UCSC Science and Engineering Library

I really like he new layout after the renovations! can’t wait to come here more often

This is a great library with lots of resources. You can borrow books and laptops or use a computer in the computer lab. There’s computers on every floor so you’re almost guaranteed to find an open one!
There’s a quiet floor upstairs and a less quiet main floor. There’s also a bottom floor that’s best for group studying and is the least quiet. You can also reserve study rooms on the top and bottom floors.
My favorite place to study is the back room of the main floor. Since this place seriously lacks outlets, this room is perfect because there’s like, 8 outlets per table. However, it’s really hard to find a table. I think it’s everyone’s favorite place: b

Great place to study. The only upgrade this library needs it more outlets! Bottom floor and second floor are louder than the top floor. If you need complete silence, head to the top, otherwise the other two floors are great for groups.

S&E Library is a great place to study. It is quiet upstairs and moderately quiet downstairs as well although it is not necessarily a quiet study area. It offers laptops and science textbooks to be checked out so they don’t have to be carried around all day when you need to study later on in the day.
The only downside to S&E is that there is always a lack of electrical outlets around and the coffee machine is constantly out of order. Because of the lack of outlets, it really limits available seating as everyone crowds where the outlets are.
Other than that, S&E is a great place to study and I would recommend it.

I wish the library was open for longer. They are only open until 12 mon-​thurs and sunday. During finals week they are open for longer until 3am but it is only for a couple days and the library is PACKED to where people are sitting on the ground. Definitely not the biggest library to go to and McHenry is much nicer.
I like how the library has the different noise levels for the different floors. The first floor being loud and filled with people talking, the second mostly quiet but still some chatter, and the third completely quiet.
Don’t eat foods like pizza or burgers or open cans here because there are security walking around and they will take away your food! Chips and snacks are okay to eat.

wooooo the library.
i wish you were bigger, but hey i dont even go to this school, but no one has to know that.
oh and, some people need to learn how to STFU. its a damn library here.

I’m sitting in this concrete block as I’m typing up this review. Generally the library treats me really well, providing me with cozy chairs that I can construct into a bed for napping time in between classes, plenty of computers available if I am too lazy to tote my laptop around all day and most of the time the textbooks on reserve are actually available for check-​out when I need them.
However, it is finals week and this place has turned into a hell hole. UGH!
All of a sudden you notice that this library with its 3 small levels just cannot house all the students on campus. Granted, we have another library, but that one is partially under construction and way out there in the woods. It’s too dark on campus to stumble my way over there!
So here I am trying to find a spot that has not only a chair in front of it, but also an available — READ AVAILABLE — outlet for my laptop. Impossible. Finally I cram myself into a group of 6 people at a table that is meant for 4. And hallelujah, one of the students was awesome enough to bring a power strip. There is power for everyone’s primary study tools! Yay! Except for he just left… Crap. Time to stop Unilocaling and looking at the books instead.
Get some more outlets and chairs, we pay enough to come here!

Good for study time!

This place is my 2^nd home and during finals week, I spend more time here than actually in my home. It gets so packed during midterms/​finals week so I go right when they open to reserve a table for my friends. There are 3 floors and the top is the quiet floor, whereas the bottom 2 are whatever you please. The bottom floor tends to be the loudest floor; many group projects are done on this floor. I like how they have a combination of cubicles and tables that I can choose from.
Before the budget cuts came, the library would be open until midnight but now it’s only until 10. There is another small library on campus open 24 hours but it’s only one room. On weekdays, they now open at 10 instead of 8AM and close at 10 instead of midnight which is HORRIBLE! I had class at 8 AM too and I couldn’t go to the library to kill time if I got released early. On weekends I don’t even bother going because they’re only open until the afternoon.
I also really dislike the late fees! Once, I took home a book I thought was mine (when mine was actually in my car and I totally forgot I checked it out) at closing time so I couldn’t bring it back. In the morning, I dropped it off in the drop box 3 hours before it opened. It had been 8 hours, and I was charged $ 30 dollars! My mess up obviously, but boy does that suck!
Besides that, it’s a great to study with friends or alone, and the computer lab has enough macs and PCs for everyone to be able to use at some point. The printers are also really easy to use, they charge your account instead of you having to pay cash. However, to make photocopies, you need to have cash to buy a photocopy card.
When it gets packed, sometimes I get flustered and just go home and study. However, there are a lot of resources that the library provides that are so much more convenient than me trying to study in my own house so for that, 4 star.

This is my secondary home!
As an engineering major, this might be the best thing the school has offered to us.
5 minutes walking distance from the LABS… +1
reserved study rooms… +1
beautiful location… +1
PUT two boxy chairs together to create a little bed for napping… +10
The library might be ridiculously packed during midterms/​finals week… But come here a lot! if you need to get work done in UCSC.

haha, i never thought of reviewing a school library. whateve, find yourself a cozy little corner to pull together two amazingly boxy chairs and create a nook/​couch bed for those long days on campus. or, head over to the top floor to have your own cubicle to study. generally, it’s pretty decent library with plenty of space, and a large computer lab with printing capabilities. it’s pretty annoying how books on reserve for classes are only available at either mchenry or sci-​li, and not both. i just feel weird about giving a library anything above a three, and agreed on the short hours. students are nocturnal and need late-​night study binges, which doesn’t mean 11:45 PM!

I periodically will live in this library, sleeping on the uncomfortable «chair couches» or in a cubicle, what have you. It’s a nice library, never too cold or hot, always quiet when you need it to be, and rooms are fairly easy to get when you need to do the study group thing, or take a secret nap on the floor.
Sometimes we forget this is a library though, which means… they have books! and lots and lots of them. check them out sometime, you’ll be amazed at what you can find.
My only gripe with this library, and all UCSC libraries for that matter is their hours. I’m aware that most students live off campus, but a library that closes at 11:45 every night, get this 5pm on fridays and saturdays is just not cool in m book. I’ve never been to another university that didn’t have a 24 hour library. Sure, they can close the stacks… but not to offer anything to students burning the midnight oil… sheesh, wonder how it got it’s rep for being a slacker school if they wont even give the students the resources to apply themselves.