Burling, the biggest and baddest of Grinnell’s libraries, offers a ton of unique features. There are a plethora of different study scenes, so whether you want to climb the jungle gym, set up in a study nook or study (read: nap) in one of the bean bag chairs, Burling has you covered. There are also a variety of special resources on each floor. We’ll venture from the bottom to the top.
The basement is filled with a treasure trove of treats. A small gallery featuring exhibits curated from the College’s archives is surrounded by a variety of useful rooms. The Iowa Room holds a range of amazing historical resources and is a great place to find that unique artifact or source for your next paper or project. Next door to the Iowa Room is the Print and Drawing Study Room; you can browse through centuries of astounding art anytime the room is open. If you’re looking for entertainment, the Media Room in the basement has everything you could ever want. It’s got thousands of films and music recordings available for checkout, so check it out the next time you’re working on a paper for your film course or are just trying to procrastinate.
The first floor holds a variety of research resources, as well as the famous jungle gyms for studying. The research desk is often staffed with research librarians and assistants, able to help you find stacks on stacks of books from the stacks. Free green tea and hot water on demand can help extend your study session by a few hours. There is also a decent selection of group study spaces on the first floor for those times when solo work just won’t do it.
The second floor holds one of the best kept secrets of the library, the rentable student lockers. For a five dollar deposit (and a one dollar per semester charge), you can have a locker to keep checked out books and other materials in the library, saving your back from carrying books all over campus. It also contains the bean bags for “studying” and a large number of individual study nooks.
The third and fourth floors are among the quietest study spaces on campus, making them ideal study spots for those who require silence and solitude. (Sometimes, this makes them popular napping spots.) They have rows of study nooks available, but be sure to set up camp early during intense weeks, as they fill up quickly.
