There are two libraries where the most of the studnets of Maastricht University spent their time – Inner city library (close to the School of business and economics and Law faculty) and Randwyck library (Health faculty). As I take part in experiment taking place in Health faculty, I also spent more time in the library there, as it makes no sence to bike somewhere else to spent my time.

Library there get's really full after first block of lecutres – at 10:30. Since than until about 4 o'clock, it's not that easy to find a free place to sit. As everybody has a laptop and connect to internet via Wifi, the network is either very slow or it's almost impossible to get any connection to internet. I even have problems to connect to university website with portal containing course materials. That's annoying, but I cannot do anything about that, only prepare for that.

As there are a lot of students, it's obvious that everybody needs to do something else, has different wishes for study enviroment and to satisfy this demand there are some rules and also specific premises. Spending whole days in the library is quite common here.

Rules and different study premises

Library containes basicaly of four types of areas: Silent study room, Quiet computer room, Group room and open space. Inner city library also has cabinets for one person and garden. There are different rules for each of these areas. Group rooms at the mecial faculty are often "booked", so sometimes a big room and only 2 people are there, but they made a reservation for their work. Well in group room you can chat, use cellphone, PC, eat and drink. On the other hand, in silent study room, no talking ano no PC is allowed. Open space is not suitable for discussions, only for small talk, but you can eat there. Books are in shelves and students are expected to put them at the same place, where they took the book from.

Computers and printing

EVERYBODY prints. As students are given a really big amount of mandatory reading material that they use in tutorials, printers never stop and there are usually queues, as sometimes only a few printers are working. One page costs 5 cents. Default settings is double sided.

To send some document to the printer, you have to use available computers. Actually everything is virtual, so the performance of the PC's is very low. On the other hand, computers are really silent. If you have only one window open, or just want to send something to printer, it's ok. There is also way, how to print from your laptop, but only a few students know that. I, as a geek, know that Well, it's quite simple, the only thing you have to do, is to log into virtual enviroment provided by university. It's main purpose is to provide access to electronic sources, that the university has subscribed to, from your home.

Library run

As metioned above, library is used a lot. The opening hours for inner city library are from 11 to 22 o'clock every day and during exam week even until midnight every day. It has it's reasons, but still students are waiting in front of the library to get the best place after it is open. The situation there can be found on YouTube. One sample video:

Photogallery – Libraries of Maastricht University