I am afraid of a lot of things.

Going to the dentist has always been a terribly frightening experience for me. Despite numerous doses of nitrous oxide, I still feel a nauseating sickness every time I walk through the doors of the dental office. It has this gloomy aura about it that is almost….intimidating?

Maybe that’s the best word to describe it (and since it’s the only word I can think of right now, it better be). There are many places that can bring the strongest men or women to their knees, begging for mercy. I experienced one of these places here on the campus of Iowa State University.

The library.

This place is much scarier than any dental office in the country. And there’s no nitrous oxide either. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever find the courage to set foot in there again.

I managed to avoid going into the library for the first couple of months of my tenure here. The library building is larger than our local hospital in my hometown. I know I would never be able to find the latest Sports Illustrated there, so I never bothered to try.

Unfortunately, I had to do a library research assignment for one of my classes. There was no getting around it, I had to set foot in the library, and actually find some information.

With dreadful thoughts flowing through my head, I stepped into the library. Instantly I noticed something about the acoustics of the place. As most libraries are, it was rather quiet. But calling it silent would be a stretch. There were all of these voices, echoing around in the back of my mind.

I pressed on. I walked through the lobby, wondering where I was supposed to find tobacco advertising facts and figures. I hadn’t a clue, so I went to the information booth. It was empty, but I did find one of those convenient maps that tell which call letters are located where. It was a start.

I then walked over to one of the many monitors in this area. I managed to figure out the challenging program of Scholar, and got the call letters for the books I would need. So far, so good.

I checked my map, and saw that I needed to go to Tier 6 to acquire the necessary information. I began the long walk up the staircase. It was scary, especially when I started thinking how much information our library must have if it needs all of these tiers. I began to imagine all of the power somebody could have with all of this information. Wow.

I reached Tier 6, completely exhausted from my long climb. I went to the respective shelves where my information was supposed to be. They were gone. Not available. And it wasn’t just one of the books that was missing. Every single one I needed was gone.

I began to panic. I thought I was about to explode, when a hand fell on my shoulder. I turned to face the owner of this hand, and saw the calmest person on the face of the earth. “Is there a problem?” he asked.

I explained my problem, and he smiled. “Haven’t taken LIB 160 yet, huh?” he said. I was puzzled. He continued to say, “You see, certain books are invisible to people that don’t have LIB 160 under their belt. And I suppose you’re hearing the voices, right?”

I ran out of the library, the clicking noise of the theft detecting device drowning out the last of the haunting voices.

I thought about what the young man had said to me. LIB 160? The class that is worth half a credit? What good is that? According to my five-year plan, I wasn’t going to take LIB 160 until my final semester. And according to credible sources, this is the plan of many students here.

However, the university has now made LIB 160 a pre-requisite to ENG 105, a freshman-level English class. Actually, it must be taken before or with ENG 105. This is a wise move on the part of the university. Many people are ignorant to the many resources the library has to offer (myself included), due to the intimidation factor that I touched on earlier.

Also, if the class is required for graduation, it should actually matter. Since I’m taking it in my final semester, it is going to be rather pointless. With this move, LIB 160 will become a very relevant course to the education of the students at ISU.

So three cheers for ISU, we’ve solved another problem concerning the academics of our students. Now if I can get my science credits straightened out. Here at ISU, they consider physical geography, a course I took at UNI about rocks and weather, to be a social science. I guess the hardness of slate can be considered social. Demented and sad, but social (total Breakfast Club ripoff there). I will do everything I can to make the university realize this is a physical science.

Well, I’d love to stay and chat, but I have to go. A parking soldier is having my car towed as I speak.

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Christopher Clair is a senior in journalism mass communication from Waukon.