UNL students, faculty scream out stress for library event

Lincoln drivers may have heard screaming Friday coming from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus — but don’t worry, it was just students getting some stress out.

The UNL Libraries hosted a primal scream event to help students relieve some academic stress as the end of the semester nears. It was part of a year-long celebration for the libraries as they celebrate five anniversaries, including Love Library South recognizing 80 years and Love Library North recognizing 50 years.

Joan Barnes, communications librarian, said before the primal scream that students could enjoy reading some books, eating food and playing games as part of LoveFest on the Lawn. The library also had a ping pong table for the week to recognize the building’s life as housing for the Army Cadet Corps before it was a library — there’s archive pictures of them playing ping pong — and the staff also held a discussion on artificial intelligence.

“It's always a little bit about the past, about how we're serving the university right now, and what we can do for the future to continue to support the researchers and students on campus,” Barnes said.

The scream was the last event to cap off the year-long celebration with the goal of helping students, faculty and staff let out some stress.

“It's not typical of a library to have screaming,” Barnes said. “We're usually thought of as a quiet place where people are studying and contemplating. We thought this was against brand, but it was a good way to be against the brand.”

Halima Moore, who’s working on a master’s degree in architecture, said she was glad to share in the screaming.

“I wouldn't say I feel lighter, but I do feel relieved,” Moore said. “I'm glad a lot of people needed to scream because I've been screaming since eight in the morning, and it was good to make sure the community felt that.”

Elizabeth Pernicek, another architecture master’s student, said final presentations for her program are two weeks out, and she needed to release some stress.

“I didn't realize I needed to release some stress,” Pernicek said. “That wasn't just like going on a walk or something. Sometimes you just need to scream it out.”

It was a loud and cathartic event for those who took the time to scream out.

“Go Big Red,” Pernicek said. “Scream it out if you need to.”