Let’s face it, studying sucks, and what sucks even more is sitting in a cramped library for eight hours at a time surrounded by the same obnoxious people.
There’s the guy who falls asleep the moment he turns his computer on, the girl who “politely” asks you to plug in every Apple product known to man, and that one person that decided it was a great idea to get a five-course meal delivered to his study cubicle.
As Penn kids in the midst of finals, we can all relate. Here are the ten annoying things that happen to us in study spaces. Happy studying, everyone! Read the rest of this entry »
We’re dreaming of a white Christmas weeknight bootycall library that hasn’t reached maximum occupancy this week. Despite Fisher’s current lack of seats (bitter), we’re glad the setup has changed significantly since 1900, when this photo was taken. Looks like a perfect place to cram for Intro to Claustrophobia or cry about that last BYO/mixer/shitshow you’re missing. Don’t fret honey child, you’re evidently amongst friends, and there’s always next year.
This snapshot was taken at Van Pelt’s dedication ceremony on one sunny October day in 1962. It’s like a retro Library Social! Imagine if the ceremony was right now and all of these nice people were simply sitting there watching you study and listening to you learn.
A-Gutt is helping enrich the Penn community once again. This time, it’s in a very unique and powerful way. Over 50,000 video testimonials from Holocaust survivors have been added to Penn’s library system and will be available to the public. The testimonials were collected by the Shoah Foundation Institute at University of Southern California, which was founded in 1994 by legendary director Steven Spielberg. The testimonials are in over 30 languages and many interviewees have since passed away.
Penn is the first university in the state to offer this expansive collection. As a college student, Amy’s father fled Nazi Germany in 1934. As she told Philly.com, “I see this as a way of continuing not only to remember the past but to learn from it.”
A ceremony formally announcing the opening of the archives took place yesterday at Annenberg. We’re truly honored to house such an important collection of moving interviews. Thank you, Madame President!
[Disclaimer: This article was part of our "Joke Day" series... if you couldn't tell by the usage of Comic Sans.] In a last ditch effort to finish his thesis, senior Sociology major Dirk Evans checked American Sociology: Perspectives, Problems, Method out of the Van Pelt library. Evans said it was his first time borrowing a book from the library, “though obviously I’ve done work with my boys in Rosengarten and sometimes if I need to cram and I can score an Adderall I’ll crank out a couple pages in the fourth floor stacks.” Though Evans said he was hesitant to check out a physical book, he said he was surprised by the efficiency of the process. “I guess it was a good system, that you can just find any book you want and borrow it to write your paper,” Evans commented. “The only thing that sucks,” he lamented. “Is that you can’t copy and paste the quotes you want to use which is what I usually do.” Evans said it is unlikely that he will check out a book again, as he plans to complete his thesis this weekend.
Why was there caution tape in Van Pelt last night? Strangely enough, we’ve sort of seen this before.
Was John Lithgow in Van Pelt this afternoon? Tipsters tell us, “he walked in, chatted up a security guard, went to the bathroom downstairs in Rosengarten, and then left.” Did you see him? You know where to send it.
While our favorite Van Pelt spot is normally quite the Rosenparty, or even a Garten of Love, it seems that more people are shacking up solo in The Hotel Rosengarten.
Tipster Isabel Friedman sends in these photos of the full house that checked in early Sunday morning. Now, we all know trudging through the snow is a cruel business—but this just looks plain torturous.
We’re only one month into school and it’s already this packed? Van Pelt, can we book our reservations for finals yet?
But, hey, if you are going to check into Hotel Rosengarten, you might as well BYO-protection.
More sleepers after the jump.
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There’s really no better way to find out what the world has cared about for the past 12 months than by perusing Google’s Year-End Zeitgeist, an examination of 2009′s most popular and fastest rising search terms.
For example, from the top ten most Googled terms in Philadelphia, we learn the following:
1. College students stay Googling.
2. Especially Penn students.
3. Penn students do not use Blackboard enough to just go ahead and bookmark it.
4. Penn’s websites are the worst! Why so many?
5. Wharton’s intranet is really called SPIKE.
6. Most Philadelphians don’t need to search for Under the Button because it’s their homepage. Probably!
Check it out for yourself to find out more. We don’t want to ruin too many surprises, but we will say that “how to kiss” made it to the top of one list, and that the four fastest rising search terms in the U.S. were (in order) “american idol,” “swine flu,” “cash for clunkers” and “paranormal activity.” Sounds about right!
