Of Northeastern’s four university libraries, Snell is the largest and most heavily utilized by students. It was built in 1990 and was designed by a Cambridge-based firm, The Architect’s Collaborative. It is named after George Snell, an alumnus of 1941, and his wife Lorraine Snell.

According to NU’s library website, Snell has over one million visitors every year. The library has four floors. The first floor features common areas and study rooms, as well as printers, computers and the reference desk. Argo Tea can also be found on the first floor. The second floor is home to the Digital Media Commons, or DMC, where students can meet in study rooms or use the computers and study spaces available throughout. There are also printers and a help desk located on this floor. The third floor houses several thousand of the library’s more than 500,000 printed volumes and is the floor for quiet study. The fourth floor is silent study, where students can work free of the distractions of others. Tables, desks and several thousand more of the library’s volumes can be found on the fourth floor.

Apart from the primary library space, classrooms are also housed in Snell. Doors adjacent to the library’s main entrance can be found leading downstairs to several classrooms. The most recent renovations to the library added a side door to several more separate classrooms. The side door can be found when approaching the building from Centennial Commons.

Photo courtesy Chris Tengi, Creative Commons.