Piano keyboards, a DJ booth and the expertise help to assist, are among the various, lesser- known amenities available on campus, located in The Performing Arts Library.

Joe Clark, the head of The Performing Arts Library, said the resources are open to any student, faculty, staff or community member can use what the library features.

Ariel Yang, an ethnomusicology major, said she comes to the library once or twice week, and goes to the presentations the library has.

“I use the library for doing my work, when I really need to focus,” Yang said. “And I look for materials here.”

Along with the technology resources, the library also offers different events in order to bring more awareness. These include student appreciation day and an annual open house.

Clark said they also have a number of events that students won’t see anywhere else on campus which includes a jazz café, director speaks series, colloquium series, open mic lunch and many more.

Kevin Wilson, a doctoral student in music composition and theory, said he comes to the library a couple times a week for presentations, open mic and jazz listening labs.

Not only do students find the resources helpful, those who work in the library do as well.

Jeremy Valcich, a senior aeronautics major,  has worked for the performing arts library for four years. He said he uses the Performing Arts library to study for exams, prepare for quizzes, do homework, scanning, printing and de-stressing.

“I have refereed this library to a lot of people, actually. I know a few of my roommates never even heard of this library before,” Valcich said. “Before they knew about it, they just went to the main library, and they always complain about how busy it was, or they could never find space. And now I actually see them down here while I’m working.”

Valcich said although he works everyday out of the week, he is there studying two to three days out of the week. He said he also enjoys attending library events, and that his favorite is the Jazz Listening Lab.

Clark said that they’re always adding more things to the library ever since it re-opened in 2010.

“Originally, this was a music library dating back to the 1950s, or maybe 1960s,” Clark said. “It was a departmental library that was actually overseen by the school of music, and at some point it became under the umbrella of University Libraries.”

Clark said after it was renovated, they brought together dance and theatre classes that before, were held all over campus. For university libraries, it was a good opportunity to create a performing arts library he said.

“We already had music here, so we integrated the dance materials, and the theatre materials, so that we could serve all the performing arts constituents in the building,” Clark said. “So when the building opened, this library opened.”

Yang, Valcich and Wilson all agreed that they would tell others to come to the Performing Arts Library. Reasons for that ranged from the books, CD’s and the library being less crowded.

For more information on the library, or to learn more about upcoming events, visit http://www.library.kent.edu/performing-arts-library

Kimberly Laferty is the libraries reporter for The Kent Stater, contact her at [email protected]