To the library

You decide to start with the main building. So far all you've seen is part of the first floor, and according to your map the library is on the second floor. It seems like as good a place as any to start, and while you aren't a dedicated reader, it might be a good idea to take a look at some history or geography books to enhance your imitation of a teacher.

You bypass the classrooms on the first floor and head up the impressive central staircase to the second floor. A massive set of double doors at one end of the second floor landing stand open, showing the library within. Stairs continue up to another floor, and a hallway extends in the other direction.

Stepping through the open doors you can see the library dominates this level with books shelved well above you on every wall and polished tables in the centre of the room. A railing circles above the open floor where you are standing and you see more stacks on the floor above you. Above that floor you can see the thick beams and rafters that hold up the slate roof like the inside of a cathedral. Furthering the impression of a religious facility are the beams of light that stream in from the tall windows on both sides of the great room and the dormers far above.

You nod your head, impressed in spite of yourself, wandering in silence over the thick burgundy carpets and trailing your fingers along the heavy wooden tables and plush chairs. Sturdy wooden ladders built into tracks on the floor slide easily along the walls allowing even the shortest of students to reach the shelves above your reach. Through doors on either end of the sixty foot room you see nooks and rows of computers, but the this main section could have looked like this over one-hundred and fifty years ago when it was first built.

You're not really familiar with how libraries work, and you wander along the shelves looking for history books but have no luck. You're about to give up when you hear a muffled clatter followed by a sharp cry of dismay coming from the second level of the library.

Curious, you rapidly climb one of the spiral staircases to the upper level. You can now hear annoyed muttering and the sounds objects being shuffled around coming from one of the corridors of books on this level. Following your ears, you quickly find the source of the noise.