Hello everyone! After a little pause I’m glad to be back and
share Utrecht experiences with you. Let’s say that my absence is justified
because of the start of the fourth period of study here in UU, which for LLM
students equals to writing their thesis. Therefore, not only me, but every
other LLM student in any other discipline is now dedicating almost all of their
time to such an important writing, with which one is expected to contribute to
the academia and make a significant step forward in the debate that is
discussed within the thesis itself. At first it might sound a huge
entrepreneurship and maybe a little scary, but when you start your LLM studies
you will definitely be surprised on how much you can learn and advance your
skills in a small amount of time.
This brings me to the core message of this blog post. “Every
top university has its own top library” and this is definitely what the Utrecht University Library is. I could not imagine writing, not only my thesis, but any
paper that was required during my studies without the library’s resources and
help. With two big and beautiful buildings, one located in the city centre and
the other at the Uithof, the Utrecht University Library is always close to the
students for any material that they might need.
I remember that one of the main pieces of advice that our
professors used to give before the start of the thesis period was: use the
collection of the library; it is indeed quite big, rich and it is going to be
indispensable for finding the right materials to complete your research. And I
cannot stress that enough. As of my own experience, I needed quite some amount
of different books to buid up my research and almost all of them were available
on the shelves. But don’t worry, if you cannot find a book in the shelf, check
twice on the online catalogue and see if somebody else is using it. In this
case, you can simply put an online request within the system, and the library
staff will inform you when the book will be available for pick-up (you can also
choose a favourable date!).
For sure that books are an important part of the University’s
library, but its collection, especially for law students, becomes even more
accessible when it includes a list of the most prominent journals (online or
not), where you can find sometimes “life-saving” articles for your research. In
that regard, also the “UBU-link” helps quite a lot. For the ones that aren’t
familiar with the term, this is simply a tool that helps the students to find the
full text of their online material, provided that the library is a subscriber
to that website/journal that you are looking into (and trust me, most of the
time it is).
However, the collection of such a vast number of materials
is not the sole feature of the Utrecht University Library. Say, if you have
troubles at concentrating at home, or if your roommates are being louder than
usual, the library has plenty of study spots reserved for students. Circled by
books, in a quiet environment and with a great lightning system, the library is
definitely my favourite place to study. It is true that the building in the
city centre can be quite busy sometimes, especially when its exam week, but you
can always try going to the Uithof: the building is much bigger and it’s
practically guaranteed that you will find a similar quiet and nice place to
study.
To conclude, as a UU student, academically you will always
have the support you need. The library offers a ton of choices and you simply
need to be aware of them. Check as well with the service desks, the staff is super
nice!
