What your favourite library level says about you

The library at UEA is huge.

Six floors of reinforced concrete towering above Suffolk Terrace and the square, looking over the picturesque lake. It can’t help but attract all sorts of characters – hard workers, gossipers, loud eaters, people just scrolling through their Instagram feed – you name it, they’re in there.

What’s more remarkable is that somehow, each floor seems to attract a different type of person. You’ve got the talkative group workers on Floors 0 and 1, the “I’m only here to take a Snapchat of the view” users of Floor 3, and those who dwell in the basement of 01 and 02, hiding their ugly face from the rest of campus.

Here are just a few of the different characters you can expect to find on each floor.

Floors 01 and 02

The rolling stacks are also a good way to crush yourself when it gets to exam season

These two floors are basically the same thing; the crawlspace to UEA’s library. A dark, claustrophobic place for hermits to reside in. I will admit that there are some pretty cool group study rooms down there, and sometimes you can get lucky with a computer when the other IT areas are full.

I honestly cannot think of a single person who would consciously choose to spend time in this part of the library. I imagine that those who do are some sort of vampire, trying to hide between the rolling stacks from the light of day, if not also from seeing other people.

In fact, UEA actually holds a special claim to hosting the most unsociable places on the planet: Silent Reading Rooms 01 and 02. If the subdued antipathy to noise found within Silent Reading Room 1 is not enough for you, fear not, for you can work in its ugly step-sisters, hidden deep within the basement. With their rigidly set table boundaries, the people in here are about as cold as the concrete walls surrounding them. Seriously, they will kill you if you so much as breathe too loudly.

Floor 0

Just look at all those fancy laptops

Only at UEA would the ground floor be three stories above the actual ground.

If you enjoy working here, I imagine you either couldn’t be bothered to scour the rest of the library for a space to work (don’t blame you tbh) or somehow you enjoy the noise of the floor. You’re probably a quite talkative person who enjoys coming to the library with your friends, or at least you enjoy being able to talk and eat as loudly as you like without being glared at.

You’ve got everything you need right near you – the helpdesk, printers and copiers, even a tap for drinking water – and you probably work quite hard. I reckon you own a MacBook or some other fancy type of laptop (everyone on this floor seems to) and you probably enjoy the regular stream of entertainment that is confused freshers timidly approaching the helpdesk.

If you’re not out in the open desks by the printers or the lifts, you’re keeping an eye out for a computer to jump on in the IT area. Good luck. This is a task that can take days, if not weeks. When you finally get on a computer you have to defend it with your life. I’ve heard of people going days without a toilet break just so they could keep the claim to their computer.

Floor 1

This is my ‘I hate when people make any noise’ face

Floor 1 is one of the smallest floors in the library, because the collections team and faculty librarians take up literally all of the good space. For this reason it collects a real strange, condensed mix of people.

The limited room means there’s always small crowds gathered in the group work area, as if it was some sort of overflow carpark for those who couldn’t find space to work on Floor 0. They’ll happily chat and snack away with each other. But just a few bookshelves away, in the silent study area, hide the solitary and studious lot.

These guys aren’t quite as serious as those who use the silent reading rooms, but they still like to get to the library well equipped and early in the day. However, their plan is usually ruined after a few hours because the loud group workers have come along with their conversations, humour, and SU value onion rings. How dare they. Because the silent study space is so close to the loud group work area, the people who work here always seem to have a sour look on their face, wishing they had set up in Silent Reading Room 1.

Silent Reading Room 1 is actually the nicest of all the reading rooms. It has a good view, plenty of natural light, and the people in here are generally nice. Or at least they pretend to be whilst they hold their frustration within while someone (there’s always one) tries to secretly eat crisps. You see a lot of serious students in here: medicine, law, engineering, that sort of thing.

Finally, there’s those who use the smaller IT area. It may have slightly worse computers than downstairs, but, nonetheless, when you’re using those computers in the extension, you can’t help but feel pretty smug about the fact you are able to look over the balcony at everyone who is literally beneath you. Peasants.

Floor 2

If you work on Floor 2, you’re probably a humanities student

Floor 2 is one of the most popular floors in the library. Like Floor 3, you’ve got a good mix of silent study areas, computers, and comfy chairs. The view isn’t too bad, and the people that work in these areas are normally quiet enough that you can get on with some work.

On Floor 2 there are the hard-working types, who stay in the library late into the night to finish their essay or report, and then there are the slackers. The slackers can be seen at all times, scrolling through Facebook and Twitter at midday, or even procrastinating with Netflix well past midnight.

The strange thing is, often these two characteristics are found in the same person. It’s easy to get distracted up here. After working hard for a bit, you’ve looked up and seen someone on their phone and it reminds you, you need to quickly reply to your Mum’s text. Before you know it, an hour has passed and all you’ve done is update your profile picture and read a few articles on The Tab (ahem).

Maybe you work in one of the two postgraduate rooms on this floor. If you do, those rooms must be the biggest ego trip for you. You presumably feel quite important as you scan in your campus card, walk past those glass walls, and get to work with your head held high. I won’t deny that your part of the library does look really fancy, and maybe I just sound bitter, but in reality the only bonus you have is your lockers. And are they even worth it?

Floor 3

Easily distracted.

Floor 3 is almost identical to Floor 2, and attracts the same sort of people. But we both know why you would choose to study here instead.

The view. Right? You are solely here for the view.

You probably spent your first five minutes here laying out your laptop and books in such a way that they’d look good with the lake in the background of your snapchat story, which you’ve slapped the ‘Oh UEA is wonderful’ sticker on, just to remind your friends how much better your uni is than theirs. You vain bastard.

You might or might not actually get that much work done while you’re here, but you will still feel pretty accomplished when you leave anyway. I mean anyone would feel pretty refreshed after sitting in those little red chairs and staring out over the endless throw of trees beneath you for a while.

Just don’t look too far down, though. Suffolk Terrace will ruin any nice view.