On a recent Tuesday, Demi Moore shared a corner of McGoogan Library with NPR darling Sarah Vowell and journalist Jessica Goudeau. Fredrik Backman looked down the row at Tom Clancy while an array of Anne Rice’s horror stories existed as a distant neighbor to multiple manga series.
These authors and their books represent just a fraction of the work contained in the library’s leisure reading collection. And your help with an ongoing survey can ensure that collection continues to widen and deepen.
The leisure reading collection is housed between chairs in a nook where stairs join Level 6 to Level 7. Initial conversations about building a collection of popular fiction and nonfiction titles began in 2023, Education and Research Services Librarian Jess King said.
Since its establishment, more than 180 books have been borrowed—none of which require an actual checkout, King said, the collection adopting a sort of honor system.
King and Special Collections Curator Darby Kurtz make up McGoogan’s wellness team, and this little Level 7 library is one of many comforts within the space that encourage students and staff to take a few minutes for themselves.
The collection began after librarians who run the AskUs desk, as well as other McGoogan staff, received word-of-mouth requests for leisure-reading options. The library’s underlying response boils down to this: go read something for fun, then come back to your studies with a mind that’s refreshed, King said.
A flyer containing a QR code is currently on the shelf beside the books; the code leads to a survey, where UNMC community members can say more about what they want to read. King and Kurtz want to fine-tune the collection to the needs of the UNMC community. Your input could mold your own reading habits—as well as those of your colleagues and peers.
Visit the leisure reading collection on Level 7 and take the survey here. Learn more about built-in creature comforts throughout McGoogan Library at the Wellness page on our website.