Peter J. Shields Library takes the top spot again for best place to study in this year’s Best of Davis.
With a computer lab, millions of books and four spacious floors of study space, Shields Library offers students, faculty and staff resources not found at home or cafes. It has the wireless internet offered by cafes and a quiet study environment found at home, except the library will make you actually work instead of fall asleep.
The library also offers the convenience of a 24-hour study room and a free, extensive collection of journals and databases that would otherwise be expensive.
“We’ve got access to a lot of databases that students can use to search for articles,” said Melissa Browne, instruction and reference librarian. “We subscribe to a lot of journals and books online. [We also have] friendly librarians to help students with their research.”
Shields Library accommodates different study environments as needed, in which privacy and noise levels vary as you ascend floors. The basement offers a group study room for group work chatter, and noise levels only decrease as you go up in floors. The second floor offers single cubicles, while the third floor is dead silent.
“I think part of [why it’s the best place to study] is just the variety of study space that we have here,” Browne said. “The other reason is just the location of Shields on campus. It’s so convenient. It’s in the middle of campus.”
Computers are available to students on every floor to search the internet, databases and journals if the library’s approximately 2 million bound volumes aren’t enough for research. According to the university library website, Shields Library also has a seating capacity for 3,391.
Excluding the 24-hour study room, the library closes at midnight from Sunday to Thursday, 6 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and even later during finals week.
Coming in behind Shields Library in second place is studying “at home,” while Mishka’s Cafe finishes off the best place to study in third place.
— Joyce Berthelsen
