Elmer Holmes Bobst Library

The Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, often referred to as simply Bobst Library or Bobst, is the main library at New York University in Manhattan, New York City. The library is located at 70 Washington Square South between LaGuardia Place and the Schwartz pedestrian plaza, across from the southeast corner of Washington Square Park. Opened on September 12, 1973, Bobst Library is named after its benefactor, Elmer Holmes Bobst who gave US$11.5 million toward its completion. Bobst – a philanthropist who made his money in the pharmaceutical industry, and a confidant of U.S. President Richard Nixon– was a long-time trustee at New York University.

Description

The library, built in 1972, is the university's largest library and one of the largest academic libraries in the U.S. Designed by Philip Johnson and Richard Foster, the 12-story, 425,000 square feet (39,500 m²) structure is the flagship of an eight-library, 4.5 million-volume system. It 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.