Grainger Engineering Library

A really nice library with a ton of computers and other resources. I spent a good chunk of my time here, and know plenty non-​engineering students who did as well.

My husband spent several years of his life in the Grainger Engineering Library. This place is probably a second home to half of the EE/​CS students at the U of I. Grainger is conveniently located in the heart of the Engineering Quad and has plenty of solo and group studying areas.

Each floor of Club Graing is like a bar with its own crowd and personality. The basement is for CS/​ECE majors hacking away in the linux lab and people who are completely buried in their textbook rather than facebook (and cell phone too because its hard to get reception down there). First floor is for non engineers who can’t log on to ews computers and an eclectic mix of always stressed-​out looking people on the west study area. 2^nd floor open area is for people who like to read and take notes (i.e. not engineers). The crowd in the open area is pretty academically diverse, but the 2^nd floor pink and green study areas, frequently populated by minorities, are not. No one really studies on the 3^rd floor besides people who like to look over to the open 2^nd floor area or when the library is completely packed. 4^th floor is like a more productive version of Club UGL. It seems to be frequently populated by CEE students, but that might change when they get their own student center in the fall. If you stay there late at night (around 3pm), it becomes a gathering place for various ethnic groups where people either make beds and forts out of couches or have a WOW LAN party.

I go to this library to study. This is a great library because it’s big, it has a lot of tables, and it’s QUIET! I hate going to study at libraries that have disrespectfully loud people who go there!

University of Illinois at Urbana-​Champaign is known for having one of the biggest university library systems in the world. Grainger Engineering Library is UIUC’s cornerstone library.
Grainger is filled with thousands of science and engineering volumes, which are available to all UIUC students. The library is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and library staff are always available to help locate books.
Grainger is populated with students, primarily engineers, at all hours of the day. The library provides a quiet, comfortable place to study. When final exams are approaching, there isn’t an empty chair to be found in the whole library.