The second floor of Sacramento State’s University Union is home to a small sanctuary.

“Music Listening Lounge” provides a library of CDs, magazines and games for student use free of charge.

Music posters and CD art cover the walls of the small listening booths. Up to six people may use the rooms, outfitted with comfy beanbags and chairs for the duration of one CD at students’ choice of volume.

Students hand over their One Card, pick a CD from a binder, the workers pop it in the player and the booth is theirs to use for anything except eating, drinking or smoking.

“People like to come here to sleep, do homework or chill,” said Bianca Cervantes, a student employee of music listening lounge.

Cervantes said, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. are the busiest times for the lounge, and students often have to wait for a booth to free up. The Music Listening Lounge’s policy is to let the CD play from beginning to end, but on slower times the friendly staff does not mind skipping tracks for listeners.

Senior Anna Taylor uses the lounge to preview before she buys.

“I saved money on CDs that I would have regretted buying by listening here first,” Taylor said. “Sometimes you might find something you normally would not have thought of listening to. I bought a Lil’ Kim CD after hearing it here.”

Music Listening opened its doors in 1990 and has since been committed to updating its extensive collection of CDs, adding 40 new releases every semester. The current collection includes hundreds of choices ranging from newcomers Ying Yang Twins to classic Frank Sinatra.

The discs are cataloged by genre and listed in a binder for easy selection. Available genres include country, alternative rock and even comedy.

Music listening also provides an impressive offering of board games and magazines available for check out to students with a valid One Card. The magazines and games are allowed out of the room and students can keep them as long as they are willing to leave their One Card. Some titles available are Vibe, Men’s Health, Vogue and Rolling Stone.

According to Union policies, magazine subscriptions are updated every year with consideration given to publications that were most popular the previous school year.

Board game selection is a selection of chess and checkers, Monopoly, Jenga and even the old school classic, twister.

Music Listening Lounge is located on the second floor of the Union, open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Friday and is closed on Saturday and Sunday.