Besides obtaining administrative ap The concept of a relaxing area proval, we also arranged an agreement that permits and even encourages with the college’s food service vendor drinking, eating, and talking— (with exclusive rights to provide food on activities traditionally taboo in campus) over the opening of a café beyond libraries—is appealing to college their scope. Further, we developed designs and university administrators as for the café that would distinguish it from well as librarians who aim to change the rest of the library, which included the role of the library. After all, comfortable furniture, tables, and Internet computers invaded the sacred halls access for cybercafé seating. of silence beginning in the late And finally, the library staff decided 1980s, why not coffee? to uphold the ethics of fair trade by con tracting only with coffee vendors who purchased directly from farmers and who learning projects into his classrooms. paid the farmers a fair price for their These types of assignments require product. students to develop marketing plans As a fall 2003 term project, the stu for real situations that exist within their dents enrolled in Kaskowitz’s classes communities. were assigned to create a marketing As I described the vision of a library plan for the library coffee shop. As the café, bells within both of our heads started library’s liaison, I attended the classes ringing and collectively we decided that and represented the library’s goals, previ Kaskowitz would design a class project ous café work, and interests. Following in which students would develop a mar my presentations, the students asked keting plan for the library café complete clarifying questions. At the end of the with targeted customers, cost projections, class sessions, I provided the students demographic statistics, and marketing with my contact information, and over strategies. After several brainstorming and time, my office was frequently visited by organizational sessions with Kaskowitz, we students with questions and plans. decided to try to bring a reallife learning Upon completion of the projects, the opportunity to his marketing students and seven groups of student teams presented provide the librarians with a plan to start their café marketing plans to me, their a café. client, over four class sessions. After the Although our work did not follow the formal presentations, I had the opportunity normal form of faculty–librarian collabora to question each group, thereby affording tion (the norm being the librarian teach me an inside view to their businessori ing reference skills to a faculty member’s ented approach. research class), we embarked on a joint The enthusiasm surrounding the stu adventure. dents and their presentations sticks out in Prior to collaborating with Kaskowitz, my memory. For example, one group de the librarians and I had developed several veloped a promotional video and another goals and taken some actions. Because group printed tshirts with a café name and the library wanted to reap the profits from logo for its presentation. coffee sales and use the monies on other At the end of the semester, I received projects, the library staff agreed to manage a printed copy of each plan. Through my the café. This was a key decision because exploration of the plans, I was able to although the college administration sup incorporate many of their ideas into the ported the café in theory, they could not library café. The groups’ ideas ranged from fund our café. the practical, such as purchasing and dis
C&RL News February 2006 98
playing student artwork in the café, to the We have also hosted several events, includ less practical for our specific context, such ing faculty workshops on library resources, as selling enough coffee to go national. communitybuilding gatherings for faculty In the end, one unexpected, but extremely and staff, art displays of student work that the important benefit occurred: we were selected café purchased from the Senior Student Art as the recipients of the “Senior Class Gift” Exhibit, reduced coffee prices, and extended donation. Several of the marketing students hours during exam week, as well as theme were also members of student government parties, such as the “Blue Book Blues Bash,” and thanks to their efforts, the café received which aimed to relieve finals week stress via its first solid seed money from the seniors’ a live jazz/blues band, a masseuse, and free gift. With this pleasant surprise, we paid food and coffee. And through it all we have for plumbing for the coffee urns, electrical maintained a healthy bank account. A con outlets, and café furniture. The Senior Class test held during the fall semester provided donation, coupled with the enthusiasm of the us with the finishing touch, a much needed marketing students, fed into the library staff’s name for the café, AfterWords Café. belief that a café’s time had come and that But, has a library café made a difference it would be well received by the students. in the traditional image of the library as a In fact, student members of the Senior Class solitary place? Was all the work, on the part Gift Committee are using our café as a model of the librarians and Kaskowitz’s students, for their next project—creating a comfortable worthwhile? In response to these questions, meeting place in the student union. I think about a typical day in our café—in which a student and a faculty member Has the café made a difference? converse over a cup of coffee or a student One year later, our café is a reality, serving fits the final piece into an impromptu, com as a café open weekday mornings and eve munal jigsaw puzzle or a group of students nings and also as an intellectually stimulating laugh over a political joke or a student sits place to gather. We have a faithful and grow crosslegged on an oversized couch and pours ing clientele of students, faculty, and staff. over the daily newspaper. In our opinion, all Friends of Reeves Library, a group comprised of our work was worth it because the milieu of interested alumni, faculty and staff, has created by the café has refuted the stereotype taken interest in the project and generously of the library as an unwelcoming place. In supported the café with several significant this broken stereotype’s wake, we at Reeves gifts. At the café we buy coffee from a fair Library instead witness a new image form trade company, Green Mountain Coffee, ing—one of a library as a convivial place. which allows us to make an ethical state Now that is an image that would make any ment simply through the coffee we serve. librarian smile.