We'll Leave the Lights on for You

Once again, it was a day of miserable weather. A system moved through on this day that brought ice to some areas but just rain to others. It was icy outside of town where we live when I got up, so I took the bus to work rather than driving. But somehow, when I arrived in town, I encountered merely rain.

When I take the bus to work, I get off the first bus on campus behind the Pattee and Paterno libraries and catch a connecting bus to the building off campus where our offices are located. This is my morning view of the lights of the famous Stacks of the library where I get off the first bus. Just behind the library to the right is the main bus depot where I catch the second bus.

In the morning darkness, the most visible attributes of the Stacks are the orderly black grid structure of the building itself and the shining lights, which practically set the building aglow as they shine and reflect on the wet world outside. Inside the Stacks are shelves and shelves of books, with desks and chairs set up along the windows at regular intervals. It is a great place to study - or to simply sit and look out the window and watch the world stroll by.

While I myself have never felt concerns about my safety while in the stacks, there is a famous story on campus about a young woman named Betsy Aardsma, a Penn State student who was stabbed to death in the Stacks 45 years ago. The case has never been solved.

In the late afternoon, I returned to campus to catch my connecting bus home. It was pouring down rain, and I set up my computer at one of the desks in the Stacks and checked e-mail for a half-hour before the bus to home arrived. The Crittergators and I also seized the opportunity to look for clues to the 45-year-old cold case, but we didn't find any.

The experience brought back memories of my undergrad days on campus. For nothing says "I'm a Penn Stater" quite like climbing the narrow stairwells in the Stacks that were apparently made for Hobbits. Hunched over and trying to make yourself small, you keep a wary eye out and protect your head in case (oh, unlucky day!) someone is coming down while you are going up . . . and gives you a big WHAP! on the head with one of the swinging metal doors within the stairwells.

The Stacks themselves are a photographer's dream. Rows and rows of orderly shelves. Rows and rows of colorful books. Odd lighting, reflections, shine. Only along the windows are lights that stay on all the time. Further in, each row of bookshelves has a timer at the end that you can turn on to get lights on that row; but watch out, for when the timer's done, the lights go out!

The soundtrack to this image is a song by Passenger called All the Little Lights. I'm including links to both the album/CD version and a live version (music begins around 1:30 on the live version). Enjoy!