Branson Library

A big difference between Branson School and the Kantonsschule Enge (KEN) is how students and teachers treat and appreciate the library. When I hear the word 'library' a picture of a white, cold room filled to the brim with books pops up in my head. Because that is how many libraries in Zürich look like, especially the library in the KEN. You are alone between tons of books and skim through titles to find something that might interest you. Everyone is silently reading and the only thing you hear is your steps on the ground. The air is clean but cool. But the worst: many students in the KEN don't even know that there is a library, which is not so surprising because the school does everything possible to hide it. 

It is not near to the main building. It looks exactly like all the buildings surrounding it. And if you don't enter exactly the right path you can't see it. Now you might think that there would at least be a link referring to them on the homepage of the school. Well there is one. But even I, a regular visitor of the library and the homepage, didn't know about it until the librarian told me about it after three years. And now that the school has two homepages it's even harder to find it. 

And now the library in Branson: it's the most visited building on the whole campus. Why? You have just as many books as the library in the KEN, but. But the library is located right in the middle of the campus. If you go from the Academics part of the school to the arts part you go right through it. The whole building is warm and cozy. There's a fire, some nice chairs and a lot of students talking freely. And this is what is the best about a library. Not the books, but the social interaction. 

A library should be a meeting point for people with similar interests, people who want to hear new oppinions, people who just want a relaxing place. And this is exactly the reason why here at Branson everyone knows to appreciate the library and at the KEN few care about it. And because just talking in a library can be a good experience and bring you new friends or a place to retreat to when your mood is cloudy, I think that we at the KEN should care more about the library. Not instead cut down their budget so they can't even buy a new printer when the old one died. (LH)