Students deem study location vital for concentration, comfort

By Erin Mangen

Mirror Sports Co-Editor
November 30, 2007

Afternoon sunlight dances on the gaudy, red-orange carpet each time students push open the front doors. Some hang a left and relax in one of the comfy, gray chairs. Some sit at a table and spread out their work, enjoying the view outside one of the vast windows. Each student has his or her preferred area for studying in the Mikkelsen Library.

“There are some students who stake out a study table, and you will see them there all year long,” said circulation and reference librarian Jan Brue Enright.

Sophomore nursing major Kristie McDermott is a regular first-floor study carrel user.

McDermott visits the library about once a day and heads straight to a study carrel on the first floor, as if in auto pilot mode.

“I’m an introvert,” McDermott said. “I think well when I reflect on the information I have been given and am more comfortable with doing that by myself. If I’m at a table, then I get distracted, but if I am in a study carrel, my work is right in front of me and that is all I focus on.”

In the center of the library is a large, marble staircase leading to the second level of the library. The second level is much like the first level, with the exception of study rooms.

“Our two study group rooms are very popular,” reference librarian Lisa Brunick said.

Types of work affect where students prefer to study.

“I believe many of the students have a number of favorite study places, depending on what they need to do,” said Ronelle Thompson, the Mikkelsen Library director.

“Students pick study carrels when they don’t want to be interrupted, and large public tables when they are working in groups or have time to see who is passing through,” she said.

Brunick has been working at the Mikkelsen Library since summer 1994 and is a first-hand observer of student study habits.

“The study carrels upstairs are probably the quietest place in the library,” Brunick said.

Sophomore Amber Baustian likes working at tables.

“Seeing everyone else at the tables around me working is a motivational tool,” Baustian said. “They keep me going. I don’t like to work in the study carrels because I feel too secluded.”

Kacie Ziola and Katie Olsen, both sophomore nursing majors, prefer the circulation area for group projects, which is a straight shot from the main doors.

“I end up going to the circulation area because it is easier to find group members,” Olsen said. “I also don’t feel like I am interrupting individuals studying and it is also more acceptable to talk in this area.”

Sophomore business administration major Andrea Krogstad is partial to studying upstairs.

“I like to study upstairs in the study carrels because there is less noise and people walking around,” Krogstad said. “I also tend to be more productive.”

Junior Native American studies major Ellie Kunkel agrees with Krogstad.

“There is less distraction upstairs,” Kunkel said.

Senior English major Maria Beth often sits at a round table poring over a book. She prefers to study on the second floor to get away from the movement downstairs.

“I am currently working on a humongous paper for my gothic literature class,” said Beth. “I am comparing the House of Seven Gables to the Bonfire of the Vanities. It’s so quiet on the second floor that I am less distracted and can focus on my work better than downstairs.”

The varied learning styles of each student results in a varied area of preference for productive studying.

The library will undergo a $6 million renovation this spring. The changes are expected to be completed in the fall of 2009.

“Because of the popularity of the study rooms, we will be adding 10 or 11 rooms,” Brunick said.

“We are also adding various types of seating. Some students will find different favorite places to study, I am sure.”

The library was built in 1954 and was renovated in 1980. The three floors have looked the same since its origin, with the exception of the basement being used as the Center for Western Studies.

Picking up her books, notebooks, pencils, highlighter and Nalgene bottle and placing them in her bag, McDermott gives a sigh of relief. She pushes in her chair at the first floor carrel, walks past the front desk and pushes open the front doors and thinks to herself, “Mission accomplished.”