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The Shatford Library has devoted itself to providing an academic resource for students and the surrounding community. Nevertheless, it also caters to its leisure readers with a wide range of novels.

Librarian Daniel Haley says that roughly about 90 percent of the people that come to the library do so with an academic purpose. “Many of the people that are in [the library] are getting work done,” says Haley.

That leaves 10 percent for leisure reading found in books, magazines, and web surfing. With a selection of fiction and non-fiction paperbacks, the Shatford Library has a diverse collection of romance, thriller, crime and detection, and science fiction, adds Haley.

Shatford Library’s policy and mission statement says, “The librarian and library staff strive to … provide quality information resources to support the academic curriculum.”

But students such as psychology major Gabby Quintero have more that one reason to come to the library. “I like to have a book with me every time I’m in the library to balance out my studying with a little bit of sci-fi,” she says.

“I also like to compare ideas and theories in these books with the ones learned in class,” she said.  She is among a number of students who check out books for pleasure reading.

With the paperback editions sorted and organized in shelves, many of the checkouts, according to Haley, are books belonging to different disciplines.

Mary Debagio, a psychology major, says that she selects her books usually by their relevance to her classes.

“I’m doing a research paper on logo therapy and am now inclined to check out a biography on one of the founding fathers of Logo Therapy, Viktor Frankl,” she said.

To accommodate the readers and maintain freshness of material, the books are constantly being updated in relevance to popularity. Once paperbacks start showing signs of use and wear, they are disposed of and replaced, according to Haley.

This is one of the reasons, Haley says, that the library has been able to preserve its novel readership.

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