broadening my horizons

College Life
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<p>Hi everyone. I just have a few specific questions. First off, I’d like to say that although high school was good in some ways, and taught me a lot of information, I didn’t really learn all I wanted to learn. I want to get out there, explore everything that our culture has to offer. That’s why I’m so excited to go to college. Sure, high school teaches biology and chemistry, but I"m more interested in literature, movies, comedy, music, etc. Also, and this is important, I’m NOT majoring in literature, film, art, or anything of the sort. I’m majoring in business/finance. I just want to broaden my horizons. So some questions:</p>

<p>How exactly do college libraries work? I know they have a ton of books, but are the books all ready for checkout? Do you ever run into a problem where the library doesn’t have a book that you want? I really want to get into French surrealist plays; will college libraries have those obscure works? I know my community library surely doesn’t. Can I walk into a college library, ask for a collection of Dada poetry, and get it during that visit? </p>

<p>Do they have movies? If I ever wanted to watch a movie, can I rent it, watch it, and return it the same day? Where would I watch the movie, and do I have to get permission somewhere? I don’t want to bring a TV into my dorm; there must be some other place for students to watch movies in decent quality BY THEMSELVES right? By the way, I’m talking classic movies, not “Transformers” or anything like that. I’m doing this to learn, not just to have fun. Keep in mind I’m not majoring in film or anything like that. I just want to learn more about classic films. I might take a class or two, but I’d like to watch movies frequently, perhaps everyday? Again, talking “Citizen Kane,” not “Couple’s Retreat.”</p>

<p>Do libraries contain music CDs? Comedy albums? I know the latter sounds weird, but lately I’ve been getting into old-school comedians, and would really like to listen to them. My local library doesn’t have a lot of CDs and comedy albums that I want, but I know college libraries usually have more than community libraries. And what happens if the library doesn’t have a certain album? Can I request it?</p>

<p>These questions are not specified for a certain college, though here are some of the ones I’m applying to: a lot of the Ivies (Harvard, Brown, Cornell, etc). Duke, Northwestern, Chicago, USC, UCLA, Berkeley. A couple state schools. </p>

<p>Really, the point of this thread is to get a taste of what I will be able to do and learn in college that I never could at home (due to lack of resources, parental consent, etc.) And keep in mind, I’m doing all this to LEARN, not to slack off from classwork. Yes, there are teenagers out there who would like to learn more about classic books, movies, music, and comedy. To be a cultured man.</p>

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<p>I think you should go visit a college library. ;)</p>

<p>I’m at a large state university, so our library isn’t as nice as most Ivy League libraries. Still: you can check out most books, and they have some VERY obscure stuff. The only things you usually can’t check out are reference books and things in special collections (very rare or old books usually). We have lots of movies of all types. Less of the newer crap – I mean, stuff. More “Citizen Kane” material (my favorite). I haven’t looked for any CDs, but I’m sure we have them somewhere. At our library, anything that isn’t available will be searched in other databases (local libraries and other university libraries that share materials with us) and can arrive within a week or two.</p>

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<p>My college library has movies on VHS and DVD, but not much in terms of music CDs.</p>

<p>If your library doesn’t have a book you want, you can request it via interlibrary loan.</p>