The Harold B. Lee Library

There are several really awesome places at BYU. There are the gardens behind the Museum of Art with statues and pools and fountains, a place of serenity. Then there is the old Maeser Building, a building with character. But my favorite place at Brigham Young University (with the BYU Creamery running a close second) is the Harold B. Lee Library. I am such a nerd.

Honestly, I could live here. I have everything I need-- loads of books, desks with power plugs, free internet, and comfy couches. What else do you need? 

I remember the first time I walked into the library. It was my first day of school, everything was new and big. But the library was definitely the newest and the biggest. I stepped in and immediately was overwhelmed. Floods of people rushed by me on their way to who knows where. I didn't even know where to go. So I just joined myself with the crowd and let the current take me wherever. I ended up on the fourth floor in the Juvenile section. Luckily, I needed to check a book out from that section for my English class. So I grabbed a book and found a table where I could process all the new information I had received. I looked at my syllabi. Wait! I need to take a library tour? At least that's what it said on my English syllabus. I looked closer. Yep, I needed to take a tour. So I followed the paper's directions to the LRC and picked up a MP3 library tour and started my adventure. I was so surprised at how massive the library is. There are four floors but the two underground floors stretch under the campus.

The tour was just a peek at the vast world known as the Harold B. Lee Library. A world I needed to discover. So I made a goal to occasionally find a new place in the library to study. I've studied in the "no shhh" zone, the Asian Collections, the periodicals. Today I am studying in the Humanities section. I am surrounded by upperclassmen, freshmen don't usually wander from the more popular locations like the periodicals. In fact, a RM is study across the table from me. I am in the big leagues. But wherever I am, I  have a place where I can either study and be productive, or enjoy myself and people-watch. 

I'm reminded of an old Arthur song. You remember Arthur, right? The aardvark on Channel 8? In one of his songs, he sings, "Having fun isn't hard, when you've got a library card," True that, Arthur. True that.