What The Tour Guide Didn't Tell You About.....The Library

Oh the library. The sooner you become established with this building, the better. When I got to school in August, I was convinced that I would always use my desk. However, as soon as the TV got put in our room, I quickly realized that ain't no work was going to get done in my room. The problem with the dorms in general is as fun as they are to hang out with and get caught up in conversations, living with 30 people is distracting and prevents you from actually working. Here are some of my tips for any incoming freshies in the fall.

Library 

The Cafe is great, but keep track of dining dollars During midterms and finals, I pretty much organize my studying times around food breaks. It's great to have food available (real fruit?) but keep track of your spending because coffee adds up.

It's a great place to people watch Oh, do I have a problem with this- no shame. I have a very specific spot in the library in an open corner that provides a 360 view of everything. It's also a great social scene if you only have to get a few things done.

Know your spots The library is kind of unofficially organized into sections based off noise levels. Usually the first level is the more social level the upper levels are quiet and the basement is somewhere in between. Though I though that I worked best in total silence, but then when I went to the first floor, or more "social floor," I found that I worked better.

Books 

It's inconvenient, but something you have to get to After practice, I like to go to the Caf with my teammates and then force myself to go to Bertrand, otherwise I'll go back to my cozy room and never leave. True story: my best friend Maddie tweeted in October "Is it bad that the last time I was at the UVA library was on the tour?" and the official UVA library twitter just tweeted back YES-haha I've never let that go. 

...However, know when to leave. There gets to a point when you have been there for 12+ hours when you get to the point where you are dead, physically and mentally and need to sleep because no information is being retained. Don't worry, you worked hard, but go to bed.

PLEASE be respectful  I could go on a whole rant about this but the a couple of weeks ago I was on the second floor (aka quiet floor) studying for a test and this girl had "Dark Horse" playing so loudly from her headphones that I could hear it from 30 feet away across the room. Other people will then have full on conversations where they're the ONLY PEOPLE talking in the room. Yeah, I didn't last on the quiet floor for long. Don't be that person.

It looks so pretty for something that looks like hell
at finals- image from here 

FREE PRINTING Seriously. I'm not sure about other schools, but here you could practically photocopy the Dictionary before the librarians would yell at you. There is really no point in having your own printer, there have probably only been a few times (also get your laptop linked to the printers wirelessly because it's such a time saver).

Always bring everything you think you're gonna need There is nothing worse than getting in the study zone and then realizing your computer is running low or you brought literally everything you ever needed to survive an apocalypse except for the one book you needed for homework. Just always bring a charger. Learn from my mistakes.

Keep in mind the library location when thinking about housing I have not gone through the "housing selection experience" yet, but you definitely want to keep in mind the location of things so that you don't end up like Maddie (love ya girl).

Happy Monday and have a great week!