“She smells vaguely of Band-Aids and Vick’s Vapor Rub. I have several overdue DVDs, one of which is scratched.”
Yahoo Answers individual explaining a fear of Librarians.

We see it all the time in the Osterlin Library.  The student that reluctantly walks past the reference desk a few times, then finally walks up as if it is a confessional and sheepishly admits they ever never used a library, and/or is afraid of the library.

For those of us in academics, we usually love libraries.  We love the smell of books (yes, I have witnessed people sniffing books in our library).  But for a large portion of undergraduate students, some studies suggest 75%-95%, suffer from some sort of anxiety regarding the library and research assignments.  Of course this must effect their assignments, and their ability to learn and succeed at a college level.

How can we all help? Come visit us in the library.  Can’t come to us?  We’ll come to you.  Is class time already too precious? Just remind your students that it’s normal to fear libraries, books and research, but there is a whole team of educated individuals waiting to help them in the Osterlin library.  We won’t make fun of them.  In fact, we are all amazed at how smart and creative our students and their research topics can be.  And for the record, none of us smell like Band-Aids or Vicks Vapor Rub or act like this: