Throughout my three years as a Stern student, a certain issue, or perhaps occurrence with which I take issue, has given me pause.
Throughout my three years as a Stern student, a certain issue, or perhaps occurrence with which I take issue, has given me pause.I’m sure you all have noticed the fairly common practice of Stern students taking the shuttle uptown to the Wilf campus to purportedly study in the Mendel Gottesman Library. While I have no doubt that in many instances these women are actually studying in the library, I do, however, argue that this could not possibly be the primary motivating factor behind choosing to go uptown rather than study in one of Stern’s two perfectly well-equipped libraries.
Having held a work-study position in both the circulating and reference sections of the Hedi-Sternberg Library for two consecutive semesters, I am well prepared to defend my position. Students are largely unaware of what the Stern campus library has to offer. This causes the current feeling that conducting a research paper necessitates shuttling uptown.
Allow me to enumerate the resources afforded by the Hedi-Sternberg library. Any book, movie, and/or journal article required by a professor for a specific course is made available by the reference library for two hour time periods as is the case with YC courses in the Mendel-Gottesman library. Also, little known fact: if you need the book in question over-night, you can check it out as the library closes and bring it back in the morning.
The Stern campus library also houses numerous research resources from books on Davinci and Monet for Art History research papers to online access to scientific journal databases for papers in the biological and/or chemical sciences. And for any book that the Hedi-Sternberg library does not contain within its walls, never fear! There is always interlibrary loan, a system through which students can obtain virtually any book that the heart or mind desires via connection with many libraries in the surrounding area including that of Hunter College and Baruch College. In my personal experience, it takes no more than a few days to receive books requested through interlibrary loan, and just one day if the book requested is coming from the Mendel-Gottesman library uptown. This system is both simple and convenient, no nauseating shuttle ride necessary.
And for those individuals who enjoy utilizing library resources for non-school related activities, you will be happy to know that the Hedi-Sternberg library contains a variety of books for leisure reading from more classic literature such as Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and Sylvia Plath to contemporary favorites such as the complete Harry Potter and Hunger Games series, neither of which the Wilf campus library has to offer. The Beren campus library also contains a highly varied DVD selection including such critically acclaimed titles as My Fair Lady, Gattaca, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein which represent the romance, sci-fi and gothic genres respectively. The selection may be lacking in more modern movies, but it is more than the complete lack of leisure movie entertainment that the Wilf campus library has to offer.
There are those Stern students who will argue that there is more space in the library uptown; that it provides a “better” study environment, because it’s more like a university library, while there is still somewhere to go if you want quiet; there is ample table space where one can spread out; and there are books there that are needed for certain research papers, books that the Stern campus library doesn’t have.
Regarding the assertion that there is more space in the Mendel-Gottesman library, speaking strictly in terms of square footage, that is an undeniable fact. However, there are also proportionally more students on the Wilf campus, meaning that during exam time, space is extremely limited on both campuses. Whether or not the Mendel-Gottesman library provides a better study environment may be viewed as purely a matter of preference. However, a better study environment is one that provides plenty of natural lighting and an overall quiet atmosphere that is less like a university library, lacking in what I call “the scene,” otherwise know as the tendency toward dressing up to court the men on campus while “studying” and socializing as if the library were a cafeteria. Also, due to the fact that sound travels between the floors that are connected via the staircase through the center of the library, finding a quiet place to study requires secluding oneself in certain limited areas of the library. Additionally, there are more tables than one may realize in the Stern campus library. There are two large tables on the first floor of the circulation library, one table on the second floor of the circulation library, two tables in the group study room located in the back of the first floor reference library, one table in the media room located on the second floor of the reference library, and two tables in the communal space on the second floor of the reference library.
Let’s be honest with ourselves. Are we spending counterproductive time in traffic on the FDR for the vast wealth of otherwise unattainable research materials, or are we going to drink of the fountain that is the university library “scene”? If the latter is in fact the case, that is a perfectly legitimate reason to go uptown. But it is my hope that, armed with the knowledge of the plethora of resources that the Hedi-Sternberg library can provide, you will be confident in the Beren campus library’s capability to provide you with the resources and the environment necessary to succeed in your academic endeavors.