Library Helps Students Relax During "Crunch Time"

Annarely Rodriguez, Staff Writer

Issue date: 4/14/09 Section: Current Affairs

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Students were able to receive a massage during "Crunch Time."

One student takes advantage of the free tutoring services that were offered during "Crunch Time."

From April 6 through April 8, the Refernce Deparment of the Alvin Sherman Library offered services to help the NSU community relax while preparing for final exams.

There was a "Zen Zone," where students received free services such as yoga, guided meditation and massages. Other services included tutoring, reference help, resume help and a gaming room.

"I had very interesting appointments today," said Natalie Candela, coordinator of off-campus tutoring. "Since the event was open to the public, I had an eighth grader come in and we looked at his essay. It was interesting because he was writing at a college level. Then, I helped graduate and undergraduate students also, so it was a whole spectrum of students."

The purpose of the event was to alert students to the current services offered by the library, while also offering new, innovative services to help students relax.

"We looked at our reference statistics for the past couple of years and saw that a couple of weeks before finals our statistics spiked," said Lori Albrizio, a reference and instructional librarian, who also coordinated the event with the help of the department committee. "It is an outreach with the intention of helping students where they need it, when they need it."

The idea for the event came from one of the reference librarians, Monica Haddad, who attended the University of Texas in Austin.

"We checked online and contacted them," said Haddad. "Their event mostly promotes the library's services. We changed it a little. We added the wellness part of it, the 'Zen Zone,' yoga, massages, meditation [and] snacks."

Not many students used the "Crunch Time" services on the first day they were offered, but attendance picked up on the second and third days when students requested all of the services.

On Tuesday, however, the meditation instructor could not make it to his session. "I usually come everyday to study but I wanted to try the meditation and find out where I can go to practice it on a regular basis," said Laura De Peña who works as a dental assistant in the College of Dental Medicine. "I tried to do it alone but it is not the same, like when you have someone personally helping you."

The most popular service of the event was the massage session. Molly McLane, a third-year-law student commented on her massage saying, "It was great. This is the first time I used the school services, because I'm going to start studying for exams and I'm going to be very stressed out."

"I think it is a good way to de-stress, since we have final exams and the Bar coming up. I feel ready to get back to grinding now," said Michelle Javid, a third year law student.

This was the first semester the library offered these services, but the coordinators are hoping to make it a semi-annual event.

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