The Elmer Holmes Bobst Library,

The south facade of the Bobst Library, along West 3rd Street


The Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, often referred to as Bobst Library or Bobst, is the main library at New York University. Located at 70 Washington Square South between La Guardia Place and the Schwartz pedestrian plaza, across from the southeast corner of Washington Square Park, it is named after its benefactor, Elmer Holmes Bobst who gave six million dollars towards its ultimate completion and opening on September 12, 1973. Mr. Bobst was a leading figure in pharmaceuticals, public health, philanthropy, and a confidant of U.S. President Richard Nixon. He was also a long-time trustee at New York University.^[1]

Contents 1 Description 2 Renovations 3 Special collections 4 History of suicides 5 Bobst Boy 6 References 7 External links

Description

A view of the interior of Bobst

The library, built in 1972,^[2] is the university's largest library and one of the largest academic libraries in the U.S. Designed by Philip Johnson and Richard Foster,^[2] the 12-story, ~39 500 m² (425,000 square feet) structure is the flagship of an eight-library, 4.5 million-volume system that provides students and faculty members with access to the world's scholarship and serves as a center for the university community's intellectual life. 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.

Renovations

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 terminals for catalog search in the library until the terminals were replaced by PCs with Internet access in 2008.

Special collections

The library houses several distinct special collections departments, including the Fales Library, the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives, 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.

History of 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 plexiglass 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 plexiglass barricade.^[3] The library has since added floor-to-ceiling metal barriers to prevent future suicide attempts.^[4]


〔編譯陳成良／綜合報導〕美國紐約大學為防止學生在博斯特圖書館內自殺，在面對中庭天井的各樓層走 廊全面安裝約6公尺高的金色鋁質圍欄。儘管圍欄經過精心設計，但學生並不領情，認為此舉將導致圖書館變成「牢籠」、「懺悔室」。自2003年以來，已有3 名該校學生在該總圖書館跳樓自殺身亡。
博斯特圖書館是一座12層樓高的建物，1973年落成時，紐約時報知名建築評論員戈德伯格（Paul Goldberger）曾將其譽為「紐約最壯麗的建築體驗之一」，館內典藏書籍370萬冊、5萬8000份期刊，以及540萬件微縮膠卷。
不過，2003年先後有2名學生從博斯特圖書館走廊跳下中庭喪命，此後校方在圖書館面對中庭天井的各樓層走廊，安裝約2.4公尺高的樹脂玻璃圍欄，但2009年又有學生跨過圍欄跳樓自殺。
校方這次請來紐約建築師桑德斯（Joel Sanders）負責設計，今年5月18日動工，預計勞動節（9月3日）前完工。一支支金色鋁條組成的垂直欄杆與6公尺的樓層齊高，可完全杜絕學生跨欄自 殺。圍欄的設計有數位像素（digital pixels）的感覺，而且不會阻擋陽光和空氣流通。

New York Architecture Images-Bobst Library