Adams State University
Alamosa, Colorado
July 2019
Isn’t every library in the world named Nielsen Library? Actually this isn’t the case although Smith College in my hometown has the Neilson Library, which when I last saw it looked like nothing more than a Victorian façade and a giant bulldozed ditch as part of Maya Lin’s latest architectural masterpiece. I’m sure the graduating classes that preceded mine at my alma mater are glad they didn’t have to put up with years of library renovations. The library looks like any three story brutalist library of the 60s and 70s, which means that it reminds me especially of Springfield College’s Babson Library, and a little of my alma mater’s Shain Library (although thankfully by the time I matriculated, $10 million had bought the College significantly more natural light and views and significantly less brutalism to the place).
The view from my carrel in Shain today. The hills always look so mysterious 😯 @ConnCollLibTech pic.twitter.com/N0ZsjqVSwg
— Saadya Chevan (@sichevan) February 4, 2017
I came to the Nielsen Library More specifically to do some intense work on getting my program notes for the Eastern Connecticut Symphony done. Given that it was the closest academic library to Creede, it was the most obvious (although not the closest by a long shot—it’s an 1-1/4 hour drive) convenient space to try to get my writing and research done.
This was my first time on a college campus since receiving my BA. The most striking thing I noticed while working at the library is the incredible energy of undergraduate students. The student workers who assisted me with my issues logging onto the guest wifi network brought nothing but grace and courtesy. Despite the challenges and demands placed on undergraduates, there’s an incredible optimism that permeated throughout the place about hard work, and a future as a college-educated member of society.