Tucked into the back corner of the fourth floor in the library located at 624 S. Michigan Ave., around 35 people gathered around tables, coloring book marks, enjoying hot chocolate or coffee, eating snacks and listening to holiday music as a fireplace roared on the TV.
The event, which took place on Dec. 5 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., was put on by the Student Diversity and Inclusion board, which partnered with Student Persistence and the Scholars Project. Attendees, who had to register via Engage, were encouraged to bring “gently used” books. Though it was not a requirement, anyone could take a book if they wanted to.
With several books being offered, students were able to find books that they could relate to or were relevant to their majors. The event also offered students the opportunity to connect with one another.
Charee Mosby-Holloway, director of student diversity and inclusion, said this event came about because the library is downsizing its collection.
“We wanted to collaborate on something together towards the end of the year that was really just based on sort of community as we move into finals,” Mosby-Holloway said. “So we had the idea to do kind of like a book fair where students could bring books.”
According to Mosby-Holloway, they were initially going to host the event in a different space, but decided that the library would be the best option.
“It’s an incredible resource for students, not only for classes, but in terms of finding belonging, finding community, getting access to the resources that you need, exploring new things,” Mosby-Holloway said. “It is an incredible resource for our community, especially for our students, and we really just wanted to highlight that with this event.”
Reaper Winkler, who is a peer mentor for SDI, said the espresso machine and free snacks encouraged students to come to this event specifically.
“I think it really brought a lot of people together, which is usually the goal of a lot of our events, you know, inclusion with everybody,” Winkler said.
First-year student Skye Baker, a theater design and technology major, came to the event with one of his friends. They were enticed by the crafts and food. However, with the current library building being sold, as the Chronicle previously reported, events like this are important to students, Baker added.
“I’m sad because in all honesty, it’s a really nice calm place,” Baker said. “I enjoy it when I am up here and I’ve made a lot of positive memories in my first semester up here.”
Another student who attended the event, first-year game design major Windy Vang, said that though the library building was “ancient,” it felt like it belonged to the campus, and has a rich history attached to it.
The library building was built by Eckstorm in 1908 as a seven-story building to house the Chicago Musical College.
Vang added that the library has many helpful books for different majors such as books on animation. While you can Google, Vang said, sometimes books can be more specific.
Similarly, Krislyn Hughesreative, a first-year creative writing major, expressed that the space was cozy and added that they prefer hard copies and paperbacks as they are not the most digital person. Though they love the space, they wished they had known about it sooner.
“I feel a little disappointed only because this is my first time ever being here,” Hughesreative said. “I feel like if they had advertised it more often, I probably would have been here a lot more and on top of that, with it being like a website as well, that’s kind of sad because I like the physicality of everything.”
Copy edited by Manuel Nocera
