The Elmer Holmes Bobst Library ( ), often referred to simply as Bobst Library or just Bobst, is the main library at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

(NYU) in

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The library is located at 70

Washington Square South 4th Street is a street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It starts at Avenue D (Manhattan), Avenue D as East 4th Street and continues to Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, where it becomes West 4th Street. It continues west until the Sixth Avenue ...

between

LaGuardia Place West Broadway is a north-south street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, separated into two parts by Tribeca Park. The northern part begins at Tribeca Park, near the intersection of Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue), Walker Street a ...

and the Schwartz pedestrian plaza, across from the southeast corner of

Washington Square Park Washington Square Park is a public park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. One of the best known of New York City's public parks, it is an icon as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity. ...

and next to Gould Plaza. Opened on September 12, 1973, Bobst Library is named after its benefactor, Elmer Holmes Bobst, who gave toward its completion. Bobst – a philanthropist who made his money in the pharmaceutical industry, and a confidant of

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

– was a long-time trustee at New York University.

Description

The library, built in 1972,, p.121. is the university's largest library and one of the largest academic libraries in the U.S. Designed by

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the pos ...

and Richard Foster, the 12-story, structure is the flagship of an eleven-library, 5.9 million-volume system. Bobst Library entrance

Before its construction, the library was the subject of community protests led by Greenwich Village activists

Jane Jacobs Jane Jacobs (''née'' Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book '' The Death and Life of Great American Cities ...

Ruth Wittenberg Ruth Wittenberg (née Budinoff) (1899-1990) was an American activist and historic preservationist who advocated for the preservation of historic buildings in New York City's Greenwich Village. She was a leading figure in the successful movement to ...

, and Verna Small. Those opposed to the library project claimed it was too big for its building site, and that the tall building would cast a large shadow over neighboring Washington Square Park, obstructing sunlight from public spaces. The library houses more than 3.3 million volumes, 20,000 journals, and over 3.5 million microforms; and provides access to thousands of electronic resources in the forms of licensed databases, e-journals, and other formats both on-site and to the university community around the world via the Internet. The library is visited by more than 6,500 users per day, and circulates almost one million books annually. Gifts from Mamdouha S. Bobst and Kevin Brine made possible a significant renovation of Bobst Library's Mezzanine, First Floor and two Lower Levels which was completed in 2005. The library provided text

computer terminal A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that can be used for entering data into, and transcribing data from, a computer or a computing system. The teletype was an example of an early-day hard-copy terminal and ...

s for catalog search in the library until the terminals were replaced by PCs with Internet access in 2008. The library houses several distinct special collections departments, including the

Fales Library New York University's Fales Library and Special Collections is located on the third floor of the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library at 70 Washington Square South between LaGuardia Place and the Schwartz Plaza, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhat ...

, the

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives The Tamiment Library is a research library at New York University that documents radical and left history, with strengths in the histories of communism, socialism, anarchism, the New Left, the Civil Rights Movement, and utopian experiments. T ...

, and the University Archives of NYU. On the north side, on even floors, are large, double-height study rooms featuring floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Washington Square Park.

Notable events

Suicides

In late 2003, the library was the site of two suicides. In separate incidents, students jumped from the open-air crosswalks inside the library and fell to the stereogram-patterned marble floor below. After the second suicide, the university installed

Plexiglas Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite, ...

barricades on each level and along the stairways to prevent further jumping. In 2009, a third student jumped to his death from the tenth floor, apparently scaling the plexiglas barricade. The library has since added floor-to-ceiling metal barriers to prevent any future suicide attempts. The barrier is made of randomly perforated aluminum screens that evoke the zeros and ones of a digital waterfall.

Bobst Boy

Also in 2003, the library was in the news when a homeless student took up permanent residence at the library because he could not afford student housing. This student received the nickname Bobst Boy and was profiled by the ''

Washington Square News ''Washington Square News (WSN)'' is the weekly student newspaper of New York University (NYU). It has a circulation of 10,000 and an estimated 55,000 online readers. It is published in print on Monday, in addition to online publication Tuesday thr ...

'', the university's daily student newspaper. Reaction amongst the student body was mixed. Some students cited his case as an example of the university's inability to fully meet its students' financial need.

Name

In 2016, several student organizations sent a list of demands to the NYU Board of Trustees. One of these demands called for a name-change due to Elmer Holmes Bobst's alleged history of antisemitism.

References

External links

New York University Libraries websiteAvery Fisher Center for Music and MediaFales Library and Special CollectionsThe Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor ArchivesNew York University ArchivesBobst Library Podcasts
{{authority control 1973 establishments in New York City Federal depository libraries Greenwich Village Libraries in Manhattan

Bobst Library The Elmer Holmes Bobst Library ( ), often referred to simply as Bobst Library or just Bobst, is the main library at New York University (NYU) in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The library is located at 70 Washington Square South between LaGuardi ...

Philip Johnson buildings Library buildings completed in 1973 University and college academic libraries in the United States Brutalist architecture in New York City