The Figured World of J.

Murrey Akins Library The figured world my group and I observed on three different occasions, was the J. Murrey Akins Library located at the front of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) campus. This location cycles in thousands of college students, faculty members, and employees of UNCC every week, which would make this figured world a prime place to watch a wide variety of discourse groups on any particular day. While at the Akins Library, we saw numerous types of non-studying and studying discourse groups, for example: study groups, tutors, struggling student, isolated individuals, unfocused student, and the texting/talking student to name a few. In the following paragraphs I will talk more on our experiences of these three separate observations and how these discourse groups followed or broke the social norms of the library. On February 05, 2013, between 4:00 5:15 p.m. we observed the third floor of the Akins library and focused strictly on one study group as a discourse group. This study group consisted of five males that were studying a mathematical subject together. What made this discourse group intriguing to observe, was that it could be broken down into two other discourse communities as well, tutor and a struggling student. The tutor was a young Asian male, short in stature that appeared to know the subject material far better compared to the rest of his group. He walked back and forth around the table of his study group helping each one of his peers figure out how to solve their math assignment on universitys Moodle website. As he walked around the table, he would use his graphing calculator to punch in each equation and then write down the numbers from the calculator in each of the other four members notebooks in front of them, that I can only speculate were the steps in which to solve each problem. Each one of the groups members seemed to understand how to do the equations after the tutor showed them systematically on how to work the problems out, except for one member. The tutor seemed to give this one Caucasian male more help and time than any other group member, in turn made this Caucasian male the struggling student. Around 4:55 p.m. three of the students in this study group, including the tutor student, packed up their belongings and proceeded to leave the library via the narrower staircase at the front of the building. The struggling student and one other group member stayed behind to continue working on this assignment together, but this was when the struggling student really began to show his frustration with the math subject on hand. Once the tutor had left, the struggling student stood up for several minutes with his hands interlocked behind his head while he was looking down at the problem on the computer in front of him. The two individuals left from the study group were still there when our observation group left at 5:15 p.m. Even though this study group with the tutor and the struggling student were talking amongst themselves, they did manage to follow the normal rules and conventions of a library by keeping their voices at a soft moderate level and not disturbing the surrounding students whom were also trying to study. On February 06, 2013, between 2:00 and 3:20 p.m. we changed our location of observing different discourse communities to the second floor of the Atkins library and began to

focus more on individual discourse communities instead of only group discourse communities. On this day there seemed to be significantly more people in the library and it was much noisier on the second floor compared to the third floor the day prior. There were people eating fast food such as Popeyes, walking around while talking loudly on a cell phone, and the volume level at which people were talking to one another and ignoring the concentration of other students in the same area, were all outside of the normal customs of a library. The discourse communities that were present on this day consisted of: students studying on the Akins library computers, their own laptops, students trying to isolate themselves from their surroundings by going to a corner of the second floor, those that were working diligently on writing papers and not even noticing the noise around them because they were so focused, and people that studied with headphones on to listen to music. There were also unfocused students who would have a laptop out with several folders on the table that they were sitting at, but would never touch either one and would just watch their surroundings instead of accomplishing any type of homework/studying. Lastly we saw a large discourse community of students whom would only surf the internet on social media sites like Facebook instead of attempting any type of studying/research like a library is designed to help. The final day of our observation on February 08, 2013, between 3:00 5:30 p.m. we once again relocated to a different floor, the first floor, due to the significant amount of people of this floor compared to the other levels of the library that were bare on this date. This floor had a much more relaxed environment compared to the previous two floors that we observed. It had couches and more cushioned chairs, the entire floor was wide open without having bookshelves lined up throughout the length of the floor, there was a coffee shop called Peets Coffee and Tea which gave the impression it was acceptable to eat and drink on this floor. On this floor we found a few more types of discourse communities as well. There was an isolated group that studied inside of an enclosed glass room. Therefore, everyone walking past can still see their group working, but the sound from people walking past them and talking was blocked out. We also saw active groups that were studying chemistry together and they were drawing what looked like molecule models on the dry erase boards that are located only on the first floor of the library. It was on this day that we had one of our groups members, Rosie, conduct an interview on a male student, Josh, that attends UNCC. Josh was sitting in the corner of the first floor near Peets Coffee and Tea listening to music on his headphones and reading a novel, when Rosie approached him stating her purpose for coming up to him and followed with a series of six questions for Josh. The questions from Rosie and Joshs answers are as follows: Why were you here on a late Afternoon? Rosie asks. Josh replies, My roommates were distracting him, so I couldnt focus on reading my novel. Why did you choose this part of the library?

Because it was located next to the coffee shop. How often do you come here? A few times a week. Rosie asks, Do you always come to this floor? Yes, I like the location of the coffee shop and it is much more comfortable. When you come here, do you usually come for leisure reading or for studying? Josh responds, Mostly for studying, but on Fridays I come for leisure because I have the whole weekend to study. The last question that Rosie asks Josh is, What do you expect when you come to the library? A controlled volume and a good place to study. After our three days of observations, I feel my group and I found the discourse communities that we expected to find before we began the observations, along with couple others like the active group and the isolated group discourse communities. I was surprised by the amount of students that did not have consideration for students trying to study when they would talk on their cell phones or to their friends/peers that were amongst them. As far as I know it has always been a common rule that a library is a quiet place to study or read, so where a majority of the individuals we watched picked up their common curtsies at a library baffles me. Overall, this was a good experience at looking at an ordinary location through a different lens.

Rules and Conventions Essay The figured world I intend to observe with my group is the J. Murrey Akins Library. The purpose of the figured world that we are observing is supposed to be a particularly quiet place, which gives the people there a good atmosphere for concentration on reading, writing, studying, or doing research. It is a social norm that people in a library are not to talk, or when doing so, to softy whisper in order not to disturb others. Libraries in general attract a broad spectrum of individuals, such as adolescent children trying to read Dr. Seuss books, to teenagers doing research for papers for school, and adults that may just be searching for a new and interesting novel. However, this library in particular primarily attracts college students, faculty, and staff of the University of North Carolina at Charlottes campus, because those are the only people that are technically aloud to use this figured world. The discourse communities I expect to find

during this observation are people that study alone, people who study in groups, students playing the teacher role in-group study, the stressed student, and maybe an agitated student from others around him/her breaking the social norms of the library.

Notes 02/05/2013 4:00-5:15 Observed Group working on Mathematics -Each group member had his own laptop -There were 5 individuals in this particular group -Working on Moodle for their homework -1 particular student was helping out the entire group (Asian male, short, Tutor) -There before us until 4:55 -3 left including tutor actor, 2 left behind -1 of the two left behind seemed to have difficulty compared to the rest (Caucasian Male, Tall) seemed frustrated -the 2 still where there when we left 02/06/2013 2:00-3:20 Observing Individuals -2nd floor of the library -More people in the library on this day -Studying on library computers, studying with ear buds in, isolated (individuals in the corner of the library studying by themselves), communities that were writing papers, communities studying slides from classes after printing them -only surfing the internet more specially social media sites, communities texting/talking on their phones (disturbing the people are them), unfocused students (had all materials out but were not doing anything with the material)

02/08/2013 3:00-5:30 Interview Day -1st floor there were a significant amount of people here and bare on the other floors. -the atmosphere of this floor was more comfortable (i.e.. talking and eating food was more accepted -isolated groups (inside glass room), active groups (chemistry; were writing on dry erase boards) -Smaller groups sitting together in single chairs, -individual people seemed more relaxed and talked to their surrounding peers -Rosie interviewed Josh (tall, long blonde hair, average built) -Josh was listen to music while reading a novel -Why were you here on a later Friday afternoon? His roommates were distracting him and he

couldnt focus on reading -Why did you choose this part of the library? Because it was located next to the coffee shop -How often do you come here? Few times a week -Do you always come to this floor? Yes, because he likes the location of the coffee shop and it is much more comfortable -When you come here, do you usually come for leisure reading or for studying? Mostly for studying, but on Fridays I come for leisure because I have the whole weekend to study. -What do you expect when you come to the library? A controlled volume and a good place to study.