Unhealthy atmosphere in YSU library: headmaster does not deny
Over the past few months, YSU students have been criticizing the attitude of the staff of YSU Library after Sargis and Marie Izmirlians on social media.
One of the protesting students is Anna Rafyan, a 3rd year student of the Department of Arabic Studies, YSU Faculty of Oriental Studies, who presented her protest in the interview with “A1+”.
“I go to the library not very often, but it’s already enough to see what atmosphere there is. First I must say that not all the professional books are in Armenian and not all can be found. The lecturer gives assignments from a professional book but we find 10-20 books in the library, though, there are 50 students in the course. The staff service is very bad, they do not serve I can say. Another important thing is the quality of books. If an employee turns the pages and checks the book that a student returns, they’ll see that the book is damaged and the student will receive a respective punishment. Because of that inconsistency, those few books are damaged and nearly impossible to use. I do understand that these problems are connected with the financial issues but isn’t it possible to solve the staff service problem?”
We spoke with the head of YSU Library Yeznik Mirzoyan, who was also aware of the theme discussed on the internet.
“There are only 3 problems that are raised on social networks: the angry faces of the staff members, service flaws and lack of books. First, I must mention that according to the YSU strategic plan, 15 million drams are annually allocated to the library update, besides the books printed at YSU printing house are managed by the library. Books of the library are annually updated with nearly 10 thousand books. Students demand professional books to be in Armenian. But it doesn’t refer to us, as authors and lecturers do not write books.
The students rated the library 4.3 with the 5-point scale, which is a good result, but there are really some problems. I claim that there is an impolite intercourse between the two sides and for solving that problem we have rejuvenated the staff that has direct contact with students. There have been many cases when students who approached me confessed that they were really impolite to an employee. I, being the headmaster, demand good attitude both from students and employees. You can criticize but never insult.”
Taguhi Mesropyan, a student at the YSU Faculty of Mathematics, was also dissatisfied with the Library Service.
“I know that according to the YSU rules smoking in the YSU buildings is banned but the members of the library staff are smoking so much that sometimes cigarette smell is unbearable in the library area. They do not help first year students or in best case point at the direction the books are. But the library reading rooms are in the worst condition. For example, it is impossible to do homework in the reading room of precise sciences because employees’ noise, the sound of coffee cups and gossiping do not let students get concentrated and learn something. I hope that the problem will be solved soon and we will enter the YSU library with great pleasure”.
