H - B - Double Hockey Sticks!

Yesterday, Wednesday October the seventh, 2009, was the date of my first visit to the Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL) this semester. Pretty good, I think, that I held out this long. I just had a test to cram for and I needed a quick place to study before I went to the Testing Center to take it.

(Even Brigham Young knows to stay the "HBLL" out!)

It really wasn't a bad experience. It was innocently quiet and I even sneaked a few grapes while I studied (food is regrettably not allowed in the library). However, I simply dislike what the library means to me. And what it means to me is this: other annoying and distracting people patronizing the library on the pretense of studying but really just going to pick up on chicks; being forced to barricade myself deep inside its chasms, well beyond cell phone reception, on late nights to study for exams or to work on big research projects; ear drum bustingly loud music they play starting at 11:45 pm on those nights when you desperately need those precious 15 minutes to finish something (e.g. a timed take-home test that is supposed to be finished in one sitting); a level of scholarship that I just don't measure up to; and quite frankly, the only books I have checked out of the library are because it was required for a research paper (let's face it, you can write a dang good research paper based purely on electronic resources!).

Although there are other very viable options for places to study, I will probably go back, albeit not regularly. What I realized last night after my experience with HBLL is the place that I really despise is the Testing Center. Poor Heber J. Grant. I can see at least some positives to having a large and respected library named after you; but, there are absolutely zero benefits for President Grant having a Testing Center as his namesake!