Aurora Univesity (Phillips) Library - part 1

I was so excited about this one that I had to mark the occasion with my first video content! This was a homecoming for me, as I got my bachelor's degree there back in '94, was the first library I ever worked in, and I have not been back to visit in almost nine years. And, boy, had it changed! But I'll get back to that later...

Just inside the entrance is some inspirational reading. Hint of what's to come: this is a much larger proportion of the written words in the library than it used to be!

The library used to have (if I remember correctly) metal-backed, green chairs that discouraged you from sitting too long. Now it has furniture you could take naps on!

The computers are really different (we still had pre-Windows computers and dot matrix printers back in my day!), but these interior windows are the same, letting those at the circulation desk look out over the main floor of the library.

That area out there used to be reference and newspapers. The newspapers are entirely gone. I'm not sure if there is a reference collection out there, but I doubt it -- and it was small if there was one. On the other side of that wall is where the yearbook collection used to be. I once found the yearbook photos of all the then-current professors who stayed where they graduated, blew them up on the photocopier, and made a display out of them. Good times...

It was unthinkable in 1994 that the library would have a graphic novel collection, but look at that! A trade paperback of Iron Man, and from the dreck Marvel Comics rolls out these days, no less. I would have had some great recommendations back in 1994...

At least these were the same. These green steps are the same ones I walked on 25 years ago. Yes, I'm heading upstairs, to where the big surprises were waiting for me...

WHHHHAAAAAAATTTTTT? This blank-walled study room used to be the Shakespeare room. It was full of books on Shakespeare and his plays. I used to sit in this room for hours, with the fellow student I had a huge crush on back then. And now look at it -- not even a soliloquy in the corner!

And -- OH MY GOSH -- this used to be the Abraham Lincoln room, full of (you guessed it) books about Abraham Lincoln, and rare books from the time of Lincoln. Now it's a storage room for the university's archives. And, hey, I'm all for archiving local history -- but your Lincoln books are gone!!