Butler Library

Most inane security guards I have ever had the misfortune to encounter.
Told me I «couldn’t bring food into the library» but at the same time, was allowed to bring in certain foods.
Unbelievably idiotic and rude.

Gets the job done with class. I enjoy studying here, but there are times I wonder why I’m sitting in a corner with yellow/​sleepy lighting of an old museum like building to «study». Long term studying wise, I still prefer Starbucks, but if you are group studying with friends, this is cute and creates memories: D Happy studying!

The Columbia Butler Library is massive. I am not a Columbia student but I was tagging along with my wife for a study session one day and got to hang out inside. Unlike other libraries most of the book stacks are hidden away from the main rooms where it’s mostly study space and computer space. The archives are the not on the main floors, they are beneath and above, 8 floors of them. As you walk past the shelves the lights turn on for you, you get the feeling that few people ever see certain sections and you can look up on the computers the call number and go on a hunt through the massive archive. And that’s just one of Columbia’s libraries. Coming from a state school background and being a huge lover of books, I am overwhelmed. Damn, this is pretty cool.

It’s beautiful. It’s huge. And if you get tired of studying, you can switch to a different floor, find a different reading room and feel like you’re in a completely different library. I don’t know about anyone else, but I really need that type of change in scenery.

Butler Library, the main library of Columbia University, is a grand, old mausoleum of a building where I do most of my studying. The impressive edifice, featured in Ghostbusters, is etched with the names of famous white, male writers and scientists, the Greeks and Romans most prominent among them. This always makes for a dramatic view when approaching the building. You need a Columbia ID to get in or an ID from an affiliated institution, which grants you access on a renewable basis. You can also buy access, since this is a private, Ivy League institution where prestige is very much for sale.
In the summer, Butler is a quiet respite from the crowds and heat of Manhattan, though I find they crank the a/​c up way too much. Likewise for the winter heating. During the school year, the study rooms are often crowded, so arrive early to guarantee yourself a spot (especially if you want power for your laptop, as outlets are limited). I prefer the Moral & Political Theory Reading Room on the fifth floor, but the fourth floor periodicals room, Milstein Library reading rooms, and the cool reference room mezzanine levels (more private) are all part of my rotation. I have to move around, because I would otherwise go insane in here (see also the website Bored at Butler).
The staff at Butler is unwaveringly helpful, and the library offers a number of useful services. A particularly useful service is the Electronic Text Service on the third floor, where you can, for example, scan things to PDF for personal use. On the sixth floor is an excellent rare books department. There is wireless Internet throughout the library, though you may have trouble getting a signal in some places (and not at all in the stacks, which can come in handy when you need to stop updating your Facebook status and actually work). There are public computers on the third floor and scattered elsewhere around the library.
Butler has a social scene that I can’t comment on, because I’m not a Columbia student and don’t participate in it, but I have observed certain undergraduate gentlemen attempting to practice the arts of seduction on the carbon copy sorority blonds that roam the library in bevies. Around final exam time, the social scene becomes almost impossible to bear, with desperate students staying in the 24-​hour rooms all night – taking up valuable real estate – constantly chatting or texting, and leaving contraband foodstuffs all over the place, much to the delight, no doubt, of the invisible rodent population and much to the consternation of the library officials tasked with maintaining in as pristine a condition as possible the wealth of knowledge slowly rotting away in the stacks. Which all means, you can easily sneak food and beverages inside, since Ivy Leaguers do as they like, despite policies forbidding it. Actually, the anti-​food policy might have less to do with protecting the books and more with protecting the monopoly enjoyed by the Blue Java Café on the second (ground) floor, which sells quasi-​drinkable coffee for slightly more than the Blue Java branch located in the adjacent Alfred Lerner Hall. If you buy their branded flask, you receive a tiny discount. Since the guards could apparently give a s – t about anything, I usually bring Cliff Bars, trail mix, and my own red eyes from home. Nobody searches your bags on your way in or out, unlike those annoying guards at Firestone and Widener.
So, all in all, Butler is the best library in Manhattan, far and away the best place for an academic to check email and write Unilocal reviews while avoiding the real work its comprehensive collections could do much to facilitate and certainly way better than the NYPL and Bobst at NYU.