Of course, I am an alumnus, so you're going to have a biased nostalgic review. However, now that I've gone off to grad school and a few other university libraries, I think the Woodruff, or Club Libz honestly is still the nicest one amongst the East Coast libraries Ive been through, overall. You can argue that some have nicer architecture but that may sacrifice warmth or like updated technology- or some may be newer and more modern but you don't want some cold and sparse robotic feeling library either. So I think Woodruff is a well balanced- modern in its technology and digital media on the first few floors, maintaining its top 50 largest libraries in the US feel in the stacks, and of course the art/history/social sciences are nicely promoted on the third and fourth floors for your truly holistic scholarship experience.
Let's take a tour of the floors, shall we?
Basement
Home of late night undergrads in small groups either...
1. orgo kids hovered around the white boards drawing those hexagonal benzene thingies and everyone's in pajamas and eating whatever food they got from Jazzmans' or whatever it is now.
2. The language kids- huddled around in groups trying to turn in that group project that is like one due every week... because language departments love giving busy work
3. The people with headphones on in the zone behind cubicles- so intense, you can probably charge your phone from the electricity emanating from their brains
4. the pizza eaters... like people come to the basement to eat their forbidden pizza they probably called up from outside Matheson and are now having a pizza party downstairs
5. The jazzercise people- I've seen desperate people trying to roll out their deep vein thrombosis from being in all day writing their honors thesis in April do workouts late at night below.
The first floor- how can you not feel peaceful and that nostalgic Emory feel when you enter those turntiles and look up at the opening to second floor above you and the greyness and carpeted bigness that looms before you? The business school has their separate everything on your left. Seriously. They have their own curriculum, school, blackboard, online platform, and even their own beautiful section to themselves. And it's even barricaded in glass. BEautiful inside though. On your right, it's a lot of tables and study areas- to be fair back int he day it was printers and a long line of kids at every hour frantically printing those long orgo lab reports, essays for Modern lang building, or Chinese essays that took you google translate half the time to write. That's first floor.
Third and fourth
Ah yes. Quite honestly I think everyon'es favorite floor. Media room in the 4th floor has lovely large apple macs and earphones. I think it's the BEST place to do busy work. Pop in their fancy headphones, hit up a spotify/pandora and get that essay/100 emails/organizing ready to get done in the most intense jam ever. Plus you get a lovely view out straight towards cox bridge so you know when it's gettng time to go eat/go home. 4th floor/BR-- who HAS NOT been to Matheson if you're an Emory student. the QUIETEST place (allegedly) to study. It's got high ceilings and lots of tables and that congressional kinda feel. No one dares make a sound- even scooting your chair gets you death stairs. No food and drinks please. It's not elegant to be crunchy or spilling. Only time you see anything outrageous is some burnt out kid who will do cartwheels down the middle on graduation day- there's always ONE guy every year.
Stacks: I think the 6th is the best. Or whichever is the ones that has the nice study rooms at teh end. You get the stacks-- which btw, the sensors are on the bottom so if you stan on third shelves, you can get crushed (I tried). I think this is a good place to go if you really really need to study and discpline yourself. I think it's miserable and it's drastic measures take drastic measures if you're gonna be in some cold corner in metal desks and something lonely about them books all around you.
10th floor/forbidden floor- honestly the MOST beautiful floor in the whole library but it's restricted. Sometimes authors hold meet ups up there. I recommend going there before you graduate. It's lovely.
Book selection: pretty good- if not, GA state or local libraries will have your book.
Newness/remodeling- love that they do that. Has that bookish feel but maintains clean/new feel so you don't feel like showering book dust off when you get home. read more