How university libraries can become a cultural space that students love

At the beginning of the school year, libraries in major universities are crowded. In the rows of seats, computers and exercise books occupy the desktops. Outside the self-study area, layers of bookshelves stand quietly. Many college students walk through them, completing an encounter in the process of picking up, flipping, and borrowing books.

Kuang Yeyun, a senior student at Renmin University of China, has been awarded the annual "Reader Star" of the school library for two consecutive years. The library's background data records her borrowing records of hundreds of books a year. "I like to wander around the new Chinese book section of the library. I am often attracted by the title, cover, and author of the book. I flip through a few pages and borrow them if I find them interesting."

Kuang Yeyun has a wide range of reading. She does not have a fixed reading schedule. She can read for an hour or two at a time when she encounters a moving work. She will also stop decisively when encountering a book with boring content.

Many university libraries are getting rid of the label of "just study rooms" and are striving to become public cultural spaces where young people can read and exchange emotions: creating borrowing lists, carrying out space renovations, and holding interesting theme activities... However, libraries still face multiple challenges brought about by changes in book collection structures, space resources, and students' reading habits.

Li Yue has worked in book cataloging at a university library in Guangdong Province for more than ten years. Recently, she moved to a reading promotion position, racking her brains to recommend good books to students every day. “Many people think that the purpose of my former book cataloging position was to allow readers to find books, but I think it is more about letting books ‘find’ readers.”

"Classic books are always popular and will always be read." Li Yue lamented that good books will definitely "find" college students, and she is committed to "assisting" them.

How can university libraries strive to “grow” into something that students like? How do college students “find” books in the library?

The library makes university life vast

Kuang Yeyun was on the "Reader Star" list of the university library in 2024 and 2025.

"I read a lot of books in 2024. I had just been in college for a year, and my eyes suddenly became very vast. The information in the online world was true and false. From books, I learned more about the world and myself." Kuang Yeyun said that at that time, she went to the library to study three or four days a week, or borrowed books to take back to the dormitory to read.

Kuang Yeyun will build his own reading "coordinate system" in the process of borrowing books. "I will use the type of the book as the X-axis, the rating of the book as the Y-axis, and add time as the Z-axis." The type allows her to get a colorful reading experience; the ratings help her retain the memory of good books and the possibility of re-reading; looking back on the good books she has read in the past allows Kuang Yeyun to feel the shift in her preferences and the changes in her life.

At 7:30 in the morning during the final exam week, the library of Beijing Zizi University had not yet opened, and there was already a queue at the door. Senior Li Yaya is also a regular on the team.

"There are so many people in the school that I can't even grab the self-study classroom. The library is the best place to go," Li Yaya said.

Li Yaya described the school library as "a nice old place" - 8 to 10 people sit in rows at a table. "Seeing the people around me so immersed in it, I can read a book without being distracted." She attaches great importance to the comfort of the study space. “If the room is messy, I won’t be interested in studying.” A clean and bright corner itself is a silent boost.

Li Yaya recalled that when she first entered school, there was always "no space" but not "full seats" in the library. Some people occupied the seats with books and personal belongings all day long, but no one was there. Last year, the school library issued an announcement: Seat-occupying is allowed, but please go early and come back early. Sea-occupying behavior on an hourly basis is no longer allowed. "I didn't expect our school to think of and guide students to improve this. I was really surprised after seeing the notice."

Li Yaya likes to find a window seat to read. Every afternoon, the sunlight shines in through the glass window, forming soft spots on the table, which is in line with Li Yaya's definition of "comfortable environment". Occasionally she raised her eyes and could see out the window, whether it was the swaying tree crowns or all kinds of students passing by. After a brief period of relaxation, I can steadily regain my attention and continue to be immersed in the world of books.

Gong Xia, who majored in international business, was a "bookworm". During her freshman and sophomore years, Gong Xia was able to spare more than an hour to read quietly almost every day.

At a time when everything is becoming electronic, Gongxia still prefers paper books. "The screen can accommodate thousands of words, but it cannot imitate the unique gentleness of paper books. The rough touch of fingertips rubbing the pages, the soft rustling sound when turning the book, and the peaceful atmosphere of ink." She said, "Electronic screens can imitate appearances, but they cannot touch the warmth of this rooted entity."

Gongxia said frankly that she chose the library instead of dormitories and cafes precisely because the library "enforces" silence. "Because the atmosphere in the library is quiet, everyone is reading, and I am embarrassed not to read."

Let students become book selectors and make the library "lovable"

When Li Yue was engaged in book cataloging work in the past, she had already integrated her reading promotion thinking, for example, she would carefully sort out the version context of books. For example, all books of the same origin, including the first edition, revised edition, promotional edition, and international translation of "How to Read a Book," must be uniformly classified, associated with book numbers, and centrally arranged, "so that readers can have access to a full set of related versions simultaneously when they see the first book, which can enhance the depth of reading."

Nowadays, the work has shifted from book cataloging to reading promotion, allowing Li Yue to carry out promotion work more professionally with her understanding of books. When summarizing the work of the previous year, she found that classic books are always popular. "Things About the Ming Dynasty", "The Ordinary World", and "The Three-Body Problem" are typical examples. These books have been on the student borrowing list for a long time, and their popularity remains unabated all year round. "High-quality content will not be buried because of the change of time."

However, the promotion of some book themes is not satisfactory, and Li Yue feels that the promotion method needs to be changed. On World Book Day on April 23 this year, her library planned a new book cross-border sharing event, linking booksellers and publishing houses, and opening it to readers in the form of on-site bookstalls. Readers can select on-site and borrow them immediately.

"This event lasted for about three days, and hundreds of books were borrowed every day." Li Yue said. The students gave this model a homonym called "One Recommendation and Three Connections" - it used to be "you recommend and I pay the bill", and it is operated through QR codes or online platforms. Now, students can see and choose at the book fair.

After the event, Li Yue collected feedback through a questionnaire and found an obvious reading tendency: psychology, Chinese and foreign literary novels are widely favored, Japanese and American translations and domestic best-selling works are also very popular, and reading materials such as Song Dynasty costumes, traditional aesthetics, and photography art also have many readers.

Li Yue's discovery coincides with Gong Xia's appeal. She loves literary works, but the library displays a large number of "practical" reference books such as "Must-Read for Postgraduate Entrance Examination" and "Teaching Guide to CET-4 and CET-6 College English". "Not all college students have the need to take exams, but they basically have the need to cultivate their moral character."

It wasn't until she started her internship in her junior year that during the winter and summer vacations, Gongxia discovered that there was a library nearby her internship unit that could be reached by bus. She made good use of her lunch break. After a light meal, she spent the rest of her lunch break on those extracurricular readings, looking for a leisurely gap between the pages.

For students who have not yet entered the library, Li Yue believes that the core issue is "how to make the library a place where college students like to come." "It's like selling goods in a store. The first problem is to attract customers into your store. Otherwise, no matter how good your goods are, customers won't be able to see them."

Create an ideal library that is “not boring”

How to get more students to enter the library and participate in reading activities? Nowadays, many university libraries are trying new ideas.

Kuang Yeyun mentioned that her university library has a lending system for already stored books and a flash lending system for new books. "Every time I find a new book I want to read, it may be a highly rated work on Douban, or it may be a new book by an author I like. I can buy these from the library's new book flash loan terminal - the system will review which books are available for purchase, and I can buy two at a time before returning them. This function is very good."

Yin Changxi is a senior student at the School of Journalism at Renmin University of China. She once served as a student assistant in the Library Publicity and Promotion Department and participated in the planning and execution of a series of theme activities called MBTI (a personality type assessment tool). She mentioned that this activity was proposed by the library teacher, hoping to combine the MBTI personality test with the library scene.

Yin Changxi thought of the book rafting activity that had been held by the library before, and proposed whether the traditional book exchange could be transformed into a "book exchange" activity based on MBTI personality types - students sharing reading recommendations and ideas through postcards. "Young people will like it more and want to participate more," she said.

The event format has undergone a round of adjustments. Initially, the teacher envisioned setting up corresponding boxes for different MBTI types, and students would put in or take away postcards. However, Yin Changxi believes that this form lacks display and interaction, and participants can only see the content they have received. The team ultimately decided to display the postcards publicly so that the writings of different students could be seen by more people. After a lot of hard work, the team finally produced 4 exhibition boards incorporating MBTI elements.

At the event, students with different MBTI types hung up postcards in different ways. "For example, the 'Purple Man' arranges the cards very neatly, while the 'Green Man' arranges the cards more casually." Yin Changxi believes that this difference itself is part of the activity. "Different hanging methods actually reflect the characteristics of different types of personalities."

After the event, some students uploaded the live shots to a short video platform, which received a high number of likes. Yin Changxi later even went to other university libraries to imitate similar activities. In her opinion, what students are really interested in is not just the MBTI label itself, but the communication between people that occurs through this topic.

"The library is not a boring place." Yin Changxi said. In the past, many students used to use the library as a place for self-study. Through such activities, you can find that the library also actively plans interesting and novel campus cultural activities.

Li Yue believes that the library should not be limited to traditional lending services, but should also become a campus space with healing functions.

"We have also learned about some situations where students are under great pressure from many courses and are reluctant to come into the library. We are also trying to find solutions to this situation." Li Yue believes that special services can be added to attract college students to the library, such as providing basic printing services, creating coffee corners, calligraphy and painting corners, etc., so that college students can enter the library.

Gongxia has romantic imagination about the library. She shared the "Library of the Tower of Babel" she read in the "Collection of Fictions" - the universe itself is a library composed of infinite hexagonal corridors, exhausting all arrangements of characters, including all books, all stories, and all answers from ancient to present times.

At the end of the interview, Gongxia specially used AI software to draw her dream library, just like the library of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the "Harry Potter" movie: "It has to be big enough and high enough so that it is not depressing; and it has to be retro, so that people are immersed in it and are unaware of the passage of time outside."

(At the request of the interviewees, Li Yue, Li Yaya, and Yin Changxi are pseudonyms in the article)

China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Shen Jiequn Intern Qiao Ruirui Qiu Beicen

Source: China Youth Daily