Theodore M. Hesburgh Library

I’ll be honest, I just graduated and surprisingly wish I spent more time in the library. Honestly I never went there by choice, only to study in groups for tests where I didn’t know what was going on, but it’s actually a good library. In recent years there have been student petitions to update the collections, and that sounds admirable, but to be honest everyone does their research on the internet these days anyway. Or maybe I just don’t know how to use a library. But I do know from trying to find books for class (if you’re an ND student taking an English class, DO NOT BUY THE BOOKS — RENT THEM AT THE LIBRARY) that this library has all kinds of crazy shit you never knew was out there, from really obscure academic subjects to sports books and academic journals and everything in between.
Also, the views from the top of the library are great. Especially after completing the Hesburgh Challenge.
Anthony A. (also reviewed this) are you the weird loner guy with no friends who is always muttering to himself in the corner of the library?

largest, sweetest collegiate library in the USA.
and a very cool touchdown jesus on it.
easy to navigate, very helpful peeps all about.
very quiet. good place to think and/​or study.

The Word of Life. Knute Rockne’s class yearbook that anyone can peruse. Asian grad students here on football Saturdays. Fr. Ted’s office & chapel on the 13^th floor. Alumni’s bun run.
Traditions great and shriveled in the cold, this is a library with no shrinkage of history and memories. Not a bad place to study, either.

I’d like to give the Hesburgh Library five stars just because of Touchdown Jesus, but I’ve got some theological problems with the mural. No, I don’t have a problem with Jesus, but while The Word of Life (the mural’s actual title) is interesting, there are no women depicted in it. Kind of strange considering the facts that more than half the people in the world are women, many of the most important figures in the Bible are women, human life isn’t possible without women, and Notre Dame’s name translates into the University of Our Lady of the Lake.
The library itself is magnificent. I don’t really like its blockishness, but then I don’t like most of the architecture on Notre Dame’s campus. But the collection of books is impressive, and it’s really easy to find what you’re looking for. I also love the fact that anyone can just walk into the library and use it. This isn’t the case at most university libraries these days, even public ones, and that’s a shame.
When I was a grad student at Notre Dame, I loved the fact that I could check out an almost unlimited number of books indefinitely. (There might have literally been no time limit.) I always thought this was strange, as it seemed to be an easy way to steal books. When I asked a friend who worked at the library, she said that the stacks literally weren’t large enough to hold all the books, so the university would rather that a large number were checked out at any one time. I know I had some books in my house for almost the entire time I was a student.
There are also some really greats views from the top floors of the library.
I used to love the basement, but when they renovated it, they took away all its old character. I realize that some people like shiny marble inlaid with university seals, but I’m a less flashy guy, and I loved how the old basement felt like a 1950s-​era British train station, complete with banks of phone booths and vending machines that had old sandwiches.
The library’s grounds are also home to dozens of really cute chipmunks (one of which once made me brake hard and fly into a hedge to avoid running it over on my bike); the First Down Moses statue (complete with horns!); and a reflecting pool, which I really used to like until I found out they use blue food coloring to make the water look deep. (It’s actually only a few inches, so don’t ever try to dive into it.) The ducks that swim in the pool all look like they’ve just eaten a Slurpee; their tongues are stained blue from the food coloring. They drain the reflecting pool during the winter, and it can be a little bit dangerous when it’s surrounded by snow and you don’t realize the lip is there.
But I really do love the Hesburgh Library, and especially in the winter, it was nice not to have to walk far from Malloy Hall to here to grab some books before crunch-​crunching home through the snow.