Night 2 at the Library...

Midnight: I decided to follow in Melba's illustrious footsteps and let everyone know how this experiment continues. When I pulled onto campus, every spot behind the building was full, so I expected a full house. I was right! This place is bursting at the seams. I'm not even going to try to count; that would require higher math. I haven't seen anyone asleep yet--and I think I'll probably be okay myself since I arrived on the heels of a six hour power nap. I feel like I do when I'm traveling overseas; my body has no idea what time it is.

I've actually had one reference question; who would have expected that?

The coffee arrived as scheduled, but there's no cream or sugar. Bless Karen--she's going to get some before she heads home.

The student workers are all in place for the 11-2 shift; we'll see how things go when we cut over into overnight mode. I've had two students ask me if I "drew the short straw" since I'm here!

1:30 a.m.--It would still require too many math skills for the middle of the night to count the number of people here; suffice it to say, there are a lot! We now have a girl sleeping in the middle of the IMC, and I just saw one guy settling into a chair and asking a friend to wake him up in an hour and a half. We had complaints about noise on the 2nd floor, so I asked two groups to keep it down. I've had two students looking for "treats." I guess they heard about the study break last night and thought they could find something similar tonight (at 1:15 though?).

I'm going to lock the front doors at 2 and see how things look at 5 before I make a decision to reopen the doors then.

Overheard in the hallway on the 1st floor: "Who would be crazy enough to work all night in the library?" I guess that would be me.

3:00 a.m.--96 people still here--inexplicably evenly divided among the floors. The third floor is about quiet as it can be. Still a noticeble hum of chatter on the other two floors. I saw a few more sleepers when I passed through, but most people are working. I realized awhile ago that I feel like I used to when my kids had slumber parties. I spent the first part of the evening in "crisis management" mode--making sure that no one got out of control because they'd had too much caffeine or chocolate--and now things have settled down so that only the diehards who will probably make it through the night are still going.

One question--who do you call on your cell phone at 3 in the morning? I've seen three different people making calls in the last 15 minutes or so and wondered. I could call my son in China--but that's because it's now 4:00 in the afternoon for him. I won't though--if he saw an international number ringing in at this time of the day/night, he'd be sure that something horrible had happened stateside!

By the way--we're completely out of sugar, we still have some cream, the coffee is almost gone--and I've had a second reference question.

4:10 a.m.--70ish people. I can't get them all to stand still while I count! My third reference question (who'd have thought I could get my wits wrapped around these things in the middle of the night?) Intriguing side note: I haven't seen anyone in the group study rooms since about 11:30.

I just learned a nifty little trick--we had a student with a CD in a drive that wouldn't open. I tried, but decided we'd need to put in a work order to get it out. A student nearby showed me how to use a paper clip to open the drive (I know this trick with a floppy drive, but didn't realize I could carry it over to a CD drive).



5:00 a.m.--40 people left--they're either studying, working on papers, or napping (although I only saw 3 napping). I decided to leave the doors locked; no one is standing outside haranguing us to get in. We'll play it by ear. Fifteen more minutes and it'll be the time my alarm usually goes off in the morning.

6:00 a.m.--We're down to about 28 students--everyone left looks like I feel. I spent a little bit of time cleaning up (picking up empty soda bottles, paper on the floor etc.). Moving around about 5:30 was good for me--and helped make the place a bit more presentable. I did decide to open the doors about 6; I figured that anyone who showed up then would be here to study.

I've had a few students thank me for being willing to be here--which is really nice.