With the fall term ending, the Valley library offers many resources and spaces for students to come and study.  

In the Valley library, there are not only many different kinds of study locations, but resources that can help with projects and other assignments that are mainly located on the second floor, which happens to be the busiest according to the Oregon State University Press Director Faye Chadwell.

“The second floor is the busiest, there are so many different kinds of activity down there cause you are going to see people using the computers looking for information, working on papers, asking for help at the desk, printing, using the 3D printer,” Chadwell said. “They are down there using the learning commons, using that space to collaborate or get tutoring, studying together, checking out stuff at the desk, checking out books, checking out course reserves, checking out equipment.”

With all the different resources at the library, second year english and education major Katie Darke explains the things she likes to take advantage of during stressful times like finals season.

“I recently discovered you can rent out different rooms to show movies for film class, or when you want a big group to study together, and those are awesome,” Darke said. “I also realized you can check out games from the library and that’s really cool because my friends and I can do that for like mid study sesh as a brain break. The librarians are really nice for whenever I need to find something.”

Chadwell explains that at certain points during the quarter the library can become fluctuate in how busy it is depending on what’s going on at the time.

“We get peak visits at the beginning of school because we have a lot of people coming in here, using our computers for different things. Figuring out course reserves, and then midterms, followed by deak week and then finals,” Chadwell said.

Chadwell and others at the library use the gates at the front to track how many students and visitors come through the library each day and throughout the term.  

“For October so far we have had 163,304 visits. Last fall between Oct. and Dec. we had 338,648,” Chadwell said. “I think we figured at one point that weekly we were easily seeing the entire student body.”

Students on campus become aware of the busy library during finals season and learn how to avoid or deal with it.

Sophomore Human Development and Family Services student Chelsea Alvarez explains what she does during the chaotic library seasons throughout the school year.

“It can get really hectic, you really have to schedule around their being so many people. But I feel like it’s nothing that bad, if you really want a table or spot you can make it work,” Alvarez said.

Chadwell explains what the Valley library can provide when they know it will be a busy day at the library.

“We have classrooms in here because we do have library facility that teach, and there are a lot of workshops for students,” Chadwell said. “But those kind of fall off towards the end of the term so when we have peak usage and we think people are struggling to find a seat we open a couple of our classrooms to provide more seating.”

According to Chadwell, the library staff wants to continue to provide a space for students to have the library to use at the best of their capabilities.

“I really want students to think of our space as a welcoming and comfortable space. And a space where they can come and be curious and acquire about things. We take care of it but students help us take care of it,” Chadwell said. “I think that the respect for this space really speaks volumes about our students too and I appreciate that they help us take care of it.”