We know that school can be stressful. The library can’t take the stress away, but we can help make your experience at UMMS better by providing opportunities to relax and connect with your peers. In response to student feedback, the Lamar Soutter Library is growing our collection of activities to unwind:

• Finn, a therapy dog, visits the library every other Wednesday during the academic year. Stop in, “Fur-get the Stress,” and make your day Finn-tastic!
• There is always a community puzzle going, so grab a friend and take a quick break at the puzzle table.
• A current popular relaxation activity is coloring, and the library has a coloring station next to the community puzzle. This station has a collection of coloring pages (some snarky!), colored pencils, crayons, and markers.
• In the library’s “living room”, we have a collection of board games that can be played at anytime.
• The scenery changes in the library every few weeks with our visiting artist series. Local artists from the UMMS community exhibit their creative works turning the library space into an art gallery.
• Being a library, we also have a great collection of recreational reads ranging from graphic medicine to plague fiction to popular paperbacks. If you have some fiction or non-fiction books you want to get rid of, bring them to the library - we’ll put them in the Soutter Swap!
• The library also has new exhibit cases and we will be researching biomedical, nursing, and humanities in medicine or history of medicine collections to place on display. If you are looking to explore other Worcester museums, check out passes for free or reduced admission to local museums.

If you have other suggestions to help you de-stress while in school, let us know! We look forward to expanding our collection of activities to help you unwind, relax, and rejuvenate!

These activities have been supported through the Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant # RE-95-17-0068-17, in the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program.