Tucked away in a quiet corner of an extensive shopping center, the Cameron Village Regional Library doesn’t look much different from the other buildings in the vicinity.
Most students, like junior in business management Marlyn Ball, don’t use the library for their research needs, especially with D.H. Hill right on campus.
“I would use our library before going to the Cameron Village one,” he said. “It’s closer, and I would have to drive to the other one.”
Despite the lack of attention by the campus community, the library celebrated its grand re-opening on Saturday. Patrons of all ages participated, despite the gloomy, rainy weather.
The library was housed in a temporary location until the current building on Clark Avenue was renovated. The library has over 160,000 volumes in its collections, as well as 40 personal computers for the public, according to the library’s resource page.
“We moved to the temporary location because the old building was torn down and we had to start from scratch,” Sue Scott, Reference Librarian said.
Although the Cameron Village library is not the first stop for students conducting research, it does get frequent visits from freshmen.
“I’ve helped many students from State find research materials for their classes,” Scott said. “We have many research resources for freshmen, but as the students get more involved in their degrees, the on-campus library benefits them more.”
It may be that more freshman visit the Cameron Village Regional Library because of the atmosphere, Scott suggests. The library resembles a Barnes and Nobles, minus the coffee shop.
“Our library may remind new students of their hometown library and they feel more comfortable using it,” Scott said.
D.H. Hill and Cameron Village alike both house study lounges where students can sit and study, or just kick back and relax. During exam time, the library on campus becomes packed with students preparing for their exams.
The newly renovated Cameron Village Regional Library may be a solution to some students who don’t mind traveling a little farther than the Brickyard to study.
Some students, however, don’t use either library to study.
“I would probably just go to one of the study lounges in one of the campus buildings,” Darius Yaghoubi, senior in aerospace engineering, said.
Besides the computers and study lounges, the Cameron Village Regional Library offers other resources to students. Most students will not, however, travel to Cameron Village to use the resources the library offers.
“It’s kind of far away from campus so I wouldn’t really just go down there unless they had coffee,” Ahmed Tawfik, senior in meteorology, said. “I have a comfortable chair here at my place and a desk, so I need another incentive to go there.”