From exams to endless rows of books in the IWO
For many students, the abbreviation IWO will not evoke the best associations as they take their exams there this week. But what else is there to see and do in the IWO, home of the Institute for Scientific Research? Miles and miles of dusty books! And are there really corpses there? Part one of a two-part series on IWO.
Anyone trying to find the IWO examination rooms for the first time from the Holendrecht train station in Amsterdam Zuidoost will probably be confused: the rooms are hidden behind the large Amsterdam UMC, between trees, behind a huge parking lot, and next to a location of the University Sports Center. Almost unfindable, therefore, if you are not actively looking for it. Those who find the exam rooms after a good 10-minute walk are probably not happy either. Or at least, many students aren't. Because for them, the IWO means taking exams.
Stars
The IWO, which in addition to being an examination location is also the book depository of UvA and HvA, received only 1.9 stars (out of five) on Google Maps from visitors. Why they don't like the building is widely described in the reviews. Here is a sampling: "Probably failed my test, on top of that, an ugly building," and "Only crying students in the hallways," to "Probably the ugliest thing in Amsterdam (which says a lot)." In short, visitors, mostly students, do not keep their opinions about the building to themselves.
Book lovers
But not everyone is negative about the IWO, especially book lovers. The book depository houses millions of books, journals, objects, collections, and archives. The special collection even contains materials so old that they are not allowed to leave the building. Every day, shuttle buses travel between the Southeast location and the center, bringing books back and forth to UvA and HvA locations elsewhere in the city, where borrowers can pick up the requested books.
Corpses?
Why does the elevator only stop on the fourth floor? How can it be so deathly cold in the IWO? Where does that crazy smell come from? These questions contribute to the myth out there that there are supposedly thousands of corpses under the IWO, waiting to be autopsied, examined, or donated. Some years back, Folia investigated the myth of corpses, but little of it turned out to be true. https://www.folia.nl/actueel/127107/uva-geheimen-liggen-er-echt-lijken-in-het-iwo. By the way, there are several tenants and users of the property. But if there are no corpses, what is there in the spaces that everyone finds so suspicious?
Animal testing
The IWO is a UvA location used for animal testing, on the first floor of the building. Not by IWO itself, but by Amsterdam UMC. A total of 6,980 mice, 429 rats, 35 rabbits, 8 pigs and 20 _____? were present in the entire UMC in 2020, according to the 2020 annual report of the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority.
Some of these are located in the IWO, but exactly which animals and numbers are involved cannot be determined. In any case, human bodies are not there.
