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Editorial: What should the new Library be named?

Published: Monday, December 5, 2011

Updated: Monday, December 5, 2011 21:12

Saddleback College has the rare opportunity to start over in recreating one of the most pivotal buildings on campus, the library.

The library at Saddleback has been under construction since spring of 2010, but the wait is almost over. The renovated building is scheduled to reopen in the fall semester.

The next step to completing the Library is to give it a name. Currently the name is the James B. Utt library which has been given the nickname the "Butt Library."

Many different names are up for consideration with sparking rumors with different camps wanting different names.

Some of the speculated names on the list for consideration are named after specific administrators that are currently employed by Saddleback.

Many people are in favor of naming the library after a person, however there are some arguments against this.

Some students view it as silly to name the building after a person or administrator of whom few may be aware. A person should be memorialized with his or her name on a building only if they have contributed a lot to the campus, both in his or her terms of time and monetary patronage.

One of the more popular ideas is to give the name a sense of learning and dedication.

The Saddleback College Library of the Pursuit of Higher Dedication to the Continual Journey of Knowledge, is certainly not a practical name but the essence is to give it a cerebral quality that should be found at a college.

Gaucho Library or even just Saddleback Library are more preferable to many students who would rather see students learning at an encouraging place than at a place with a random person's name that most people haven't even heard of plastered on the side.

All in all, it is just a building that has books and classrooms, and most of us who currently attend Saddleback will probably not be able to enjoy it. However, names can be important to some people.

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2 comments Log in to Comment

Roy B
Thu Dec 8 2011 20:11
I have some suggestions.
How about the "Bedtime for Bonzo" Library-in honor of Saint Ronald, who was on hand for the campus's opening?
"Bonzo" Library is more pithy. Also "Bedtime" Library (which gets a plus for fidelity to fact).
Or just "Library." That would be cool, pithy-wise.
You can't call it the "Gaucho" Library because, as you should know, the "Gaucho" moniker/mascot is controversial and, indeed, there's some sort of committee working on its replacement.
How about "Gabacho" Library? From "Gaucho" to "Gebacho" is cool, I think, in a meta kind of way.
The original library's design was changed when right-wing trustees got weirded out by the student anti-war protests occurring in Santa Barbara at the time. That's why it had no windows: they wanted it to be a fortress against students!
So how about "Bastion" Library? Or "Paranoid" Library? Or maybe the "Fear of Students" Library?
For the sake of timeliness, I'd go with the "Soon-to-be-phased-out" Library or the "Increasingly Anachronistic" Library.
Or you could go in the other direction. Call it "Books" Library. That would be fun, I think. There's a nice right to that.
One more: the "Non-ALA affiliated" Library. Or just the "Benighted" Library.
Roy Bauer, IVC
Wed Dec 7 2011 14:34
I have some suggestions.
How about the "Bedtime for Bonzo" Library-in honor of Saint Ronald, who was on hand for the campus's opening?
"Bonzo" Library is more pithy. Also "Bedtime" Library (which gets a plus for fidelity to fact).
Or just "Library." That would be cool, pithy-wise.
You can't call it the "Gaucho" Library because, as you should know, the "Gaucho" moniker/mascot is controversial and, indeed, there's some sort of committee working on its replacement.
How about "Gabacho" Library? From "Gaucho" to "Gebacho" is cool, I think, in a meta kind of way.
The original library's design was changed when right-wing trustees got weirded out by the student anti-war protests occurring in Santa Barbara at the time. That's why it had no windows: they wanted it to be a fortress against students!
So how about "Bastion" Library? Or "Paranoid" Library? Or maybe the "Fear of Students" Library?
For the sake of timeliness, I'd go with the "Soon-to-be-phased-out" Library or "Increasingly Anachronistic" Library.
Or you could go in the other direction. Call it "Books" Library. That would be fun, I think. There's a nice right to that.
One more: the "Non-ALA affiliated" Library. Or just the "Benighted" Library.

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