Oberlin has four main libraries. Everyone reacts to them differently (talk to your doctor before trying Libraries) but generally here’s how I view them:
Art Library: Comic books! Photography books! Colorful happy things! I never go there.
Science Library: Where I go when I am utterly screwed, need to work rapidly and efficiently in a place that looks like the Fortress of Solitude, and desire the silent company of classmates who are also utterly screwed but trying to go to med school.
Mudd Library: Oberlin’s main library. I sit on the first floor, spend an hour doing 10 pages of inconsequential reading, and socialize with whoever walks by. For me it’s less a place to do work than it is a place to be seen working.
Conservatory Library: My main man. The perfect balance: quiet enough, and with enough nooks and crannies, that I can do work. But with enough foot traffic that I’ll see people, and stave off the despair of being a 5th-year graduating early applying to grad school putting together a senior recital trying to find a job and....oh god. Plus, there are plenty of distractions. About every imaginable cd, periodical, score, and a lot of interesting/weird/old books about music. (Some of the mid-20th century books about jazz are hilarious. Why was everything “hot” back then?)
The other day I took a break from working to snap a few photos.
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My stuff
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Books!
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Window to S. Professor Street on another sunny, warm Oberlin day...
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Part of the jazz section (“Hot Jazz and Jazz Dance” is a must-read...)
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Periodicals
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John, do you have a subscription? Is this, uhm, how all recorder players view themselves? No judgments or anything.
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Computers
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Scores of scores. (First floor)
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Scores upon scores! (Second floor)
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Oversize scores.
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Seriously, oversize. My size 12 foot included for reference.
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Yeah. Scores.
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Colorful! And also scores.
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Listening stations
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CDs, tapes, records, et cetera...
