ST. BONAVENTURE - Amid the Harvard brick exterior, two angels sit atop separate, stone columns, guarding the great wooden doors of the Friedsam Memorial Library and holding scrolls that read “Novo et Vetera,” Latin for “New Things and Old.”

To combine the new and the old, archivist Dennis Frank toils on computers and files through documents to introduce the official historical records of the institution to more than 1.7 billion Internet users, he said.

“The electronic age has been particularly valuable here in many ways,” said Frank. He has been working in the archives for 7 1/2 years following two years as the library’s periodical manager.

Frank and his three interns post a list of holdings along with background information, pictures, biographies and downloadable copies of works, like poet Robert Lax’s Peacemaker’s Handbook, on the archives Web site.

“When you think about it, when you build a Web site, you’re publishing something for all the world to see. It’s very much like writing a feature article for Newsweek or producing a documentary,” Frank said. “Looking into the past helps us move into the future.”

Joe Centanni, ’09, used the archives for his capstone project on college radio. He spent one to two hours there every day for four months.

“Dennis got me stuff that nobody else has access to,” Centanni said. “People need to keep these things for the archives; someone’s going to want it later.”

In addition print resources, Paul Spaeth, director of the library, said he hopes to expand the computer resources.

“We’d like to clear out at least half of the stacks on the second floor. The periodicals not used by students will be placed in Francis (Hall) or Doyle (Hall), but people could still request them if they wanted,” said Spaeth, also the rare books librarian and the curator of the Lax archives.

“More space could be used for group study activities,” he said. “We’d have some more computer presence there too, like loaner laptops.”

Students will want to use the added computers and loaner laptops, therefore increasing library attendance, Spaeth said.

“That’s the direction a service-oriented library needs to go,” Spaeth said. “That’s what the library’s becoming.”

The increasing access to the Web will allow students to work easier, said Mark Inman, assistant director of communications. Inman has created Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn accounts for St. Bonaventure.

“As compared to old media, yeah, you can share with it, but it takes a long time to use interlibrary loans and stuff like that, as opposed to going on Google Books and starting a discussion thread… talking to other scholars about that,” he said.

Users can buy or borrow books on Google Books, an online library catalogue, which Inman said he finds more convenient than a physical library. Like the university archives, Google Books puts copies of books and magazines online. For example, a full 1969 issue of LIFE, an out-of-print photojournalism magazine, is one click away.

Inman said he thinks Harvard brick structure of the library will one day become obsolete.

Stephannie Cravatta, who has a 2.6 GPA, finds no use for the library. When she does go, she sits in an isolated, white Formica cubicle.

“Sitting in a cubicle makes me wonder what everyone else is doing. If I sit on the first floor, I watch everyone walk in. I’d rather just sit in my room with the TV on low,” said Cravatta, a sophomore history major.

Among students, preference rules study settings. Kristin Sotak, who lives off campus, said she chooses to study at the library.

“I find it easier to study here,” said the business graduate student. “It’s not that much of a hassle to come here, and I like to use the computers and ProQuest, which I use for journal articles when researching. Usually I don’t use book sources unless a professor says we have to.”

ProQuest, an online database, serves students’ research needs.

Professors advocate library resources such as the special collections, rare books, the curriculum library (for education majors), online databases, the Franciscan Institute library, the visual media lab, films, government documents, interlibrary loan and much more.

Jane Linahan, a visiting associate professor of theology, said she believes students trust the Internet too much.

“Not everything is online,” said Linahan. She requires students to use the library for her Catholic and Franciscan Heritage course.

“The Catholic Encyclopedia online is 100 years old,” she said. “Students don’t realize they’re dealing with dated material.”

Spaeth said print media should endure, but the library’s budget suffers due to changing times.

“If we don’t pay the tab for a particular database (which includes 100 to 200 subscriptions), you don’t have access to it. It’s gone,” said Spaeth.

Spaeth said he believes university libraries will survive.

“The library’s kind of like how I’ve always seen libraries: They’re kind of a super-professor. It’s the crossroads of every discipline.”