Blog Post 1: Hamilton Library

Although this is my second year at UH, I have never been past the first floor of Hamilton, so going up the elevator to the upper floors was a new experience for me. I didn't realize Hamilton was tall enough to have a fifth floor or that the library here has a Hawaiian Pacific collection room. I only ever go to the library to do research on my computer, so it is easy to forget that the library has other resources.
Once I got to the fifth floor, I could tell this was a place not usually visited by students. It didn't have tables scattered everywhere filled with people on their computers. There was nobody in the hallway, and when I got to the room there was only one person in the Hawaiian Pacific Collection room. I could immediately tell the atmosphere in this room was completely different from the rest of the library.  It seemed especially quiet, and there rules were more strict. Downstairs, I can usually sneak food in and talk loudly. But in this room,  as soon as I walked in I was stopped by a worker who told me to leave my bag and my water bottle with him. I think he was especially concerned about my water bottle. I remember that in The Allure of The Archives there was a section where the author talked about what bad weather can do to the archives, and I can only imagine what would have happened if I had spilt water over anything in that room. There was one man in the room; he was on his computer with some documents scattered around him. I could tell he was more focused than the students on the first floor; he didn't have any earphones in his ears, have his phone out or have his friends around to distract him. He was giving all of his attention to the files in front of him, although I couldn't see exactly what they were. I wondered how long he had been there and how many more hours he had to go. I don't think he was a student, as I don't really know any students who would use anything but their computer to do research. He was older too, about middle-aged, so maybe he was a professor doing research.
Since there was only one person in the room, I didn't stay for too long. It was interesting to watch the researcher though. I had a lot of unanswered question, such what was he researching, why was he researching, what stage of his research was he in? Going back down and walking through the first floor I could tell the difference again between the students on the first floor and him. They definitely were not researching, at least not like he was. They didn't appear as focused or dedicated. I probably won't ever go back to that room in Hamilton again, but I'm sure that man will be back in there many more times.