During Theological Library Month (October), we ask you to submit your favorite reason to come to the Divinity School Library. 

Here are the entries from 2008.

The Winning reason:

• In addition to Goodson Chapel, it is the place where I can be in one spirit with my other fellow students—in the first in the spirit of worship and in the second in the spirit of learning.
  

Other submissions:

• that is where my salvation is ...o wait I mean that is where I will get the least amount of work done in comparison with anywhere else on the face of this planet!!
• the stacks double nicely as a labyrinth for contemplation and reflection--study and spiritual disciples together in one place!
• reading books is back in -- computers are so 2007!
  
• The Divinity library is a good place to engage in research for papers
• I hear the librarians are kind of a big deal. :-)
• the Librarians will let you talk, especially if you include them in the conversation.
• God can be found on every shelf.
• your tired of funding the United Methodist pensions.
• as an undergraduate, you see too many people you know elsewhere who distract you.  Here, I only see the undergraduates I want to see anyhow.
• I get to be surrounded by the communion of saints, those who have gone before and those who walk the way with me.
• you can win 20 years off your time in purgatory.  ;)
• You can read the dissertations of some of your professors on the second for stacks, like Rabbi Sager, Dr. Portier Young, Willie Jennings, and for all Methodists...Paul Achtemeir!
• where else can I play Tetris in such good company?
• ...the vast majority of cockroaches in the basement have been dead for a long time. 
  
• faculty, staff, and students alike rank among the most considerate, personable, and inviting people I've met.  I'm not even affiliated with the Divinity School, yet in the few hours a week I work at the library, I'm fairly certain I've made more and better friends at the Div School than in my own program.
• nothing says 'bedtime' quite like closing bells capable of waking the dead.
• It is the most likely place to find my husband - it he isn't in class, he's probably in the library.
• of Andy Keck!
• of all the Oompa-Loompas.
• it's a good place to hide from angry preceptors.
• you pay for it with your tuition money.
• Stanley Hauerwas said so.
• if you go to the reference room, it's easy to attract attention by standing up on one of the tables and delivering a political declamation in stentorial tones.
• someone told me that there's a hundred dollar bill hidden in one of the books.
• you can use the textbooks on reserve when you forget to bring your own.
• 42
• let's face it, it's the fastest way to catch up on the latest news and gossip.
• it's a great place to meet new friends and trip over old ones you haven't seen in a while.
• maybe, just maybe, the accumulated knowledge, wisdom and insight of the ages will find its way to my aging neurons and soul, if not through reading than through simply being present in the place.
• ... studying in the York Room will let you to live out your fantasy of being one of the Harry Potter characters and attending Hogwarts!
•  It's the only place in at least a 50 mile radius that actually has books relevant to the stuff people talk about in the classrooms and hallways of Duke Divinity School.  Pneumatological Soteriology, what?!
• it is one of the last true homes of the Muse on this campus full of museums.
• of the knee-weakening contests! ;)
•  I've always liked mazes.
•  The library is my deal when I have no deal,  The library is my life line when I want to be a millionaire of information,  The library has the questions when I“m in Jeopardy,  And finally,  At the library, The Price is Right.
•  there the Spirit of God calls me: 'Come and do your research!'
  

Original List from Fall 2008 Orientation


-    "I should come to the Divinity School Library because…"

#10. Of the stellar collection: over 375,000 books, 700 periodicals, 100 electronic databases -- and still growing!! And this year, being converted from Dewey to LC during the fall semester.  See the newsletter for more information.

#9.  There is excellent reference service -- available in person, by phone, by e-mail, or by instant message.

#8. Printing from our computers is not 10 cents a page, not 5 cents a page, but free for your first 3600 copies.  Please help us keep this free through being good stewards of the paper and the trees the paper came from.  We have several copies of the Bible that you may check out of the library -- there is no need to print out the whole thing.

#7 It is a comfortable place to read and study while drinking from your covered container.

#6. We're open for the best 85 hours a week – Monday to Thursday 8 am to 11 pm, Friday 8 am to 5 pm, Saturday 10 am to 6 pm, Sunday 2 to 10 pm—See the newsletter for our shorter hours for the first week of classes.

#5.  We have computers.  On the main level we have 12 public computers with access to the library catalog, databases and the network. If you bring your own laptop we have wireless available throughout the library, in addition to our public network ports.

#4.  As Top Ten contest-winner from last year said, “It is the last place on earth where things are quiet enough to concentrate.”

#3. You get to see the world while studying the Book of Discipline – check out the view from the Baker Methodist Research Center!

#2.  We're better than Google – we're warm-blooded!  Doing theological research by using the internet alone is really dumb.  Remember:  if it's not there, you can't find it!

ALL #1.  THE STAFF!