After students launched countless petitions, demanding for the Queen Elizabeth II Library to reopen, it is finally opening its doors to MUN students who are desperately in need of a quiet place to study. Of course, much like everything else since COVID-19 took over our lives, it looks a bit different.
Instead of showing up and sitting anywhere you please, you must book a time before venturing to the library. Bookings are for three hours, and masks are required until you are settled at your assigned study corral. A security guard will meet you in the lobby, where you are required to present a piece of ID (ensuring you are a student of MUN) and tell them what corral your booking was made for.
There are 75 corrals to choose from, and what was once the Commons is now filled with corrals and caution tape to ensure social distancing between students. The reading rooms are no longer in use and are suspected not to be for quite some time due to the cleaning and sanitising demands of the study corrals, alone.
Many students (including myself) expected that the university would open up the single study rooms. It was made clear that – much like the reading rooms – it was not possible due to the difficulty of sanitisation.
The same setup is to be expected for the Health Sciences library, as well as the Education library.