ABSTRACT
Oftentimes, a staff member encounters a student in the stacks of Pattee Library who, with a panicked look states he/she can’t find the way out. The overwhelming complexity of a huge university library can be daunting to an undergraduate student. The Penn State Pattee Library and Paterno Library complex is comprised of the Pattee, West Pattee and Paterno interconnected buildings occupying more than thirty linear miles of collections. Paterno Library is the newer section with spacious stacks areas, whereas Pattee Library has older, smaller areas and compresses seven levels of stacks into three stories with dim lighting and narrow passages. Creating successful approaches for staff to introduce incoming students to the Libraries’ extensive layout can be a challenge.
