Honestly, one of the best places to study if you know where to look. I don't want to give away some people's super cozy and silent study areas. What you want to do is actually take time out in a day to just explore the whole library. You'll be very surprised at what you find. But if you're too lazy like me, the lower levels are very good for studying and spots open up fairly quickly.
Beautiful library. Quite large has 12 floors. Also has a small cafeteria at the basement.
The exterior is suggesting an introvert jem. Defenetly worth popping in for a quick peek at the atrium.
Okay place to study. Often loud and crowded. Hard to find space to study. Many spaces are poorly lit. One must have thick skin to study among the sobbing during end of term. On top of this, printing isn t free.
It's surprising that a man who was anti-Jewish, Elmer Bobst, created a library for a university that is now dominated by Jews. Some have called for the library's name to be changed. You'd think he would have been able to tell, when he forked over the money for the library, that it was already being taken over by Jews.
The best hours to go there for open stacks, for those who prefer their library quiet to bustling, are between 7am-Noon, and 8pm-1am. It's pretty easy to find a cubicle or seat during these hours, even when it's busy. Though at its busiest, when students are cramming for exams, it's best to get there between 7am-10am, or after 9pm. Otherwise you may have to walk around a bit before you find some place to sit. During the Summer months and Christmas Break the library is quiet around the clock. You don't have to reserve private rooms during these periods, as there's not enough activity to warrant it.
Bobst is open 24 hours for students. For non-students it's open from 7am-1am. Though many floors are shut down between the hours of 1am-7am, so students have to move to the lower floors during that time.
There are a couple options for accessing Bobst for those who aren't NYU students. Friends of Bobst is a program that offers residents who live close to Bobst yearly membership for about $300. NYPL's free Marli program offers full access to Bobst's Open Stacks (open from 7am-1pm). The Marli program also offers access to other univerity libraries, such as Columbia's Butler. You must apply for the Marli program. Bobst will give you an orange card with a barcode on the back (this is for checking out books). You must always show this orange card and photo id to the security desk to the far right when you enter the revolving doors at the entrance. EDIT JUNE 2018: THEY NOW GIVE YOU A PLASTIC CARD WITH YOUR PICTURE, SO YOU NO LONGER NEED PHOTO I.D.
On each floor there are two bathrooms on each wing with two urinals (for the men), two toilets and two sinks. The female bathrooms may have more toilets. These bathrooms should be bigger, and are often dirty. The door handles of the men's bathrooms (and maybe the women's bathrooms) are stained brown, which is absolutely disgusting.
When going to the bathroom or to the lower level to grab a snack you'll usually be fine leaving some of your stuff at your seat or cubicle, but I've seen people get their laptops stolen, so best to take anything of a personal nature with you. I'm surprised they haven't installed surveillance cameras by now. The security at Bobst is purely ceremonial.
On some of the floors (6,7,8,9 and maybe others) there are cubicles, at which you can get a little privacy. Get there before 10am or after 9pm and you can easily get a good one. Some cubicles have outlets built into the desks. Other cubicles don't have outlets. You can eat and have covered drinks at these cubicles. Though even if you don't have covered drinks you'll get away with it.
On the lower floor there are vending machines and a seating area with tables.
It can get very cold, so if you're going to be there all day you'll want to bring a pullover.
Library.
The best one in the city. The north wings overlook Washington Square park, while the East and West wings have great individual cubicals and desks. Certain floors even have desks that allow for both standing and sitting.
The lower levels are open 24 hours for those late night owls.
The reasons why I put 2 starts because people here never respect the policy of not talking in reading areas. And if you complain nothing happens.
The 8th floor and 9 floor are not welcoming for people with seasonal allergy or asthmatic . their book shelf are so dusty and you smell moist there.
Individual reading room are dirty.
Unfortunately to that huge liberary
Hope their responsible will do something about it.
Extremely beautiful and a wonderful place to study, its so so quiet.
Heh good place if you have nowhere else to go at night but they will wake you if you fall asleep
Great views of the park. This is a delightful place to sit and study and get above it all for a few minutes. You would have to pay a hell of a lot of money for a view like this anywhere else.
Awesome place, I got very good memories from this place, I studied there & was my admission talk/tour in there.
Definitely one of my most loved places. Love coming here!
What is there to say? It's a library at one of the best universities in the world.
It's a great place to work. You can have a view of Washington square park when working here.
Bobst Library is not open to the public. You have to be a student. It has so many floors and the research possibilities are endless. If you just walk in to stare at the building look at the floor. It looks like Q-bert so that people will get distracted and be less inclined to jump.
The overall ambience in this library is great for studies. Good location, open for 24 hrs for NYU students, plenty of space for studying, individual study spaces and rooms for graduate students available.
I can always find or request what I'm looking for. I also love the layout. I avoid libraries during finals so I can't attest to studying there, but generally during the year I could find a nook to look at my books.
You do have to be an NYU student/affiliate to get into the library.
Beautiful, but.....Get a guess pass with your NYU student
Great benefit of being a NYU Student. Library open 24 hours a day and it's well lit great Wifi coverage throughout the building.
Not bad for NYU library to partner with a number of universities
With the interior looking like the set straight out of blade runner, they should be playing Vangelis in the lobby.
I went here in winter. It was ridiculously hot, and it was hard to not fall sleep. I managed to lethargically crawl out of the building, without succombing, and immediately came alive again, outside. If it was colder inside, in winter, well... Im not sure... I think I like being able to drink coffee whilst studying :) Note that Im not a student and had to donate something like 35usd or so for my half an hour of lethargy :P If you are a student, it is perhaps free to study here, and thus more interesting :)
Very nice place with perfect chairs and places, internet access is a bit of a hustle but its ok. Also it was very nice if the lower levels 1 and 2 which are open 24/7 was as good as higher levels.
2 small areas of failure are:
1.Tell the security staff that people that are staying overnight are not criminals and there is no need to act so harshly.
2. please do something about study rooms in upper levels which are not renovated.
One of the best college libraries out there great for research and for reserving a conference room. The location is great. You're just a few steps away from various eateries and shops. Downsides? The study rooms aren't as quiet as they should be. They're not quiet at all. I recommend using noise-cancelling headphones. Love it. Great NYU landmark!
What a bastion of knowledge. It feels so wildly underappreciated by those who use it like a social space or a study space, but those functions, too, it serves perfectly. The only flaw is the need to have your already checked-out books scanned at a desk staffed by a single, usually studying, student, because the damn scanner goes off whenever a barcode goes through it. Absurd, but a small but of absurdism in an overwhelming fortress of logic.
Even the hardest thug turns into a mouse within this legend of a library. Bobst's cornerstone embodies die hard respect evident from a lack of ever hearing "shhhh."
Great library to study with view on the washington square park and the empire state building. You won't get in without NYU Id though.
A wonderful place to study and learn all about subjects.
When I was a intern there, I was able to explain to a person that I was tutoring at the time about how the Internet works and using the lobby and long hallways as an example of search engines.
NYPL this IS what a library is supposed to look like!
The library is closed on both Saturday and Sunday. This is very fun to deal with. Thanks for nothing, NYU.
If your school is part of Bobcat, it's a great place to go. Your library is not better than this one. It also overlooks Washington Square Park so you can laugh at the drunk crazies. It's absolutely massive which means that you can always find a quiet spot to study or sleep and they have ALL the books. Seriously, all of them. I would recommend it to anyone, but especially Cooper students - it's bigger than both our buildings combined.
Beautiful building. Great collection. The New York Public Library is all this and more.
You might think, "It's just a library, isn't it?" Well, not quite. If you're visiting New York or you're one of the city's residents, consider taking the free tour of the library.You'll have an appreciation for the library's history and for library systems as a vital part of any community.
Probably one of the greatest library s I have seen in my entire life. Outstanding, terrific.
Beautiful place to study. People can be very productive here. While at NYU I spent many nights here. Stop by if you need to get things done.
If I were a book (which I'm not) I'd want to live here
It's incredibly beautiful and a pleasure to study in except during finals... then it turns into an absolute monstrosity where you spend most of your time trying to find a seat and wonder why you didn't reserve a room like every other sane and responsible student. You will notice quite a few people who appear to be sleeping. Do not be fooled: these people aren't sleeping. In fact, they're praying that their PDE, Corporate Finance, Orgo, or whatever final they have the next morning will show even an ounce of mercy. The students here appear to be hardworking (and most of them are during finals), but there is still a large number of procrastinators... such as yours truly, who is writing this review because literally ANYTHING is more fun than studying for my finals. All in all, I rate this library 5 stars... like the 5/10 my roommate got on his first project submission.
If you ask me what I love most about NYU, I would say Bobst library. I spent half of my nights here. It has all the books, quiet place to study/sleep and it's open 24 hours. What more can one ask from a library?
What a great place! Breath taking to say the least.
This is such an amazing library. Lots of places to find a quiet place to study.
library.nyu.edu
