You can judge a book by its cover. At least that’s the case in Middleton Library, where reports have shown only 3,449 items were checked out in a month with over 104,000 visits to the library.
According to a Middleton Library circulation report from February 2019 created by LSU Libraries Head of Circulation Elissa Plank, Middleton saw over 104,000 visits during the time its access services desk was open. Middleton’s access services desk is open from 7 a.m. to 12 a.m. on Mondays through Thursdays, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Fridays, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and from 11 a.m. to midnight on Sundays.
Middleton’s access services department was busiest on Tuesdays and reported 527 visitors on those days. Peak traffic for Middleton access services that month occurred between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Students asked Middleton librarians the most questions on Wednesdays. Plank reported 175 questions were answered at the access services desk that month. Of those questions, 45 were about Middleton’s cataloging system, making this the most frequently asked type of question. 
According to Plank, check-out records show Language and Literature was the most popular genre, with 608 books on those subjects checked out that month. This was followed by Fine Arts with 320 checked out books, Social Sciences with 298 checked out books, and General Science with 261 checked out books.
More obscure topics were among the least checked-out genres that month. Military Science reported the lowest number, with only six books checked out on the subject. Similarly, only 17 Auxiliary Sciences of History and 22 Law books were checked out.
Despite being outnumbered by undergraduate students by roughly 6-1, graduate students accounted for the most frequent book users in February.
Middleton, despite being the primary library on a campus with over 30,000 students, with no real limit on the number of books one can check out, only had 3,449 items get checked out that month.
According to the report, 2,072 books were checked out at the access services desk. 627 reserved items and 498 Interlibrary Loan books were also checked out. 190 patrons used the self-check out machine that month and collectively checked out 252 books.
Chemical engineering junior Ethan Thibodeaux has been using Middleton’s study rooms and going to the CC’s in the library at least weekly since he was a freshman, but has never checked out a book.
“I get by fine with just the internet. It’s way more efficient and accessible,”  Thibodeaux said.
The University’s large undergraduate body may just be unfamiliar with the call-number system and deterred by the task of hunting down books from a large catalogue.
Pre-business administration junior Everett Pooler admitted he found the process slightly confusing.
“My first time there was kind of daunting,” Pooler said. “It took me a little while to find the circulation desk, and then peering over all the shelves looking for the right call-number took some time.”
However, other students seem to navigate the process easily.
First-year law student Tyler Bergeron said he’s checked out books many times without issue.
“The circulation desk staff were always super helpful and didn’t mind pointing me in the right direction,” Bergeron said.
Chemistry junior Davis Curry offered a more critical explanation, saying that Middleton’s texts are dated.
“I don’t like their selection,” Curry said. “This is anecdotal, but everything I’ve found for my major in there was from like the 1970s.”