Oliver Speaks Out For Local Women"s Right To Have Access To The Centennial Library

This year"s Daedong Festival was somewhat different from previous ones at Ewha. Many more wall posters were seen than ever before as students freely voiced their opinions on controversial issues. Among those, the question of opening the university library for public use was raised by the indepdndent student group Oliver, resulting in a hot debate.
What is Oliver? The name stands for "Open Livrary with Her," "Livrary," in the case being "library" spelled with a "v" to represent their goal to turn the library into a more lively and interactive open place. Their proposal calls, in particular, for allowing local women to use the Central Library and for day-care facilities to encourage use by married women.
At a presentation on May 27, Oliver explained their reasons why the Central Library should be liberalized. Firstly, Ewha was established in hopes of securing women"s rights for education and helping them to have an equal stand; however, they argue limiting the use of the university library for local women contradicts these goals. Secondly, Oliver argues that most married women feel compelled to spend money for the well being of their families rather than on buying books for themselves. Thus, they say it is up to the university library to provide a secured atmosphere for local women to get access to books, even after they graduate fromthe university. They see a day-care facility as a key part of this outreach to married women.
Joining hands with Oliver is OLIB (a similar group from Korea University), which was established on December of last year, three months after the establishment of Oliver. Both groups are actively working to promote university libraries as an open environment for anyone who wishes to obtain knowledge. Moreover, the movement seems to be gaining ground, as a letter with a similar proposal was recently posted on university"s Internet site at http://funny-star.net/oliver.
Some Ewhaians oppose such proposals, however, mostly out of their worry that there might not be enough resources, such as seats in the reading room or books, to share. Oliver member See-at says, however, lacking seats in the reading room is not a new issue. The Central Library constantly receives complaints about lacking seats in the reading room during exam week. But a system to regulate reserved seats and an open university library are different issues.

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