Nestled at the back of the recently renamed Parren J. Mitchell Art-Sociology Building sits a library unlike any other on the campus.
The Art Library can tend to feel less like a library and more like a fancy treehouse that happens to be housing some books and tables. Consisting of only two small levels, the library lacks in size but makes up for its shortcomings with plentiful charm.
During the day, the bottom floor is awash with sunlight. From a seat near the huge windows, you can see out past the Architecture Building and the Van Munching Hall courtyard as hundreds of students trek the paved paths on their ways to class. Tree branches near the building obscure your vision, giving the illusion that you’re up in the trees and not actually in an academic building.
A carpeted staircase leads to the second level, which is basically just an enormous balcony facing out toward the campus and looking down on the people working below. This level is home to some bookcases, which, as is the norm for most on-campus libraries, go largely ignored. Instead, students journey up to the second level to sit at a long row of desks and study in the sun. A clear box full of golf pencils sits at the end of one row of desks, just in case anyone needs a very small writing utensil.
Throughout the building, potted green plants in decorated vases sit haphazardly wherever there’s room. The plants, which thrive in the light provided by the large windows, give the space a homey feel, as though the library allowed all the decorating to be done by a kindly grandma.
In this library, full of light and color and random plants, it can be easy to get distracted. However, even a small amount of happy distraction is a welcome change of pace from McKeldin Library, which on the inside has all the charm of a cheap nursing home, smells like fear and is almost always crowded with anxious students all working quietly but internally screaming at the top of their lungs.
McKeldin is where people go at 1 a.m. when they’re ready to let go of their last bits of sanity and plunge into that dark 2-to-5 a.m. abyss to finish a paper due three days ago. The Art Library is never open past 8 p.m., meaning it’s always early when you’re there, no one has reached their stress threshold, and spirits always seem a little higher.
The hours are the other small downside to the Art Library. Open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, closed Saturday and open only from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays, it can be hard to find time to be in the library at all if you have classes all day and a busy Sunday schedule.
But if there is ever time in your day, wander over to the Art Library, sit next to a little plant, and get some work done on that paper you’ve been pretending doesn’t exist.
