and they’re taking up space. Tetris is fun, and we all may be guilty of a little Candy Crush every once in a while, but it’s time for these people to reevaluate the importance of desks.
5. Printing Station Line
You don’t have the luxury of fitting a printer in a crammed dorm. And while you’re happy that guy just found his textbook for free online, it’s blood-boiling when he decides to print 90 pages at once. You, the forlorn and Pod-less, take that 30-pound backpack down to State Street to take a spin at the shot wheel…
The moral is, consider your actions the next time you enter Bartle. Remember others before leaving your computer logged in at rush hour. Think before printing a Gothic novel on the Simplex. The environment will love you and so will the rest of us.
The library is a magical place. It has housed the brilliant and not-so-brilliant minds of Binghamton’s past. Glenn G. Bartle Library will go down in history as one of the most important buildings in your college career, so please try to make it a happy one.