Difference between revisions of "Butler Library"
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* Inspired the site [[Boredatbutler.com]]. | * Inspired the site [[Boredatbutler.com]]. | ||
* Students supposedly make out and go so far as to have [[Butler Sex|sex]] in the stacks. No one has ever seen this actually happen. | * Students supposedly make out and go so far as to have [[Butler Sex|sex]] in the stacks. No one has ever seen this actually happen. | ||
| − | *People tend to stick to their own preferred reading rooms, and entire social networks develop around these after a time, particularly on the fourth floor. | + | * People tend to stick to their own preferred reading rooms, and entire social networks develop around these after a time, particularly on the fourth floor. |
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| + | === Camping out in Butler === | ||
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| + | During midterms and finals many people camp out in Butler. They take up valuable desk space and seats, leaving their books, laptops and other possessions in the library for extended periods. Some people even leave their belongings in the library 24 hours per day, usually to reserve the very best library real estate. A very small number of people literally camp out in Butler, sleeping there. Many of the people who spend so much time in Butler during exam periods have no life. | ||
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| + | === Butler Clearance Task Force === | ||
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| + | Many students believe that people who leave their belongings in Butler for extended periods are making unfair use of the library. As a remedy, objecting students believe that unattended belongings should be confiscated at regular intervals by library staff. The belongings would naturally be made available somewhere else in the library for students to claim. Alternatively, [[CCSC]] and the other class councils could do something useful for students by organizing a "Butler Clearance Task Force". | ||
==Further reading== | ==Further reading== | ||
Revision as of 16:39, 9 May 2007
Butler Library is the main library for undergraduates, named for Nicholas Murray Butler. It holds 2 million volumes in the humanities. Butler has study rooms open 24 hours a day during the school year. Students in Butler tend to either work or spend time on Boredatbutler.com.
Contents
History
Butler was begun in 1929 and dedicated in 1934 in response to a space crunch at Low Library, which after 30 years had become too small to hold Columbia's growing collection. Columbia had James Gamble Rogers execute a design for a new library to be built on the 114th street border of the campus. The building was originally named South Hall, before being named in honor of Butler. It is said that there was a move to name the library after Columbia's 10th president, Frederick A. P. Barnard, but Butler put the kibosh on the idea, leaving the building strategically unnamed until his own retirement.
Milstein Library
Butler is also home to the Phillip L. Milstein Family College Library which is the official designation for the 24-hour reading rooms and the collection of books stored within on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors of the library. Since Milstein isn't really distinguishable from Butler itself in any major fashion, no one actually uses the term 'Milstein', and most probably don't even know that it 'exists'. After 11pm, when the other rooms of the library close, graduate students come down from other floors and overcrowd the 24-hour reading rooms.
Facilities
- Lockers: enter the lottery every year at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/butler/lockers/.
- Photocopiers: on every floor.
Floor 2 (exit level)
- Blue Java Butler coffee bar.
- 214: the lounge, the only place you can eat and talk.
- 213: CUIT computer lab.
- 209-212: Milstein undergraduate reading rooms.
Butler culture
- Inspired the site Boredatbutler.com.
- Students supposedly make out and go so far as to have sex in the stacks. No one has ever seen this actually happen.
- People tend to stick to their own preferred reading rooms, and entire social networks develop around these after a time, particularly on the fourth floor.
Camping out in Butler
During midterms and finals many people camp out in Butler. They take up valuable desk space and seats, leaving their books, laptops and other possessions in the library for extended periods. Some people even leave their belongings in the library 24 hours per day, usually to reserve the very best library real estate. A very small number of people literally camp out in Butler, sleeping there. Many of the people who spend so much time in Butler during exam periods have no life.
Butler Clearance Task Force
Many students believe that people who leave their belongings in Butler for extended periods are making unfair use of the library. As a remedy, objecting students believe that unattended belongings should be confiscated at regular intervals by library staff. The belongings would naturally be made available somewhere else in the library for students to claim. Alternatively, CCSC and the other class councils could do something useful for students by organizing a "Butler Clearance Task Force".
