Whatchu ‘talkin bout, Wilson?
Take a trip with me way up north to Washington. To a little town called Bellingham. Here, on the campus of Western Washington University you’ll find the largest collection of Mongolian literature IN NORTH AMERICA plus some other stuff. All at the Wilson Library.
Having been a huge proponent of libraries and the good they do for communities all my life, finding the campus library was a huge load off. And now I find myself spending a considerable amount of my free time there. This is a place where a someone can sit in peace and quiet while studying for a major exam, or, where that same someone can go when they’re creatively stuck.
If you’ve seen one library you’ve seen them all, right? Wrong! The facilities at Wilson are vast and wonderful compared to that of a traditional library. They really cater to anyone who needs help in a literature setting, be it a college essay, a graduate thesis, or just where to find the entire Calvin and Hobbes anthology. From tutoring to computer use there’s not too much a hungry reader or an up and coming writer can’t get done.
My preferred use, however, as a college freshman who has purchased a whopping zero textbooks on this, my first quarter of my first year of college, is the reserves section of the library. This is an area where professors have put books away for students to use without having to purchase them. Meaning that you can check out a textbook for up to two hours with no repercussions, or, you can just go in to the back room of the reserves area and study your studious little heart out for as long as you’d like.
Everyone has been working on something, be it writing or research project, and had that moment of sheer terror where you run out of ideas on a project. Panic ensues and you consider that maybe whatever you’re doing isn’t that important. Luckily, a short walk from the reserves is a writing research lab! All you have to do is find one of the nice staff persons and tell them that you’re on the brink of an emotional breakdown because you can’t figure out how to finish your new book. They’ll help bounce ideas off of you and brainstorm until you’re new Star Wars fan fiction is A+ material.
The only real complaint I have is that upon your first, and possibly second, trip to the library you might find it a bit hard to navigate. Having so many services in one building is a testament to what libraries around all campuses (not that I’ve been to many other college libraries) can do, but in the process it creates a bit of a maze.
How can I find this place, Justin? Well, first you have to be on campus. From there you just find one of the handy maps conveniently located all around campus and follow it until you see the gorgeous glass cat walk and modern brick architecture. Once inside you’ll see, obviously a ton of books. If that view doesn’t do it for you though, how about works of art, DVD’S, CD’s, and of course, the wonderful staff. Who, by the way, can help with my aforementioned issue of being lost, and lead you right to where you need to be.
Moving across the senses you’ll also hear what you’d expect from a library, very little. It’s not as hushed as, say, your high school library with mean old Mrs. Trabone who would purse her lips with her index finger in front of them just as soon as she’d explain the Dewey decimal system, but it’s a library and people are generally still very much conscious of this. Might I suggest you bring some ear buds and an Ipod so you can listen to the newest Kes$a song while you read the latest vampire novel.
I’m not saying that the Wilson Library is the single greatest asset located on the Western campus, but I am saying that a little bit. Yes, it’s a little overwhelming and I know how much we hate to ask for directions, but if you swallow your pride and ask the staff where something is, you’ll find everything you need. Everything from DVD rentals to the daylight lounge where you can go to study or read while you pray the sun breaks through the overcastness that is the pacific northwest. Do you need a book? They got it. Do you need tutoring? They got it. Do you want to see some crazy abstract sculptures? They got it. Without this facility I would not only not have a place to study in the quiet, but I’d be broke buying these ridiculously priced textbooks.
