On the weekend, the New York Times published this interesting article, Spaces for Social Study. Unfortunately, the NYT requires registration to read and then after 7 days, the article will be archived and can only be read for a fee. So read it now, before that happens.
It's about the renovation of the Teachers College library at Columbia University. Here are a few snippets.
"Gone is the notion that it is solely a physical repository for information and a place of quiet individual study where librarians patrol the stacks, shushing errant blabbermouths. Instead, the campus library has become an intellectual gathering place."
...
'We asked people on campus, 'What would make you go to the library,' given that you can get a lot of things you want to work with in your dorm room,'' Mr. Natriello [the library's interim director] says. ''What folks said was that coming to the library was much more of a social academic experience.''