Surely, those of us who have spent some time on campus are familiar with Alden Library, and to those of you who haven’t, believe me, you will.
Surely, those of us who have spent some time on campus are familiar with Alden Library, and to those of you who haven’t, believe me, you will.
If you’ve got finals, you’re there. If you’ve got homework, you’re probably there. If you’re trying to meet up with some friends and squeeze in a study session, you should probably be there.
Alden has an innumerable amount of areas to sit and study in quiet, nice places. Each floor is geared toward a student with studying to do. There are desks and tables everywhere you look — I mean it. There are few places you can be in the library and not see either an open desk or table or chair or couch (yes, there are couches, for those unaware) nearby.
A lot of these study spaces are even designated “quiet areas.” Most people respect the library’s studious atmosphere as it is, but these places are almost eerie in how totally hushed everybody is. If the “quiet areas” don’t do it for you, there are actual study rooms — nearly soundproof, I should add — located on the first, second, third and fourth floors that students can reserve for whatever our needs be. You can reserve them on the library’s website under the “Services” tab.
All of these features, and I haven’t mentioned the fact that Alden is literally brimming with books — seven floors of space, to be exact. There are so many books that the library actually ran out of room to put them. The library was designed to hold 1.4 million volumes, which is an absolute ton of books, but it exceeded in that number in 1985, according to OU’s website. In 1996 the Library Annex on Columbus Road was opened up to hold the extra texts. But Alden itself houses rows and rows of tightly-packed shelves full of just about whatever you’re looking for. Have you ever wandered around the sixth and seventh floors? They’re like crammed labyrinths. And some of the books are pretty interesting, you should really go check it out some time (I recommend some of the stuff they’ve got on psychology). There’s even the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections on Alden’s fifth floor, for those of you interested in some textual rarities.
For anybody who’s not much of a reader, no big deal — do you like art? Because from the International Collection on the first floor to the Harris Fine Arts Library on its third, Alden’s got that, too. And if you’ve got an interest in photography, I highly recommend the Harris Library because they have some pretty impressive collections.
Alden Library is named after former OU president Vernon Alden. The library itself opened up in 1969, the final year of Alden’s presidential term. The east and west wings of Alden most of us are familiar with were added in 1972. With its millions of texts and other volumes, Alden is one of the 100 largest academic libraries in the U.S., and since 1969, we’ve been putting those to good use.
Oh, and how could I forget the fact that the second floor learning commons are open 24 hours? 24 hours. Enough said; go cram.
Kyle Burback is a sophomore studying English. What’s your favorite building on campus? Email him at kb931012@ohio.edu.
