Students Help Shape Library Life Through Advisory Board W&L’s Library Student Advisory Board allows students to have a voice in the university library’s events and initiatives.

LSAB members created teapots with flowers made from card catalog files for displays during last year’s movie night event.

“The library is obviously a place for information, but it’s also a place for community.”

~ Tom Finnegan ’26

When Washington and Lee University librarians consider new initiatives, from rethinking study spaces to hosting film screenings, student input is a critical piece. Washington and Lee’s Library Student Advisory Board (LSAB) fulfills that role by providing collaborative feedback and partnering on programming throughout the academic year.

Founded in 2019, LSAB is a group of approximately 25 students who meet regularly with library staff to provide feedback on services, spaces and programming. The board serves as a formal channel for student perspectives, helping ensure the library reflects how students actually use it.

“At its core, LSAB is an advisory board that really tries to make sure library initiatives are successful,” said Lucas Kim ’27, an economics major with a minor in Latin American and Caribbean studies from Acworth, Georgia, and one of the board’s three co-chairs. “We’re able to give feedback directly to the librarians as students and actually make that change.”

Kim serves alongside Darby Burgett ’26, an environmental studies major with double minors in law, justice and society and poverty and human capability studies from Charlotte, North Carolina, and Tom Finnegan ’26, a double major in economics and environmental studies from Washington, New Jersey.

Many LSAB initiatives focus on improving the physical and social environment of the library. One recent project is the development of a sensory room designed to accommodate students with different sensory needs.

“It’s about making the library more inclusive,” Finnegan says. “Some lighting or noise levels can be disruptive for certain students, even if that’s not obvious. The idea is to make the library a space for everyone.”

Finnegan says the idea was influenced by his experience studying abroad in Ireland, where libraries have invested heavily in similar spaces. “The reasoning was that libraries are places anyone should be able to use,” he said, “so you should try to cater to a diversity of needs.”

LSAB has also been involved in developing the library’s Game Zone, helping fund board games, new seating and other amenities.

“We were inspired by other libraries,” Finnegan says. “For example, the Nashville Public Library has a board game lending section. We wanted to bring some of those ideas here.”

Around finals week, the board shifts its focus to stress relief. LSAB members host study breaks with snacks and run a “positivity station” where students leave encouraging messages for one another. LSAB also collaborates with other student organizations, including Chess Club and Quiz Bowl, using the library as a shared space for events and competitions.

“It’s about connecting people with different interests in one place,” says associate professor and research and instruction librarian for the humanities Emily Cook, who advises the group. “That’s part of what libraries are meant to do.”

That approach was especially visible during last year’s film screening of the 2005 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” hosted by LSAB during finals week. LSAB members created decorations for the event, including paper roses made from old library catalog cards, and offered refreshments for movie-goers.

“People were quoting the movie along with the characters,” Cook says. “It became a real community moment.”

This spring, LSAB is planning a “Little Women” film screening as part of the library’s 250th anniversary celebrations. The event, on which the board is partnering with Quiz Bowl, will include interactive trivia elements and refreshments to mark the milestone. For LSAB members, events like these underscore the board’s broader purpose.

“The library is obviously a place for information,” Finnegan says, “but it’s also a place for community.”

Students enjoying refreshments before an LSAB movie screening.