Everybody needs a place to call home; a place to be proud of, a place to belong. Without such a place, we would be walking around like stray dogs, whimpering with our tails between our legs. Instead, we find a home at “Club Rayn,” a magical place that gives us a home-away-from-home feeling and an encouraging pat on the back.

Club Rayn, short for Marquette’s Raynor Library, is a nickname originally coined to make the person studying sound cooler, as if they were going out to a hot new nightclub. As I dug deeper, however, I realized that Club Rayn is more of a fan club of sorts, and a place to call home. As a Harry Potter fan, Club Rayn reminds me of Hogwart’s Room of Requirement: a room that will do or hold whatever you want, whenever you want it.

As long as there are college students, there will be libraries. We depend on them and love them like they are our best friends, because they are always there for us. It only seems appropriate that we adopt them and make them special. Robert French, a sophomore in the College of Health Sciences, says: “My absolute favorite spot used to be this really low, cushy chair on the first floor of Raynor, on the side facing Lalumiere. I changed spots once I developed the nasty habit of falling asleep in the chairs. They were really comfortable though—especially when you put two of them together.”

With 235 PCs, 24,000 e-journals, 3,200 print magazines and journals, 1.3 million books, the Brew, the Writing Center, wireless internet access, 24/7 reference assistance and more, Club Rayn, no doubt, wants you to succeed. Gina, a friendly and familiar alumni characterized by her green recyclable Walgreens bags, comes to the library almost every day to check “click to give” sites. “Free access to things like this- I just don’t know what people would do if they didn’t have free information. You would be locked into where you are,” she says.

Suzy Weisman, librarian since 1994, sees the culture from a birds-eye view. “When you go upstairs you see students studying, some sleeping, others studying in groups or hanging out on the Bridge.”

The culture — Gina, the librarians, the night owls, you — this is what makes Club Rayn. It is the bright warm light that smiles at us and says, “You can do this. You can get through college. You will dominate this paper.” Now, who doesn’t need that every once in a while?

*Gina wanted to be anonymous at the beginning of the interview, but then decided we could use her first name. She graduated in 1980.