Barre with Justine

An Epidemic of Loneliness

There was a time during COVID when the effect of the pandemic on university students really hit home for me. Last January, our campus effectively shut down for the month and classes moved online. I was in the process of getting a winter term book club up and running and was shocked by how many students wanted to visit my office to pick up the books in person, rather than from the “Ask Us” desk in the Library. I had a nice conversation with an international student who shared that this had been the first time he had been to campus since moving to Canada in September! It broke my heart to sense how much he and the other students in the Club wanted to meet one another and find a sense of connection. More than one asked if we could please have our meetings in person rather than through Zoom.

This experience highlighted just how isolating the pandemic measures were for many students. We all felt more loneliness during the lockdowns but for university students who may be living away from home for the first time, dealing with the stress of making new friends and the transition to university level classes, the struggle was particularly poignant. It’s a time in life where many of us make those deep friendships and experience independent living for the first time. When campuses moved classes online and cancelled many activities, many students were left struggling with the isolation of online classes in a new community.

Loneliness by the Numbers

Recent wellbeing studies identify disheartening statistics about loneliness in young adults:

• A recent Canadian survey (2021) found that nearly 1 in 4 people aged 15-24 years reported that they always or often feel lonely.
• The Campus Mental Health Report notes that loneliness is one of the top concerns of students in the second and third waves of the pandemic.
• In the 2022 Canadian Student Wellbeing Survey, “making new friends” was ranked in the top 5 challenges of transitioning to university (interestingly, more difficult for students aged 20-23, vs. 24+ or 18-19).

Being aware of the challenges many of our students are facing is important when we think about where libraries can have an impact on student wellness.

The Role of the Physical Library in Easing Student Isolation

Libraries are often referred to as the heart of a university campus and, more broadly, as an example of a “third place” that fills the gap between home and work (or school in the case of students). Embracing this description and enhancing our space to be more welcoming and social is a way that academic libraries can ease the loneliness many of our students are feeling. In many ways, libraries are already warm and welcoming spaces for students; there are great examples of academic libraries that offer programs like “therapy dogs” during exams, meditation classes, and more.

In addition, over the last twenty years or so academic libraries embraced the appeal of the coffee shop and added warm drinks (there is some fun research about how simply HOLDING a warm drink can make us more trusting and giving), comfortable seating, and encouraged social gathering.

During my sabbatical, I’ve often worked at Starbucks because I find it lonely to work at home on my own. It’s been interesting to watch the students as they study, on their own or in groups, but also fascinating to overhear some of the training that baristas receive as they learn the ins and outs of creating the Starbucks experience. There is definitely an effort made to encourage staff to create relationships with customers and an environment that makes people want to linger.

In the book Designing Coffee Shops and Cafes for Community, Lisa Waxman examines the coffee shop as “Third Place” and discusses the design principles of creating cafes that inspire connection and community. She notes that third places should:

“…be accessible, provide opportunities for engagement, offer opportunities for socialization or people-watching, and help people feel a part of something bigger than themselves.

In addition to incorporating the coffee shop features, academic libraries have also transformed from being quiet and book-centric into flexible and social spaces. Many libraries also offer playful ways for students to engage with one another such as loaning out board games, setting up Lego tables, and including coffee shops in their spaces.

Adding in these opportunities for students to engage with one another or highlighting the opportunities that already exist may be just as important to what students should know about the library as our workshops and collections.

Creating more opportunities for fun and friendship in an academic library

How can we add in additional opportunities to ease student isolation without too many extra costs in time or money? In addition to things we may already be doing (see above), we might consider:

• highlighting staff members (on social media or in displays) so students can get to know more about the (hopefully) friendly people working in the library.
• encouraging interaction with collections and spaces by asking students to share their favourite books, study spots, or best piece of advice for new students.
• providing opportunities for engagement such as social media polls and whiteboard questions.
• offering experiences or programming that students can share together….think student-led poetry readings or gathering to listen to music (even vinyl records from our collections – thanks to my colleague Andrew Colgoni for sharing this idea of his for this post!)

Finally, it may not just be friendships or fun that happen in the Library – sometimes people even fall in love. One of my favourite “librarian books” of all time is Madeleine Lefebvre’s The Romance of Libraries, a book that collects together stories of people who found love in the library! 💕 It’s a reminder that, even though libraries are a place for serious academic work, they can also be a space for emotional connection and beautiful memories.

Do you have any ideas to share on how students can connect in the library? Please share!

References

Government of Canada, Statistics Canada. The Daily — Canadian Social Survey: Loneliness in Canada. 24 Nov. 2021, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/211124/dq211124e-eng.htm.

Haikalis, Michelle, et al. ‘Changes in College Student Anxiety and Depression From Pre- to During-COVID-19: Perceived Stress, Academic Challenges, Loneliness, and Positive Perceptions’. Emerging Adulthood, vol. 10, no. 2, Apr. 2022, pp. 534–45. SAGE Journals, https://doi.org/10.1177/21676968211058516.

Waxman, Lisa K. Designing Coffee Shops and Cafés for Community. Routledge, 2022.