Scholarship
The digital revolution
is changing the science
of information — and
Carolina’s libraries.
by Kathleen Kearns
It’s 5 o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon.
Three graduate students and a medical resident gather at a cafe table
before a big plate glass window,
beyond which students and staff members
wait in the twilight for their evening buses
home. With laptops plugged into tabletop
outlets and sheaves of photocopied medical
articles, the four talk over their position for
an upcoming debate in their “Strategies of
Prevention for Clinicians” class.
The cafe has the feel of a major bookstore chain; one student says she likes
working there because the ambient noise
helps keep her awake. The students develop
their arguments, laugh and chat for a
moment and get up, the resident with a
fresh cup of coffee in his hand. They walk a
few paces through an interior door and
straight into the library lobby, a place of
welcoming curves and warm colors, armchairs and potted plants.
Comfort? Conversation? Coffee? Even
before they walked through the lobby
door, this group of students was in the
library: the Friends Cafe in UNC’s recently
renovated Health Sciences Library, to be
