Well hello again.
Isaac here. In my last blog post here, I mentioned the Galvin Library (more formally known as the Paul V Galvin Library), and I would like to go a little further into detail on it.
The Galvin is a resource that all enrolled IIT, VanderCook (a music education school), and Shimer students have access to. It contains books on many, many subjects (including pleasure reading, if that tickles your fancy), housed on two levels. The first, primary, floor is home to not only what I understand to be the vast majority of IIT's book collection, but also a portion of Shimer's library, which can be found in the Northwest corner of the building. On the west side of the building, there are isolated rooms with tables for private group study, with a capacity of around four people. These rooms are exceptionally useful, whether you are in a group or not, for privacy. Especially if you're working on a large project that you need room for, but don't want to pack up and take with you every time you take a short break, these rooms are invaluable.
Now we come to the use of the lower floor of the Galvin. On weekdays during the school year, it is open all night long. This means that you have access to all the referencing materials, power outlets, and vending machines you might need to feed your paper, your laptop, and yourself during a long night of paper-writing and rewriting. I would really love to say that it never comes to that point at Shimer; that we finish all of our papers weeks early, are always satisfied with them, and never have to stay up at night over them, but that is not the case. As with all humans, Shimerians have flaws and make mistakes. That sometimes means that we have too much work during the week to finalize our papers, and there is nothing to be done about that, but to buckle down for a late-night session of paper revisions. When it comes to that, though I always try to avoid it, the Gavin is my place to go, as I am sure it is for many other fellow paper-writers, Shimerians or otherwise.
Well, it seems that once more I am out of time before I need to head off to Natural Sciences 2 and discuss Jane Goodall, and her charming depictions of the chimps and apes she worked with (seriously, her writing is really endearing). Next week is spring break, so not much will be going on at Shimer, but the week after that, we go back into full swing with the founding documents of the US (Soc 2), Kafka, O'Conner, and Dostoevsky (Hum 2), finish Goodall (Nat Sci 2), and continue to look at Renga (Japanese Poetry). I really can't wait!
Sine cera
Isaac.
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