I know, I know. If you’re coming straight out of high school, the last thing you want to do when you get to college is go to the library and check out a book. I get it. A high school library is not a fun place. There’s no eating, no talking, and the moment you make eye-contact with a librarian they start talking about “new search engines” or something. Unless your teacher forced you to go for one of your classes, you probably weren’t in the library at all in high school.

Well, now that you’re an art major in college, and the library is literally a few steps away from your dorm room, there are reasons why you should go to the library. And it’s not just because you can get a smoothie there, although that is a good reason too. It’s because you should go to the (you guessed it!) ARTS SECTION of the library and check out those artists and books. At this point, you are probably thinking, Come on, everything I would ever need to know about any artist is online, and I can see any of their works online too! Ok, that’s true. But what else is online? Probably some movie you want to watch, or a game you want to play. Distractions are online. So while you could easily see the same pictures online, you’re a lot more likely to hit the new tab button and start doing something else. All while that wonderful painting by de Kooning in that one tab out of twenty waits for you to either come back to it days later, or get accidentally deleted. Looking at artwork in a book, though, keeps you focused. And even though the pictures in the book can’t compare to seeing the piece in real life, it’s a whole lot better than looking at the piece online.

Who knows? Maybe after you go once, you’ll go back to the library for a second time…