Dazed and Confused In Widener Library

Widener Library patrons may want to consult the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur before venturing into the building during its current renovation.

The library’s front steps were closed earlier this week as construction crews began a six-month project designed to modernize Widener’s lobby and first floor. And students say the new Mass. Ave. entrance opens into a confusing array of detours that serve as a veritable labyrinth.

The library’s circulation desk and reading rooms, which lie just a few feet from the front entrance, are both far from the Mass. Ave. door. Students say this has made both locations difficult to find.

“I couldn’t find a reading room,” said William H. D. Frank ’06. “I was looking for a place just to sit down and read, and I got hopelessly lost in the stacks.”

“I think it took me half an hour to find the Phillips Reading Room after having to ask three library employees and after the benevolent assistance of somebody else lost in the library,” said Andre M. Penalver ’06. “I felt like the Jews wandering through the desert for 40 years.”

After entering the library, students must follow printed footsteps through the basement and up stairs to reach the building’s main attractions—the reading rooms and the stacks.

There are both yellow and blue footsteps guiding patrons. The yellow-step road leads eventually to the periodicals reading room, while the blue leads up the main staircase to the circulation desk, the stacks entrance, and the billing office. The Phillips Reading Room can be accessed by entering the stacks and taking the nearest elevator to the “RR” level.

The Loker Reading Room and the second floor are the most difficult parts of the library to reach. Finding them requires walking half-way around the building through the fourth-floor stacks.

While some students said they found the footsteps and other signs helpful, others expressed frustration at the absence of staff assistance.

“When you walk in, there’s nobody there to tell you what’s going on,” Frank said. “You start wandering, and nobody’s there to tell you where to go–they leave it all to signs.”

Penalver said he found the footprints distracting.

“The footsteps I was following turned into dance steps,” Penalver said. “I think at one point I was doing the waltz.”

Frank pointed out another flaw with the footprints.

“There were no footsteps pointing back,” Frank said. “I had a hard time finding my way back.”

Some Widener staffers acknowledged the confusion.

“I would say it’s pretty chaotic,” said Monika LaNuez ’03, an employee of Widener’s stacks division. “People have all these questions that I can’t answer, which is pretty ridiculous since I’ve been here for over a year. I feel just as confused as a lot of the patrons.”

But others students down played the disruption caused by the construction.

“I haven’t found it confusing, but it’s hard to get places,” said Luise J. Tremel ’05. “You have to take a lot of detours.”

“It hasn’t been bad,” said Jane Yang ’03, a former Widener employee.

“I feel like the place has been under construction since I got here, so it’s not a big change for me.”