This is a place I’ve spent a lot of time in during my brief time here at Kean. There’s plenty of seating for quiet studying and reading. The first floor fills up quickly, I’m assuming with students who live on campus. It’s the only way I can explain all the prime seats behind the in-house Starbucks being taken not even an hour after the library has opened at eight. The first floor always looks busy, no matter how early it might be. The Starbucks is of course a centerpiece of the first floor, crowded with the addicts, and almost every seat surrounding it is occupied. There are computers available to students, but those are always taken. It looks like no one is moving, but close your eyes long enough, and you’ll see new bodies in the seats. The place is just a blur of noise and movements. And the brightness of the lighting and all the colors that hit you at once can’t help but to wake you up some which is ideal since I come here to study. And it’s because of this that pretty much every time I enter the library I immediately head for the stairs. I know I’ll find some seating on the higher, quieter levels.
Once you leave the buzz of the first floor, the second floor seems like you’re in a different setting entirely. There are just a few seats to your left and right before you head in the study area. This is where all noise seems to stop completely. A totally different environment from downstairs. The study area also houses half the books you can check out, the other half being on the third floor. The study area is even brighter than downstairs, and you can assume it’s for the studying. Here, there are large tables placed in between the large racks and shelves of books. And again, it’s very quiet. Whereas downstairs, you’re lost in a swirl of chatter and movement, here you can hear a pin drop or a page turn. For me, I have to listen to music if only for the need for white noise. Here you can walk down rows and rows of books, four of which I’ve checked out recently. The rows are long and slightly daunting if you have to search for a specific book by some odd-looking call number.
When you leave a study area, you feel like you’re reentering the world again. The noise comes back; the lighting changes and the warm colors greet you as you leave the sanitized feel of the study area behind. It’s refreshing if you spend a lot of time in the study area, which I tend to do to kill time. So there is a big contrast between areas of the library separated only by big double-doors.
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