On September 17, 2025, Lawrence Reviewed was invited to host a pop-up event at Anschutz Library. Explore reviews of KU Libraries in the gallery below.

Featured Review by Wendy Conover

Each day I walk into Watson Library, I try to take different routes to my destination, which is a little desk where, as communications coordinator, I spend a lot of time telling KU Libraries’ stories. Some days I wander through the stacks and find staircases I didn’t know existed. Other days I walk past the front desk or cruise by the mailroom where colleagues offer their greetings, a snack, or speculations on the Kansas weather. I might pass sunny sunflowers, whistling leaves, a blanket of snow, or swaying tulips on my way up the marble steps, but in any season, there is a constant flow of coming and going through the doors, as if Watson Library is breathing. Like any living thing, dear Watson has her bumps and burdens. She groans a little, systems straining, and can require immediate intervention when some of her well-worn workings give out or break down. But at 101 years she is grand, her veins thrumming with life and determined footsteps and the murmur of knowledge taking shape, her bright eyes looking out over Jayhawk Boulevard. She sits up on the Hill, the central nervous system of a remarkable multi-branch library organism, generations in the making and full of dedicated, perceptive, responsive people. I think my favorite part of KU Libraries is the sharing; the coming together to understand something old or create something new, with a desire to compel us ever forward, together. Ultimately a library is made up of its people, dedicated to learning, keepers and contributors to collective human knowledge. These are people who want to fill gaps, to understand what may have been left out. People who are building something for today and for all those who will come after us. People who are constantly adjusting to what comes next. People looking for new pathways.

For all that they are, and all that they strive to be, I give KU Libraries 4 stars. May the fifth, yet to be fulfilled star sit like space on the shelf, open and full of promise, a place for the new discoveries we will make, and new points of view, yet to be heard.

 

Wendy Conover is the KU Libraries Communications Coordinator through the Office of Communications and Advancement.


I give KU Libraries...

Prompt: How would you review KU Libraries? Share a personal connection, story, or experience with KU Libraries.

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