On any given day, students drift through the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library (OWHL), whether in the morning with coffee cups in hand, clustering around the tables for group projects in the afternoon, or settling into the Garver Room (Silent) at night. Over the years, the OWHL has become a space woven into students’ daily lives at Andover.
The OWHL has evolved alongside broader changes in how students study and socialize. Camille Torres Hoven, Director of the OWHL, explained that this shift reflects a reimagining of the library’s role on campus.
“Over the years, the OWHL has become much more of a student-centered space. Long before my time, librarians were stationed on floors and in Garver to monitor students and control noise. Today, we allow some of those spaces to be louder—not because we aren’t an academic space, but because the library is now more inclusive of clubs, games, and community activity. It no longer requires constant monitoring to ensure that only traditional academic work is happening,” wrote Torres Hoven in an email to The Phillipian.
A photo of students studying in Silent, sourced from the OWHL archives.
Students continue to use Garver Room to study during their free time.
This evolution is especially apparent to alumni who experienced earlier cultures and configurations of the library. Heidi Wall ’94, Instructor in Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, reflected on how the OWHL functioned during her time as a student and how technological changes have reshaped the space.
“I studied in the library but it was also a place I could go where I knew I would see my friends… If I needed to get work done, I would go to Silent and sometimes the stacks. Both downstairs and upstairs tended to be pretty social. There was also a computer center in the basement of the library, so I would go there to work on papers… The addition of the Makerspace has been a huge change and the evolution of technology over the years has changed a lot of things. Many books have been removed (stacks) and we don’t need a computer lab anymore!” wrote Wall in an email to The Phillipian.
Beyond study and socialization, the OWHL’s archives also provide a gateway to Andover’s institutional memory. For Mayen Etuk ’26, after an early encounter with the archives left a lasting impression, the OWHL became an indispensable resource for her historical research.
“When I was little, and I came to the school for the first time, I mistakenly ventured to the top floor. I was like, ‘What is this? Why does it say archives? Why does this exist?’ And then it made me realize that not only is the library a hub for the future and the present, [it is] also a hub for the past,” said Etuk.
She continued, “I was looking to do a project on Andover’s history with South African apartheid, and whether there are people available. So I emailed the archivist, asking and inquiring as to what resources were already available within the archives, and she sent me a few documents. The archives have a policy where they only release certain things 30 years after [their publication]. A lot of the documents I was requesting luckily enough had just been released. I was able to get access to a few documents. It was pretty cool to peer into Andover before.”
Many current students use the OWHL to both study and spend time with friends. Camden Schopler ’27 described how she moves between those activities.
“I’m always studying or socializing. I go there to study, but then I’ll also go there to play cards with my friends or hang out and talk. I like that students can just go to the OWHL to socialize if they’re not in Silent rather than being forced to study or read. It makes the OWHL a more lively spot on campus,” said Schopler.
Torres Hoven noted that this balance is central to the OWHL’s culture, describing it as an informal space where students can be themselves without fear of judgment.
“At the OWHL, students don’t have to worry about being graded for their behavior. It’s a space where you can work, study, laugh, have fun, goof off a bit, and still be productive—and, most importantly, a place where you can just be yourself,” said Torres Hoven.
