Saving the best (or at least most used by me) for last of the study spots, I am rounding out the semester with the silent study areas inside of Pattee and Paterno Library. Personally, I do my best work in the dead silent when I can sit down, turn off my phone, rid myself of other distractions, and just grind out homework.
One of the first areas I discovered in the library was the notorious stacks. Hidden away by towers of books and home to a mysterious murder, the stacks of the library form a prime spot for people to hide away with their books in a small cubicle overlooking the road. During the day, these cubicles are typically empty but at night and as finals week approaches, they steadily get more and more crowded until there is hardly a spare cubicle open.
There are several floors of these stacks, each one as silent as the last. Each cubicle in these stacks is a simple metal desk, only a few having outlet access. However beyond that, the stacks are fairly well lit throughout the night, forming a stark place where people can feel like they are by themselves and are able to work on everything without distraction.
The other main place in the library I love to study is the quiet room with the long wooden tables and green lamps on the second floor of the library (formally known at the Paterno Humanities Reading Room). Referred to by many people I know as the “Harry Potter” room, this room is a 24-hour quiet room. Occupied heavily on weekends after 1 o’clock or weekdays from 5 o’clock at night to 2 o’clock in the morning, this room is frequented by many people.
At each table, there is room for eight people to sit with a comfortable
amount of room for each on of them, two lamps at the table for when it gets dark and there is not enough overhead lighting, and several outlets and USB ports at each of these lamps, offering enough charging ports to last several people throughout a multiple-hour study session (as I am prone to do here).
There is enough room for people to spread out and a quiet atmosphere, people can hole themselves away in a very antique-library setting that I find helps motivate me late at night better than the more bright and modern areas I have written about previously.
Overall, this “Harry Potter” room is probably the best place on campus for me to sit down at any hour and grind through hours of studying and school work. I would highly recommend this area (and the stacks too) to anyone who needs new spots to contemplate studying at next year.
Every time I enter Pattee and Paterno Library, I always discover a new feature within the building that I had not known of before. While I prefer to study in my dorm study rooms, the library is a fantastic place to provide tutoring services or work on group projects due to the ubiquity of available rooms and services the location provides.
I do not visit the library often, but when I did go I had visited the music stacks with my friend. It was a very low ceiling floor with thousands of books based solely on music. It really did feel like a labyrinth of some sort when I was in it, but it definitely looked like a good place to seclude myself and study. I definitely will not be short of books to choose from.
I actually sometimes like working when there is a little bit more sound so I like working in the basement of the library or near the starbucks, but I agree there are so many good places to study in the library. During finals I did study in the quiet areas and I love the spot in the library near the windows by the stacks. I am going to miss it this semester.
I personally work better when there is a bit of talking going on, and I tend to work in groups rather than individually. For those reasons, I normally study next to the Starbucks, which can be quite hectic at times. However, for certain tasks, I do require a quieter place to work, like writing. Sadly I won’t be able to study in the stacks this semester, but I will keep it in mind for fall semester.