The 10 Colleges With The Best Libraries: Princeton Review List

What is better than a college library? What genius came up with the idea that it is better to study in a gargantuan stone building than a small humble shed? A Victorian probably.

The Princeton Review recently named the colleges with the best libraries. Fair Harvard (that is their school song) topped the list with Columbia University (this is their school song and it is REALLY depressing) coming in second.

Check out our slide show of the best college libraries (with real pictures of ACTUAL LIBRARIES!) Then tell us, did you like your college's library? Weigh in below!

RATE IT!   |  

VOTE

CURRENT TOP 5 PICK YOUR OWN TOP 5

USERS WHO VOTED

NEW! CREATE YOUR OWN SLIDESHOW

Comments

[zanai]

04:19 PM on 02/17/2012

Ahaha. That isn't even a picture of Emory's actual library.

[Crystal Bolner Forte]

03:34 PM on 02/17/2012

The J. Edgar and Louise S. Monroe Library at Loyola University New Orleans is the top library in my book - helpful librarians and a great atmosphere for learning.

[CJ0427]

10:27 AM on 02/02/2012

Why wasn't University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana added~it's one of the largest university libraries! Although not every library is aesthetically beautiful (there are about 20ish library buildings), the Stacks building is absolutely beautiful.

[Paul Farber]

12:29 PM on 01/27/2012

Add Georgia Southern!

[teeemkay]

03:40 PM on 01/25/2012

That's not Columbia's library, despite what it may say. The real library, Butler, is 180 degrees across campus.

[Emily Blue]

11:14 PM on 01/23/2012

The Yale library has a copy of the Guttenburg Bible and an exhibit on old comic books... and it came in tenth?

[Jane Eleanor Knight]

02:34 PM on 01/22/2012

Ball State University's Bracken Library is one of the most unique in the country--when viewed from the air, it is built exactly like a stack of books. It was also one of the best places to get on-campus employment--I worked as a barcode assistant and as a projectionist during my student tenure. Next door, the Miller College of Business building is shaped like a typewriter! How cool is that!

[weber drama]

12:00 PM on 01/22/2012

Why isn't Vassar there? In visiting colleges this past year or so, I saw almost all the Ivies, including the ones listed above. But Vassar's library was the one that truly and honestly blew me away!

[goshaparker]

11:23 PM on 01/20/2012

Harvard: Amazing and incomparable. Breathtaking collections, astoundingly talented librarians. The Harvard Library is what makes the University what it is.

[conal6]

10:02 PM on 01/19/2012

UCSD San Diego Campus the upside down Pyramid

[EonAvila]

10:11 AM on 01/19/2012

Loved Cornell libraries!! I worked in the music library, and frequented Olin and the rare books library. The law library is beautiful and Uris is fun with the "fishbowl" and clock tower. My roommate worked at the entomology library. So glad Cornell was included, well deserved, for sure!

[revamk]

10:00 AM on 01/19/2012

Where is U of C??? They have an awesome library! Also the library on the lead to this story looks like Baker Library at Dartmouth, but I didn't see them mentioned anywhere, either.

[ricchh]

01:07 PM on 01/18/2012

Harvard's and Columbia's are by far the best in size, scope, and architecture. It's collections are top in EVERY field from literature, art, architecture, law, medicine, business, philosophy, special collections, manuscipts, rare books, documents, etc. Most universities cannot compare to these two schools.

[marcchagal]

08:47 AM on 01/18/2012

This ranking is a joke UC Berkeley is well known for having the number 1 libraries in all of North America for public universities and is ranked #3 for all universities just behind Harvard Number 1 and Yale 3.

They are not even on the list. What a joke. This list has absolutely no credibility.

[Underabridge]

11:29 AM on 01/22/2012

I heard they are selling their books so their deadbeat students can leach more money from taxpaying citizens....

[Hmmmmmmm7]

09:34 AM on 01/30/2012

Dear Underabridge: come on out and drink the milk of human kindness. You'll feel less cheated.

[Patroclus]

10:54 PM on 01/17/2012

When I first read it, I expected that what was meant by the library was the collection. But when I saw Brigham Young and Emory in the list I could not believe they could have a collection that would even come close to rivaling that of Yale. Rereading the poorly written article clarifies that the reference is to the architecture. The Norlin Library of the University of Colorado is certainly much more of an architectural achievement than that of Emory or West Point in my estimation.

[kateemc]

01:02 PM on 01/22/2012

I don't think you're familiar with Emory's library. While it's actually one of the ugliest buildings on campus, it famously houses the archives of Salman Rushdie, Alice Walker, Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Flannery O'Connor, etc. There are incredibly rich original manuscript collections in addition to the library's regular collection, and they just opened a digital scholarship commons. It's also known for cutting-edge work in born-digital archives (see Rushdie) and major database development projects (like the trans-Atlantic slave trade database that debuted a couple years ago).

Probably sounds like I'm their PR spokesman, but I don't work there--it's just that I went to Emory and used the library all the time.

[Patroclus]

02:15 PM on 01/22/2012

No, I have not been to the Emory library. The point of my comment was that the article seems to be referring to library architecture and not its collection and thus the reference to Norlin Library.

I'm sure Emory's collection is very good for a university library but you can find many that are not too different - one that comes to mind are thepioneering digital commons, Cather, Sandoz, and other western authors' archives at U. of Nebr. Few rival, that of Yale with its over 12.5 million tomes. Its archival material in American authors is, itself, overwheming: http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/brblinfo/brblguide_americanlit.html. And all of this aside from the incunabula, original music scores, etc.

The article confusingly mixes apparent criteria of a library's collections from its architecture and your comment only highlights the poor writing of the article. It is a great example of how badly HP needs editors.