What's the Meaning of All
of This? What's the Meaning of All
of This?
One of the things I set out to do in this project was to discover whether our identity as a University community based on our stories and Urban Legends were really so unique. One day, I was working at the Main Library Circulation Desk, and was about to give a quick tour of the Bookstacks to an Undergraduate student who had never been in the "Stacks" before. It is necessary to give at least some directional orientation to new users because floor numbers change once one enters the Stacks area, and if one isn't told this fact immediately, it can lead to some pretty serious confusion. I began to run through my script of a Stacks mini-tour when the student stopped me and asked, "Are the stacks really sinking? I heard the architect forgot to factor in the weight of the books." I told the student that, no, not to my knowledge are the Stacks sinking. I had never heard this story before, in any capacity, but later that semester, I was browsing an authoritative Urban Legends website for LIS 409 Storytelling, Snopes.com, and came across an explanation of the story.
The sinking library story is prevalent on many other college campuses, and was especially told on a near by university, Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. "The sinking-library story has circulated orally and on the Internet concerning the Indiana University Main Library on the campus in Bloomington. For a time library officials were receiving at least one query per month about the problem, many coming from alumni who were concerned about the safety of the structure. The university's chief architect finally published a statement in IU Alumni Magazine explaining that 'five feet below the Bloomington campus is a 330-million-year-old 94-foot thick layer of limestone.' Obviously, neither the library nor any other campus building was in any danger of sinking." (Brunvand, Encyclopedia of Urban Legends, 2001, pg.385)
It turns out what we thought was "our" sinking library story belongs to many others as well. This is indicative of the nature of Urban Legends--they travel fast and are adapted easily to local circumstances. It is entirely possible that the story from IU made it's way across state lines and traveled across the UIUC campus, and along the way hit the young man I helped that day. Since it is pretty well known that Bookstacks hold approximately 6 million volumes, this story, in some far out way, is plausible. The continued life of this story also speaks of the intrigue of Urban Legends. If they did not strike a certain chord in the listener, they would not have continued on, and been re-told.
I chose to evaluate the Urban Legends at the University of Illinois campus for Storytelling class because I was confronted with it while working at the Circulation Desk at the Main Library. It was the first time I had heard of the "sinking library" story, and I later discovered this story was widespread to college campuses, and even at some public libraries and shopping malls. That unoriginal legend made me consider what other legends here at the U of I were not just our own, and what Urban Legends mean to the undergraduate students of this campus, and to all people. For myself, investigating the legends more thoroughly has given me an opportunity to connect with the history of this University. While I was an undergraduate at UIUC I spent little time thinking about the thousands of students that came before me, and how the campus and community have been shaped through story. Indeed, storytelling has undergone some major changes in the past decades, and as a consequence, we have lost a piece of our identity. Undergraduate students now, especially, have existed with technology like no other generation yet. This, in turn, has brought about a new way of sharing story through digital mediums like Instant Messaging, e-mail, the Facebook, personalized web pages, and on.
What I have found is that story gives us a sense of identity. While interviewing some of the research participants that told me about the experiences with Urban Legends on the University campus, many of them revealed that their favorite campus landmark was dear Alma Mater. During the 2005 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, an estimated five to ten thousand students and University community members filled the Quad, and rallied around the Alma Mater (photo courtesy of the Daily Illini) and nearby Green Street in celebration. She even donned a Men's Basketball Jersey, and for a few days towards the end of the tournament, the UIUC community was joined in comradery and brotherhood. Many students will never forget the exciting 2004-2005 Men's Basketball season, and will continue to tell their own tales about where the were when the Illini played.
UIUC's undergraduate students, despite being blasted with technology, have not lost their sense of story--for story lives inside of us, and the need for it is as subconscious as the need for oxygen and the need for water. Story connects us with one another, and that is a basic human necessity.
What Students Have to Say about Urban Legends
What's the Meaning of All of This?
©2005 Annette Lesak
Page Created April 28th, 2005
Images Courtesy of the University of
Illinois and University Archives
