Desk Hogging
Posted Tuesday 07 January 2020 at 18:05
Estimated reading time: 4 mins
This isn't the kind of post I'd normally make, but it's something I've needed to get off my chest for a while. If you go to the library and make use of a desk, don't abandon it with your stuff still strewn across it!
Many a time I've gone to the library at uni to get some work done between lectures and struggled to find an empty desk. Not because the library is packed with hard-working individuals, though the majority of people are there to do work. No, I'll walk past a good number of desks with no one sitting at them, just a laptop (often not even turned on) and a bag placed on the desk.
Of course, there are plenty of legitimate reasons in a library to leave your chair and keep your desk claimed. One of the main benefits of being in a university library is the immense collection of books around you to help your studies. I can understand going to find a relevant book and returning, with it, your desk. But that is not often why these desks are left unoccupied. Before the end of last semester, on an occasion when I had managed to find a desk, someone approached the girl sitting opposite me and asked if she'd like to get a coffee with her from the library café. The girl agreed, and got up from her desk, leaving it littered with her belongings, unavailable for the use of someone who may have been looking for somewhere to work. An hour later she returned and took to the desk she had unofficially reserved, without consequence.
Additionally, what kind of naivety do you need to leave your belongings unattended in a public place? The majority of students are honest, and would never think of stealing from an unattended desk, but not everyone can be trusted so blindly. You wouldn't walk away from a park bench for an hour and leave your laptop behind on the seat; any sane person knows it probably wouldn't be there when you get back. So why do it in a library?
I understand that people don't want to lose their spot, that they do intend on returning and continuing their work, but there are lots of other people who would like to work, too. If you want to go and get a coffee, why should you have any more claim to that desk than anybody else? Clearly, you're not using it. If you want to disappear for an hour, you should forfeit your desk and hope that it, or another, is available when you return, and not selfishly horde it.
The library is aware of the problem, and last year implemented a policy to try and combat it. If a librarian goes round and notices a desk that's not being used, they'll put a notice on it marked with the current time. If they go round a second time and see from the notice that the desk has been left unused for over an hour, they'll clear the desk and put the person's belongings into lost property.
The key word in this policy is if.
I don't think I've ever seen a librarian put out one of those notices. I've certainly never seen any desks get cleared. A desk could be left unusable for over an hour before a librarian even notices it, and then there's a further hour at least before the desk will be emptied! Some days I only have an hour between lectures, so the desks wouldn't be cleared often enough for me to get one. I really doubt that this policy actually does anything at all.
I understand taking breaks. When I'm working, I'll often try to follow the pomodoro system, or I'll take a break before moving on to the next piece of work, but there's a difference between a short break and abandoning your desk. I have never left my desk without taking my belongings with me. It's ignorant and selfish. Don't hog desks you're not going to use.