Archived

Reading Room: People’s Library

This archive of community-sourced titles is growing in response to the question:

What book is helping you understand the world right now?

The collection of books in our Reading Room showcase individual passions and speak to the power of collective knowledge-sharing. Together, we are building an archive and creating an evolving portrait of WCMA’s public.

We invite you to join People’s Library by visiting the Reading Room or a local pop-up event. Submit your book title; we will purchase it, make a name plate in your honor, and add it to the shelf.

Logo design by Zoe Design Works

Join the Library

Visit WCMA’s Reading Room to sign up in person, or stop by one of our pop-up events to take part.

The Reading Room

In 1889, benefactor Eliza Field envisioned “a literary resort for students” in Lawrence Hall. She wished “to give a more homelike aspect” to the college library, now WCMA’s Rotunda. Two small reading room additions opened in 1890. Today, WCMA’s Reading Room reinvigorates its legacy as a site of social learning and a center for public intellectual life. It is a cozy, intimate space to linger and study, a gathering spot for meetings, and home to collaborative programs, projects, and conversations.

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