Amidst the stress of our everyday lives as financially struggling college students, an escape from reality helps to stay sane. People may choose to turn to activities like sports as a stress reliever, while others turn to friends. However, I choose to escape to a place where others will not find silence as awkward, where knowledge is infinite upon every bookshelf, and where inspiration stems from the environment.

Of course, this place is none other than the Scarborough-Phillips Library, which unfortunately is not open for use due to renovations until the next academic year. In the meantime, temporary library facilities are located in Doyle Hall.

The closure of the library provides many disadvantages for our student body as we struggle to find study areas.

Indeed, staff has aimed to provide many other areas on campus for students to study in. For example, I find that the third floor in Ragsdale Hall serves as a relatively quiet space to complete a few assignments, as long as there are not any club meetings or events taking place in the ballrooms. Also, studying off campus is an option for students who take advantage of the metro or who own their own cars.

Regardless, I find that a proper library is an irreplaceable component of a university, providing the sources and environment for students to work efficiently, no matter how many other areas may be opened until renovations are finished.

The environment of a library simply motivates one to continue working by limiting the number of distractions provided in most other settings. The opportunity to study outdoors is rather disastrous, as we live in a state filled with overwhelming heat and humidity that can most likely give a student a heat stroke, rather than an environment to truly channel one’s focus into their assignments.

Many of the indoor lounge areas, as pleasant as they are in appearance, serve as relatively distracting settings that are filled with the consistent noise of people socializing, numerous posters on walls that shout for your attention to be read and televisions that practically beg to be watched.

Time and time again I have been told that the use of one’s dorm as a study area can be catastrophic, for the place that you sleep in should not be the place where you study, due to the easily accessible bed that watches you as you study for hours on end, seducing you with its pillows.

So what areas are left for truly efficient studying?

As great as our newly renovated library will inevitably be once opened, the attempts to compensate for our temporary loss could have been made into a better transition. Our library continues to stand as an essential place for our student body to effectively study, and the lack of a library hinders our ability to get our work done.