Rhetorical Analysis of Place

     Since I do not live on campus, besides riding on the bus and sitting in classrooms I spend most of my time in the Science & Engineering Library.  It is very close to all of my math, engineering and science classes.  As you walk up to this library, you do not feel the same as when you visit the recently constructed Thompson Library with its atrium and glass ceiling.  The SEL does not look like a library. It is a brick rectangular four-floor building. It looks more like a regular office or classroom building.  However the many high Roman arches in the entrance way make this library feel larger than it really is.  The design development was approved in April of 1991 although construction was not complete until 1993.

     On the first floor there is the Terra-byte cafe where students can get a snack, sandwich or coffee.  It is always very busy at lunch and this causes the first floor to be pretty noisy.  Having a café in a library still seems out of place, but it is a nice addition.  The second floor is the Music and Dance collection area along with study rooms and staff meeting rooms.  The third floor is the Digital Union with lots of computers and study tables and even a sound proof room. It is a loud and more talkative area that tends to have a lot of Indian Students congregated there.   The fourth floor is where the Science and Engineering books and journals are shelved.  This is the area of the library that I visit most often.  There are a lot of study tables with chairs. It is very quiet and a lot of Oriental students seem to study there.  The tables are all lined up in pairs of two.  It is a huge room but does not have any decoration or special features.  I spend a lot of hours here in between classes and it works as a good study area for me. The purpose of this room is to encourage studying so there is no need for it to be fancy.