There is a room in Sidney-Pacific hidden in plain view. Though few are aware of its existence, those in the know find it immensely useful for everything from salsa dancing to martial arts to music practice to simply quiet introspection. There is no concealed door or secret password, and it is conspicuously marked on the SP floor plan; in fact, you’ve probably walked past it way more than three times on the way to check your mailbox.
For years, the Michael Kobina Owu Room (named for the manager of the construction of Sidney-Pacific) has duteously served the needs of Sidney-Pacific residents. But until recently, it resembled the Hogwarts Room of Requirement in more than just its obscurity. For years, SP residents have been depositing their unwanted paperbacks and textbooks in the room originally designated as a library, creating a dizzying array of clutter that has grown exponentially with disuse and neglect. With books strewn haphazardly across the shelves and stacked in teetering towers, browsing for a casual beach read or a quals-prep textbook can be a task more daunting than, well, digging for a mysterious diadem in a heaping mound of relics and junk.
Volunteers sort through novels piled on the “Fiction Couch.” On the right is the accompanying “Textbook Couch.” (L-R: Chelsea He, Annie Gai, Isaac Oderberg) (Courtesy of Roland Tang)
Yvonne Yamanaka sorts the non-fiction books into different categories. (Courtesy of Roland Tang)
Recognizing the potential to transform a packrat’s haven into a bibliophile’s paradise, Associate Housemaster Roland Tang led a group of intrepid volunteers on a mission to create order from chaos. On Sunday, August 7, seven volunteers worked diligently for two hours, pulling every single book off the shelves, wiping away years of dust and grime, and sorting the volumes into categories such as Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Romance, Classics, Historical Nonfiction, Foreign Language, and Textbooks. If we assume that the books in the Owu Room reveal the reading preferences of SP residents past and present, some trends can be observed. Unsurprisingly, volumes on computer programming and economic policy dominate the textbook category, while selections are ripe among science fiction and thriller novels. Perhaps less expected, however, are the countless romance paperbacks, which make up the largest (by far) of the fiction categories. Once sorted, the next step was to reshelve the books into the appropriate locations. To avoid clutter, books that were obsolete or in poor condition were marked for recycling, and those that were deemed outdated or esoteric were packed away for donation. In total, four boxes of books were recycled, and an additional eight boxes were donated to charity.
Tatyana Shatova organizes the textbook shelf as Toddler Housemaster Samuel Tang looks on. (Courtesy of Roland Tang)
The book cleanup is just the first step in plans to revamp the Owu Room library. More improvements are on the way, including reading lamps, new signage, and reading recommendations. We encourage you to browse the collection at your leisure, or even add to it with your own books; all we ask is that you please help us keep it neat for the benefit of all SP residents. And we hope that on those shelves you will uncover your next great adventure, be it historical (see: The Iliad of Homer in Classics), geographical (see: Guide to the Jersey Shore in Travel), romantic (see: Dating Boot Camp: Conquering the Dating Obstacle Course in Self-Help), astronomical (see: 3001: The Final Odyssey in Sci-Fi/Fantasy), or gastronomical (see: The Joy of Cooking in Cooking). Happy reading!
By Chelsea He