Black leaders seek changes to culture center library

After speculation of possible closure of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Library last May, IU officials and student leaders have now ruled out that option and are researching ways to improve the facility. \nConcerned students, faculty and staff met in two open forums to discuss the future of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Library Wednesday and Thursday. A panel of faculty serving as the advisory board for the library made a presentation to students and explored various routes of change to improve the library.\n"The two forums went very well," said Librarian for Reference Services, Undergraduate Library Services Mary Strow, who facilitated the open discussion. "I think we got a lot of good, creative, thoughtful responses, and now we have a real sense of what people say they want in the library, and we can go forward from there."\nThe most common feedback from students about the library was a desire for better technology and longer hours. Currently, the library is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, and it is closed on the weekend. Other students requested more African-American studies resources, such as books and DVDs. Some students reported they were satisfied with the current state of the library.\n"Because it collects materials on the black experience and the history of African-Americans, and because it's in the black culture center, it's an important intellectual space," Strow said. "Its important for retaining the expression of black culture. It's a very vital part of the whole dynamic." \nThe library, which boasts hundreds of volumes pertaining to African-American studies, is also used as a meeting place for groups and has a computer lab. Last spring a predominantly black group of students protested after administrators spoke of potentially closing the library due to low usage. Since then, IU and the NMBCC have been looking for ways to improve the library. Some options explored at the meeting were adding new programs or combining it with another library.\nTo brainstorm different options and elicit ideas from students and faculty, the library advisory board and the Black Student Union distributed surveys recently to more than 180 people.\nAnother issue discussed in the forum was the need to make more students on campus aware of the library so that the facility is used to its full potential. Including the center in campus tours would be an effective way of promoting the library, Black Student Union president D'Anna Wade said.\n"We are all looking forward to giving the library more attention so that people will know about it and use it," black culture center Director Oyibo Afoaku said. "I think it would be good if more of IU's publicity information would include the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center and the library." \nStudents and faculty who attended deemed the forums successful.\n"I'm excited with what they are doing to refurbish and revamp it and letting students on campus know about it," said senior De'Ondray Pope, a member of the Black Student Union and employee at the culture center. "I'm also very happy with their decision not to close the library and their efforts for what they want to do in the future."\nThe controversy surrounding the possibility of the library's closure is no longer an issue, and that idea has been ruled out, Strow said.\n"We still have a ways to go in deciding what exactly we are going to do with the library, but I'm really hopeful that we are going to get something good out of this," she said.\nThe faculty advisory board that presided over the forums will submit its proposals before Dec. 15 to the dean of libraries to be reviewed. The final decision about the future of the library will be announced sometime soon thereafter.