Henry Abbott

My parents love to check the locations of my brothers and I at our respective colleges on Find My. They want to make sure that we have not left our campuses and simply enjoy checking up on us and making sure we’re safe. What they have seen is that while my brothers are usually in their dorm rooms, I am almost always in the library. Now, I do go to class and back to my dorm room at the end of the day, but a majority of my waking hours are spent in the 71,382 square feet of Hawthorne-Longfellow library (H-L).

I am lucky to work in the library’s Circulation and Interlibrary Loan departments. This means I both work and do my schoolwork in the library. So, as the self-proclaimed hermit of H-L, I come to you with a suggestion bordering on a strong invitation: USE THE LIBRARY MORE.

I understand that most STEM majors might think they do not need or want the books we have to offer and humanities students might believe that they can find whatever they need for research on the internet—or with ChatGPT. I come to tell you that you are wrong! Of course you could technically get through all four years of your Bowdoin experience after matriculation without stepping foot in the library, but that would be a certain kind of tragedy. I would like to explain a few of the resources that the library offers and why even those who might not think the library is for them should give it some more consideration.

Firstly, if you have to do any kind of research, you can schedule a meeting with a research librarian. Their knowledge and advice are levels beyond what you will find on Google. Instead of you toiling to find articles that relate to your paper or project, they will point you in the right direction quickly and with a smile. They have helped so many students just like you figure out where to look for what they need no matter what stage of the process they are in.

Although the Baldwin Center is generally well known, there are always more students who can avail themselves with its helpfulness. Even if none of the writing assistants know about the topic you are discussing—though more of them do than you think—they can double check your grammar, prose, syntax, etc. My papers have been saved there too many times to count from an errant comma splice or running sentence .

Moving on, I would like to mention my inability to do the daily New York Times Connections. The only reason that I get the opportunity to be stumped by that puzzle every day is because through the library, I was able to subscribe to the Times and the Wall Street Journal for free. There are many newspapers that the library allows you to access, so take advantage of it!

The last aspect I will mention here, although there are a limitless number of other services that the library provides, is how the library can help you get around an age-old issue: someone else has checked out the book you desire. I have been confronted by this obstacle multiple times here at the College. Thankfully, the library has your back.

In the library catalog on Compass you have a few options, firstly the CBB request. If Colby or Bates has that book, the library will get it for you. If they don’t have it, you’re not out of luck yet—there’s Interlibrary Loan (ILL). The primary purpose of ILL is to borrow books from around the country and world that you want and can’t get. It doesn’t need to be for class; you can borrow anything from a YA novel to a dense textbook. Additionally, most if not all those articles and studies behind paywalls can be requested as well (looking at my friends in science).

I hope that this shout-out has deepened your understanding of how the library can help you. There is so much more to discover than old books and study spaces, although we have those too.

Maxwell Payne is a member of the Class of 2026.