A room of their own: Grad students welcome a new library workspace

A second-floor space in Sterling Memorial Library that originally housed one of Yale Library’s oldest special collections has been transformed into a dedicated space for use by masters’ and doctoral students only.

The new Graduate Study Room (SML 226) opened in early October with access via ID swipe, a range of seating configurations, and an online feedback form. A printer—one of the first suggestions received—has been added to the room, and large monitors for plugging in laptops—another student suggestion—will be installed in November.

Graduate and professional students, many of whom live in New Haven year-round, are the largest group of students on campus and among the most active library users, noted Thomas E. Zapadka, a fifth-year PhD candidate in Cellular and Molecular Physiology, and chair of the Graduate Student Assembly’s committee on Facilities and Healthcare.

“The new study room recognizes the needs of graduate students and provides a centralized location for study, relaxation, and community,” Zapadka said. “We are excited to have another graduate student space on central campus that supports the diverse research and study activities of our student body.”

Room 226 was originally designed to hold the William A Speck Collection of Goetheana, acquired by Yale Library in 1928, and believed to be the largest collection outside Germany of material by, about and relating to the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. After 1963, the Speck Collection moved to the then new Beinecke Library, and the room was repurposed several times, most recently as office and meeting space. 

The room’s newest  incarnation emerged from students’ responses user surveys and interviews conducted for the library’s Sterling 2031 initiative, a top-to-bottom assessment of spaces, services and needs launched in anticipation of the 100th anniversary of Sterling’s opening in 1931. “Modes of teaching, learning, research, and community are always evolving,” said Barbara Rockenbach, the Stephen F. Gates ’68 University Librarian. “We recognize the unique role of graduate and professional students in the Yale community, and we are pleased to be able to support them in this new way.”  

For Zapadka, the room exemplifies Yale Library’s commitment to service. “I am excited to see how graduate and professional students can continue to strengthen this relationship in the future, and I am grateful for the support we receive from library services across campus,” he said. 

The initial feedback survey for graduate and professional students will close on Nov. 30, 2024.

Read more about the history and decoration of Sterling Memorial Library in the Yale Library Gazette Special Issue from April 1931.

–Patricia M. Carey

About the photos: All photos of students and librarians in the room and at the reception are by Judy Sirota Rosenthal. The image of SML 226 without people is by Monica Ong Reed.  The historic photo of the Speck Collection is from the Yale Library Gazette, April 1931.