Library Rant.

There is no study room in my dorm. I have a hard time studying in my room. In my kitchen, my flatmates come in and out. Sometimes I sit in the stairwell to study, but there's no desk there. I could walk forty-five minutes to LSE for a quiet place, but now that students are revising for exams, it's impossible to find a place in the library even there. There are a couple public libraries within twenty minute's walk, but they're noisy and have short opening hours. So when I found that King's College, a member of the University of London (the umbrella university that contains LSE), had a large, quiet library only ten minutes walk from my dorm, I was naturally excited.

When I went in, I asked how I could get access. They passed me from person to person, but finally a woman assured me that all I had to do was get my department to stamp some paperwork confirming that I was an LSE student, and I could get a permanent card. A couple days later I took the form to LSE, but when I read the description on the form more carefully, I found that it needed a stamp from a King's College department confirming that I was taking a course from them. Of course, I was not, so I checked their website. On it I found another form for access that did not require a department stamp. Wanting to be sure I had the right one before I left LSE that day, I called them.

The first woman I spoke with said that I actually needed a different form that required me to justify why I needed the library. I said that this wasn't like the other two forms, and asked that she check to make sure she was talking about the right one. She then passed me off to her supervisor, who asked me why I needed the library. I told him that I just wanted a quiet place to study. He said that wasn't good enough. "But King's College students can use our library," I objected. He denied this.

So I hung up and went across the street to our library and asked the reception. Sure enough, any King's student can come and use the library, without a department stamp or research justification, only because they are students at King's. So I called the first guy back and told him this. He said that I was mistaken. I said I was standing in front of the woman who decides who goes in and out, and she lets the in. He said that she was mistaken. I asked for his supervisor's name. He refused to tell me, and the conversation ended badly.

The woman at the LSE library admissions desk then gave me the number of her supervisor, who she said would be interested to hear about this. So I called them, and the woman I spoke to sounded very concerned. She said she would pass it on to her supervisor, and gave me his name. I waited for a few days and didn't hear anything. Then I sent him an email. Then I didn't hear anything for another couple days. Then I called again. The same woman I spoke to before said he would answer my email the next day. Two days later (today) I did hear from him, and he confirmed that I am not allowed to use the King's library except in the case of a research need, and even then, I am only allowed to look at or photocopy a book, not check it out.

This is infuriating. I am a member of the same university, and I can't even go into their library? At the same time, I can't find a space to study in my own library, and their students are granted unlimited access? And it took two weeks for the bureaucracy to even decide this conclusively? Is this what I pay thirty-two thousand dollars a year for?