Butler Library
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Nicholas Murray Butler Library, commonly known simply as Butler Library, is the largest single library in the Columbia University Library System, which contains over 9.3 million books, and is one of the largest buildings on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University in the City of New York. Proposed as "South Hall" by University President Nicholas Murray Butler as expansion plans for Low Memorial Library stalled, the new library was funded by Edward Harkness, benefactor of Yale's residential college system, and designed by his favorite architect, James Gamble Rogers. It was completed in 1934 and renamed for Butler in 1946.
Its facade displays the names of great writers, philosophers, and thinkers, most of whom (though not all) are read by students engaged in the Core Curriculum of Columbia College. Unlike most university libraries, Butler remains at least partially open 24 hours a day, a practice which has engendered a peculiar culture of late night studying and even temporary student residency in the building.
Butler Library is home to Orgo Night, the Columbia University Marching Band's semi-annual campus-wide performance. At exactly 11:59 pm on the night before finals start each semester, the CUMB enters the main reading room of the library and performs a show similar to their football half-time shows, sometimes featuring material cut by censors. The Band then proceeds to perform at various other locations around campus.
Sexual escapades in the library's stacks are a salient piece of Columbia lore. The library's unique culture was enhanced with the 2006 creation of boredatbutler.com, a website featuring scrolling anonymous comments posted mostly by people in the library.[citation needed]
[edit] Trivia
Butler Library was featured prominently in the film Ghostbusters and also Spider-Man (film). Several books and screenplays have been written within its walls, including Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk's The Black Book and the script for the film Capote.
