Individual Study Carrels
The original library building provided large tables for students to work at with chairs next to one another, but there were complaints about noise and distractions. Individual study carrels were an important addition to the new Library wing and reflected a change in attitude regarding students’ research and study habits.
Individual study was the modern trend in education in the 1930s, as this Smith College Press Office announcement from the week of the wing’s opening explained:
"107 carrels for individual study have been placed in the stacks, wherever space allows. Each carrel, or stall, is provided with a separate table, with the best possible lighting facilities, where a student may work in seclusion. This feature emphasizes the great value of independent work."
Individual library carrels may have indeed inspired independent thinking, but perhaps not always in the manner President Neilson expected.
Shown here is a student poem about students’ thoughts while working in the carrels:
From a library carrel
I heard a girl say
Why didn’t (pause)
I go to (pause) Missouri
She repeated again in
a desolate way
Why didn’t I go… to
Missouri
Where studies and
learning are not so
straight-paced
And assignments are
done with an arm
round your waist
And it’s not just on
week-ends that
girls get embraced
Why didn’t I go to
Missouri
From down in Missouri
a sorrowful wail
Why did we transfer
to Missouri
From back in the beer
Hall, an echoing call
Why did we… transfer
to… Missouri
We’re tired of wearing
out fashionable dress
And existing on sleep
of four hours or less
And trials of choosing
what date would
be best—
Oh “Cuddles” can
Have her Missouri.
Then the library shook
With a heart rending
sigh
Why didn’t --
And from its dark
walls raise this
desperate cry
Why didn’t –
Oh we’re weary of
solving equations for x
And we’re tired of
developing our
intellects
Oh to try that activity
Webster calls “sex”
Why didn’t I go to
Missouri.