How would you persuade your fellow students to use the Regent University Libraries?

by Carla Beth Price

Libraries are ancient. They go way back, long before Jimmy Carter was elected president and centuries before Jesus walked the earth. Libraries have long been a gathering place for scholars and researchers, and as time rolled along the doors began opening to the less scholarly inclined as well as casual readers, diapered youngsters, latchkey kids with nowhere else to go after school, and an impatient dog once that grew tired of waiting for her owner and roamed the aisles until she was escorted back outside.

As an American in Japan, I’m homesick for my local library back in Oregon. And as a first-term distance student, I’m especially longing for the opportunities available to those who can just walk into Regent’s libraries and directly interact with the librarians and thumb through the stacks. The libraries in Hiroshima are topnotch. But because of my poor Japanese, my research is limited to John Grisham and children’s books that have more pictures than words.

Right now I’m sitting on my futon and nibbling Japanese pastries. Spring is in full bloom, and the cherry blossoms are bursting with varying shades of pink and white. I’m grateful for the Internet and Regent’s online research tools—earning my degree while living here would be impossible otherwise. But how I miss sharing space with fellow students and participating in library culture! Be grateful for Regent’s libraries. Go inside and become part of an ancient tradition that precedes Jesus’ physical presence on earth. There’s a chair waiting for you.