England vs. America: Round 1

So I realized a while back I said I would do several posts comparing life in England and America. Well this is the first one in the series. Now for the purposes of school-related ones, QM will represent England and F&M will represent America. I know they're not representative of each others country, but they will have to suffice. So we begin:

Round 1: Libraries

Shad-Fack at F&M.

The library at QM.

Coming here I was told I should expect the study habits of British students to be different from American students. They are. To begin with, there is a lot less work, and British students tend to use the library a lot more. I was also told not to expect the library to always be open as late as college libraries are in the U.S., but QM's library is open a total of 89.5 hours every week (and until midnight M-F), but only 12 of those hours are on the weekend. Shad-Fack (F&M's main library) is open 102 hours a week (24 of which are on the weekend). I'm not counting the medical library at QM or the science library at F&M since I don't use those. So purely on open hours, F&M is superior.

As far as the books available, this also goes to F&M, hands down. Since much more outside reading is expected in class, the books are used more, and generally not available. Luckily though, there are multiple copies of some books. More frequently used books are limited to a one-week check-out. Some of the more popular ones are in the "Short-Loan Collection" which are generally due by 1:30 the next day. But just this week I went looking for a book on the Vietnam War from my reading list, but it wasn't on the shelf, so I came back the next day, and the day after, same story. Every time I checked the shelf, I first checked the catalog, which told me a copy was available. This is not the first time this has happened to me so far.

The frequent use of the books leads to wear on the books, which shows badly in some books. Many of the books show more wear than library books should, and not of them are wrapped in plastic. I have also found underlining and highlighting in a few books.

One good point for QM's library is the number of computers it has (over 200), but often there are very few open ones. Most of them are on the ground floor, and with all the people, this area can get rather noisy. Too noisy for a library in my opinion.

Also, F&M's library building just looks better.

The winner of round one, by a long shot, is the US (represented by F&M).
Score: USA: 1, UK: 0

I know all of you back home are getting buried in snow, and I hope you all take it safe as you dig out. Know that we have it here too, although it is probably best measured in millimeters.

I'm off to Bath on Saturday and then to Scotland next Wednesday. I'll try to make another post before I trek up north, but I will not be making any while I am in Scotland, but there will be probably at least 2 posts covering the trip.