Students worried the library would take a step backward when administrators called for quiet earlier this term. Oliver Wendell Holmes Library Director Elisabeth Tully, however, has proven this concern superfluous. Interested in addressing “the gaps between what the library is doing and what users expect and want,” Tully has kept the library a place for students to congregate, while simulaneously working to protect silent study areas. Meanwhile, in her seven years as director, Tully has also helped to bring the library into the 21st Century by considering the advantages of electronic media vs. print media, expanding on the library’s technological capabilities and finding new ways to make using technology easier for students to use. Following other trends of modern libraries, Tully has even considered putting a café in the Dole Room, although health codes have restricted this idea from coming to fruition. (She is still considering a room in which students might be allowed to bring food.) Whatever impression the student body got from the library debate, Tully and her staff share our interests. The call for a quieter library was not exclusive to the administration – Tully and this column have expressed interest in protecting study areas – but the community is also interested in enhancing the library’s role as a vibrant Phillips Academy hub.
