Alexa Finley 2/12/13

The figured world that my group and I chose to observe is the J Murrey Atkins Library here at UNCC. We expected this environment to be quiet and to mostly consist of students and faculty from the school. The school library provides a decent study place for students, and it also provides students with desktop computers to do homework or study. Some artifacts that we expected to see in this figured world were desktop and laptop computers, books, tables, and printers. We also expected to see different groups in the library; we expected to see people studying together or alone in some areas, and some areas where people are not studying at all. We knew that in this figured world, it is expected that the people, or actors, in the library are quiet and undisruptive, because if the library was loud and distracting to students, it would not be the reliable study place that so many students depend on. My group members and I went to the library to observe this environment on February 5th, 6th, and 8th. On the first observation day, we observed actors on the third floor of the library. In one particular group, everyone was on a laptop doing math homework. There was one person who appeared to be leading the group and helping people with the math. When we arrived on the third floor, there were five people in the group, but there were only two people in the group when we left, and the group leader was gone. One of the two that was left seemed frustrated with the work because he was the main person the group leaders attention was directed to. On the second observation day, we observed the second floor of the library. There appeared to be more people in the library on this day. People here were on the library computers and some were doing homework or writing papers. Others were surfing the internet instead, and some were listening to music. Some were isolated from other people. There were people texting on their phones as well, and some people were distracted and looking around. A person was talking on their phone, which was breaking a norm for this environment. It was apparent that this bothered the people around them because some individuals turned around to look at the person on the phone to show their disapproval, but the individual on the phone seemed oblivious to the fact that they were irritating others. On the third day, we observed the first floor. There werent as many people in the library this daywe assumed there wouldnt be as many people because it was a Friday afternoon and the environment here seemed more comfortable. It seems like talking and eating are more accepted here because there is a coffee shop that recently opened on the first floor of the library. There were groups studying, and a group was using a whiteboard to study for a science class. Although there was more talking here, people seemed like they were able to focus on what they were studying because of the spread-out layout of the first floor. On the third observation day, we also conducted an interview. We asked a person named Josh why he chose to come to the library on a Friday afternoon and he said that his roommates were distracting him so he came to the library so he could focus on reading. When asked what he expects when he comes to the library, he said that he expects a controlled volume and a good place to study.