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Go to the page on computers in the Uni library in the 1990s The page on readers in the Uni library in the 90s Go the page on librarians in the Uni library in the 90s

Despite (because of?) the spread of computers, Uni students seem to have spent quite a lot of the 1990s reading actual paper books, both in and out of the library. Here's what a few of them looked like. Cute, huh?

What happens if you view The Atlas of the Universe either a) from 10 feet away, or b) through a caffeine-and-sugar-induced haze? This photo from 1990 is more than a little grainy, but it appears that two Uni students are experimenting with these techniques in the library. The Hubble Space Telescope was launched that year, and perhaps they wanted to try to get some idea of what Hubble was seeing.

This may look like any old student studying intently, but apparently the photographer captured a Rare Event, because the caption for this 1991 photo read "Him? In the library?!"


Sadly, there is a gap between 1991 and 1995 in which an analysis of yearbook photographs suggests that Uni students hardly read at all. Students are shown near books, and they're shown holding objects with print on them, like cereal boxes, but no readers, really.

Have you ever heard of one of those cases where a postal worker dies and his or her attic is found to contain thousands of pieces of mail that never got delivered? Perhaps, at some point in the distant future, a musty trunk will be found in some ex-Yearbook photographer's basement that's just stuffed with candid, juicy photos of Uni students reading voraciously, each photo carefully labelled with a date of 1992, 1993, 1994, or 1995. We can only hope.

Reading resumed at Uni in 1995, apparently. Desperate to save Humpty-Dumpty, a crack team of five Uni seniors scans All the President's Men for tips.
1996. Some serious scholarly research goin' on here in Seventeen and Glamour. According to the yearbook, the Hunks of The Day were Brad Pitt and Dean Cain.
If not for his graphing calculator, this clean-cut library patron from 1997 could have fit right in with library users from the 1940s.
1998. Either these students were all really dedicated readers or they were chained together at the ankle and made to hold books for this picture. We may never know.
1999. Thousands of years after it was first committed to paper, Homer's Odyssey is still captivating enough to keep this Uni student half awake.

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