The Coziest Place at OU

The Bizzell Library at the University of Oklahoma. Photo by Wyatt Stanford.

The Bizzell Library is arguably the busiest building on the University of Oklahoma's campus. Students look for a quiet place to gather their thoughts, write extensive papers and pour over the thousands of texts in the library's possession. The Bookmark is a lifeline to late-night crammers and researchers with an array of coffee and snack options. The Great Reading Room is a fortress of solitude where one can get his or her life together for that huge, upcoming biology exam. For me personally, despite all of these great spaces, my favorite place in the Bizzell Library, and on OU's campus, in general, is the fourth floor.

The fourth floor is nothing special when compared to the other areas of the library. It looks virtually the same as the lower levels and the floors 1-3. Shelves taller than a semi-truck filled with dusty volumes line the middle of one side. What makes the fourth floor so great in opinion is that since it is such a climb up stairs and so far from the Bookmark, people rarely go there to work. It is perfect for people like me who need the deafening silence to think but do not want to accidentally cause a scene in the Great Reading Room by dropping a book on accident.

After entering the fourth floor from the stairwell, if one continues to the left, the extensive shelves will continue to what seems to be infinity. Along the walls are wooden desks adjacent to power outlets. I have sat at these desks countless times, attempting to get my house in order for pop quizzes in Intro to PR or squeezing my thoughts out over my laptop for a Media Writing assignment. I have written some of my best Odyssey articles in one of those cubicle-like desks.

I am so fond of the fourth floor of the library because it has seemingly never let me down. Every time I have sat down to write or study, I felt like I was doing everything I could to get to do my best work. It might have been because I was in a library, and the academic atmosphere of libraries is often contagious. I like to accredit it to the cozy feeling. The fourth floor is always warm, which is wonderful for finals week study sessions in the fall semester. The fluorescent lighting creates a somewhat soothing atmosphere, perfect for all the stress that walks up and down the stairs in the Bizz. I never feel so at home anywhere else on campus.

It took me a while to discover the hidden quiet and solitude of the Bizz's fourth floor. It was in October of my first semester at OU and I desperately needed a good place to study and work on homework during the two-hour gaps between my gaps. Being a transfer student from a small junior college, I had no clue as to where the best study spots were on campus. One day, I had the crazy idea of exploring the library to see what it had to offer. After making the climb up the stairs, I discovered the silent expanse of the fourth floor. Since then, it has been the place I go to study, gather thoughts read and write. 

If you are an OU student, I highly recommend going to the fourth floor of the Bizz. There, you will be able to do anything and everything you need to accomplish to succeed.