Moffett Library staff gave tours of the building on Wednesday Jan. 24 and Thursday Jan. 25 to show people the features of the building and some of the collections the library has to offer.

Clara Latham, university librarian, said she thinks it is important to have these tours and is glad the library can give them to people.

Latham said, “We know that there are always students who have never been in the library, and we don’t want them to walk around and not find what they are looking for or feel intimidatted because it is kind of a confusing building.”

These tours are given four times a school year. The library staff gives two tours early in the fall semester and two more earlier in the spring semester. These tours were open for new or returning students unfamiliar with the building, new faculty members or anyone in the public that happened to see the fliers for the tours.

“We know we have three floors for half of the building and only two floors for the other half, so we like to have the librarian walk around and explain each of the departments, what the department’s function is and how you can use different areas like the media department,” said Latham.

Ryan Samuelson, government publications and literacy librarian, was the one who gave the tours and said one of his favorite parts about the library is the special collection the building holds.

“The special collection really is special, and I like working here because we are a small library, so we wear many different hats. We never get bored here. Here, we all do different jobs and different things, and that is something you cannot do if you work at a big library,” Samuelson said.

One of the main things that both Samuelson and Latham were looking forward for people to see was the special collection.

Samuelson said, “That always seems to make peoples’ eyes light up when we go to special collections.”

Samuelson said people are often surprised that the library shows movies sometimes and even has a department where students can take movies home to watch then bring back. He said different people react to different things that were shown on tours.

Latham said the reference department, that holds collections of reference books, was one of the other main points shown during the tours along with the periodical department.

One thing that Latham and Samuelson said is intriguing about these tours is there are some days when only two people showed up, and there are times when 20 people can show up. They both said they have enjoyed giving tours of the building, and they are hoping that they can give tours of the library once the new and upcoming renovations will be done to people so they will be able to see all the improvements done on the building.