Patterson-Randles
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Some of my fondest memories revolve around times when I enjoyed extended opportunities to read, to learn and to stretch my mind across a universe of experiences and possibilities. The places where such growth occurred often were libraries. I vividly remember steamy summer days in a northern Illinois town between the fourth and eighth grades when I would eagerly trace a familiar path to the small public library which housed an intriguing collection of books about mythology, horses, mysteries and history. The upper gallery of the Norlin Library at the University of Colorado in Boulder found me to be a frequent inhabitant, always lured by the motto etched in granite over its colonnade: “Who knows only his own generation remains always a child.”
During my graduate school years, I spent thousands of hours climbing the cramped, convoluted metal and concrete stairs between the floors and stacks of the M.I. King Library at the University of Kentucky, never minding the closeness and stuffiness because of the wealth of knowledge at my fingertips.
At Wellesley College, my postdoctoral National Endowment for the Humanities research drew me to a certain carrel in the library’s second-floor reading gallery which overlooked Lake Waban and a lush New England forest. There I could concentrate deeply and soak up the beauty of landscape and book simultaneously. In each of these places, I found what the classical poets referred to as otium—a physical, mental and emotional “leisure” which allowed the scholar or artist to do one’s best work.
Our students at IU Southeast are finding that we have created just such a place for them. Our new library opened with the onset of the spring semester, and its state-of-the-art technology is matched by its beauty and functionality. All its windows overlook striking scenes of the Knobs, the lake, the rose garden or the campus. The new IU Southeast Library is truly an edifice filled with light and enlightenment.
Like the special libraries in my own past, it will serve as a memorable nurturing place for thousands of knowledge seekers in the years to come. I encourage the members of our campus and regional communities to experience as often as possible the richness of this new centerpiece on our campus.
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