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The 25 Most Beautiful College Libraries in the World

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[Editor's note: While your Flavorwire editors take a much-needed holiday break, we're revisiting some of our most popular features of the year. This post was originally published December 13, 2011.] The college library, whether ornate or modern, digital or dusty, is in many ways the epicenter of the college experience — at least for some students. It is at once a shining emblem of vast, acquirable knowledge, a place for deep discussions and meetings of the mind, and of course, a big building full of books, which, as far as we’re concerned, is exciting enough. Colleges and universities are understandably quite proud of their libraries, which can be a selling point for prospective students and donating alumni alike, and they often become the most well-designed and beautifully adorned buildings on campus. To that end, and perhaps to inspire your studies a bit, we’ve collected a few of the most beautiful college and university libraries in the world, from Portugal to France to Boston. Did your alma mater’s library make the list? Or did we miss one of your favorites? Let us know in the comments.

The University of Coimbra General Library, Coimbra, Portugal [via]

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Comments (190)

it’s the duke humfrey’s reading room, not duke of humphrey.

Rhodes College has a better looking library than a couple of those reading rooms, particularly Berkeley.

Merton College, Oxford.
East Asian Library. Kent Hall, Columbia.

Looks like the only criteria is a high ceiling.

Princeton’s Firestone Library is pretty impressive,and certainly better than some in the list. So is Stanford’s main library!

The little public library in St Johnsbury, Vermont is an obscure and amazing unsung treasure. I actually wandered in once more or less randomly, on my way to Montreal from Boston.

http://www.stjathenaeum.org/

Come on !
Instead of asking of you missed some libraries, think about the following: how many of the one you listed are not in English speaking countries ?
You obviously missed dozens. In France (sainte genevieve, in Paris…), Italy, Germany, Russia,…
Every historical university city probably has several. Just like Cambridge or Paris.

The most beautiful library is one filled with readers. Too many of these photographs are of empty libraries.

No votes for the English Library at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign? Shame! :-)

@Jonathan

Powell Library is NEVER empty. These photographs were probably taken while the library’s closed.

I love the law school library but that isn’t even the prettiest one on campus. The honor for that goes to the Andrew Dickson White Library inside of Uris

It’s Bapst, not Babst.

Disappointed they didn’t spell “Bapst” correctly, but beyond proud my second home made the list. I hope these weren’t done in any order, because I truly believe Bapst is more beautiful than some of the others listed…

These are COLLEGE libraries – not public/municipal. So people who are arguing they’ve seen better, need to read (maybe actually go to the library and study?!) and pay more attention before they protest.

Can the editor display the outside structure of the buildings as well? Most of these are just pictures of the inside of the libraries.

The University of the Philippines College of Law Library should be included in this list. It is one of the most lovely libraries in the Philippines. Do check it out.

Interesting that so many of the college libraries we define as beautiful are either old (e.g. Oxford and Cambridge University libraries in England ) or Victorian copies of old libraries (e.g. Michigan University Law Library in the U.S.)
Does it say something about Western culture that we tend not to celebrate new architecture?

It would have been great if the dates of these libraries were listed next to the pictures so that we could see the progression of architecture.

For example:
St. Johns College Old Library, Cambridge University: 1628
Trinity College Wren Library, Cambridge University: 1695
Michigan University Law Library: 1883
etc

Lincoln College (Oxford) has a beautiful library. I far prefer it to any part of the Bodleian and despite what a certain Dr P. Hitchins will tell you, it’s far nicer than Queen’s.

@Charlotte, it’s actually Duke Humfrey’s Library…

As Tom points out, lots of Gothic/Gothic Revival and modern universities, but little in-between. It would be great to see the Brotherton Library Reading Room included on this list (University of Leeds) – Built in the 1930′s and modelled as a ‘grander’ version of the British Museum reading room (itself late Victorian):
http://library.leeds.ac.uk/brotherton75/brotherton.php

Duke Humfrey and Bapst corrected, thanks all!

13 out of the 25 are in USA! And 5 are in England! That’s 18 out of 25 in 2 countries! Seriously?! Get on a jet plane and go see the world. There really is a world outside America.

@Ravi- Sounds great! You payin’ for the ticket?

i love how every time flavorpill does a well-intentioned, book-related feature, some people feel compelled to act like condescending a$$holes for no apparent reason.

that said, i’ll contribute something positive to the discussion: i thought the library at the katholieke universiteit leuven was very impressive. this picture doesn’t do it justice:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/93051314@N00/2716504085/

another vote for the A.D. White Library at Cornell! i was looking for it as soon as i saw the headline. you could certainly stand to include a warm, more intimate example like that among all these lofty, grand spaces…

They missed the Deering Library at Northwestern University! It’s beautiful, warm, inspiring. (Not like the “new” sterile library on campus). What a great list! I love looking at all these gorgeous libraries!

Trinity College Dublin

Another vote for A.D. White Library at Cornell. Better than the Law School IMO.

Thank you for compiling – love libraries!!

Many of the American ones look like dining halls.

As mentioned above, Lincoln College’s is the best in Oxford. It’s also one of the most prominent spires in the City.

How I wish these were all in one place. It would be wonderful to study in them all.

Awwww, Suzallo! I studied for many a Library School final in that reading room…

I did not realize that the world consisted of just the US and Western Europe.

Trinity College Dublin – home to the Book of Kells. Very famous, big miss.

jesus christ in a chicken basket, who codes your pages? because it is seriously shit.

Your snazzy new AJAX pagination isn’t working in Chrome 16.0.912.63 or Firefox 8.0.1. The image fades in for a second and then fades back out.

i enjoy many of your stories, but whoever posted about your layout/coding is right on. it makes many of your stories virtually impossible to view/read. loading takes forever, and half the images don’t load properly. it’s too bad, because it makes me skip stories i would otherwise be interested in.

The University of Oklahoma’s reading room is easily as cool as some of these and certainly better than Berkeley or Pitts. However, after looking through the comments, it seems like 25 is just too small a number. I know I have seen postings on the web of fantastic libraries that are not in your list and I am sure that all the posters here have just cause to their claims. Take a mulligan and ratchet up to 100.

I agree that the articles are wonderful, despite some annoying little errors, but the big annoyance is the layout of ads that overwhelms the content.

I agree with Cecil– Rhodes College has one of the most beautiful libraries I have ever seen. (I am a bit biased as I am an alum of Rhodes). But I am also proud to be an alum of Candler School of Theology and our library, Pitts Theological Library, made the list!!

Chethams’s College Library in Manchester. The oldest public library in the world. A hidden gem in the middle of an industrial city.

In agreement with Ralph, The University of Oklahoma’s Bizzell Library reading room is in the same league(if not better)than those showcased here.

Is this not the most difficult slide show to view, ever?

They do look beautiful…but at the end of the day, I would not want to actually study at any of these libraries. None of them look particularly cozy, especially with those horrid wooden chairs.

The only one I really loved was: Pontifical Lateran University library, Rome, Italy. I enjoy a more modern architecture.

I’ve been to a number of these libraries and I wonder if the person who put this together has, because the UW library is the epitome of what I like to call “poured concrete generic.” From the outside, you can even see that the niches intended for patrons are mostly empty, like they either didn’t know what those were intended for or want you to know that no one endorses the school.

Beautiful selections, breath-taking photographs! I very much enjoyed viewing the slideshow. Great job, Emily!

Vassar’s library looks A LOT better than that pic.

What about Butler Library at Columbia?

I was just going to say that Elena! Vassar’s library is gorgeous. That picture in no way does it justice. Glad it made the list in spite of the picture!

Why denigrate the choices? Instead celebrate these choices and countless more that didn’t make the list. Kudos to folks sharing links of other gems. Telling the editors to get on a plane and travel is kind of ridiculous, as if Flavorpill has $100K to drop on a single post.

As for my vote for overlooked awesomeness: RISD in Providence (http://library.risd.edu/).

Harper Library at Chicago isn’t a library any more… notice the shelves are all empty of books…

WTF is wrong with your website!!!!!!!!??????????

Swansea Metropolitan University have purchased the library shown in Dr Who. Until recently this was the reading room for the local public library.

I despise these splog posts with recycled content that make you load page after page. It’s a thinly veiled attempt to boost the ad count. It’s pointless because anyone with sense has an ad blocker and has better things to do than wait for 25 pages to load. Bye.

The new library at Mass Maritime Academy on the shores of Buzzards Bay is VERY cool (and green!) Bapst is even prettier in person and from the outside

Most of these (apart from the Free University and that Pontifical in Rome) look like something selected by Prince Charles or they’re out of a Harry Potter movie. Modern University libraries need to move on from that look.

I’m not complaining that you put Vassar (I’m actually really excited, grateful, and proud) but that is not the best picture of our library. You kind of missed the giant, AMAZING stain-glass window near the across from the main entrance.

Wow, University of Michigan, Boston College and University of Washington look like low budget settings for Harry Potter. And the UCLA one is a Hollywood bad dream of the Alhambra. Historicism is a plague in USA architecture.

Also worth to check these two:
- Library of Technical University of Budapest
- Library of University of Szeged

Pity, I’ve read in better rooms on campus than the one chosen to rep Berkeley.

Check out the Mount Holyoke College library. So pretty, and it belongs to the first women’s college in the US and is the first of the Seven Sisters!

The Armstrong-Browning Library at Baylor University deserves an honorable mention – amazing stained glass windows.

Harper Memorial Library at the University of Chicago has been changed to a 24 hour study space, yes. However, a non-circulation collection is in the works. There will still be books there. Books were removed during the conversion and the construction of Mansueto Library.

I third the Rhodes College library. And there’s no pro-Rhodes bias here: I went to Sewanee (which, despite its numerous other gorgeous buildings has an atrocious library)!

The new library of the Humboldt-University in Berlin (Germany) is great and still missing in your selection!

Pembroke College, Oxford (ho ho)

I know using the word “World” is more eye-catching, but it would be nice if some effort was made to include libraries from the other continents that made up the world. I was expecting that when I browse through the list. Would it give an impression that these continents have no beautiful libraries? However, all the libraries listed here are indeed beautiful.

Its good enough to get copied for one of the star wars film but not good enough for this list. Big miss – Trinity College Dublin, the long room library.

UNAM in Mexico City by Juan O’Gorman
Cork Institute of Technology in Ireland by Shane De Blacam
History Faculty Library in Cambridge, UK by James Stirling
Exeter, NH by Louis I Kahn
Berkeley Library at Trinity College Dublin by Ahrends Burton Koralek

The Rhodes College library should be on this list. Yes, I’m a grad but unfortunately didn’t have the luxury of searching the stacks in the new library. I worked at Vassar years and agree that it should be here (although it didn’t capture the most flattering aspects of the space).

You forgot the best library of all: University of Texas at Austin’s Archetechtural Library!

@bookish – the history fac at cambridge, seriously??

Barrel vaults, Gothic, Gothic revival, and post-modern neo Gothic. Fantastic stuff. Thanks for creating this collection. Loved the alternates people provided links for, too.

The most beutiful library is the General Library of the University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal. Are litle but pretty gorgeous, Full decorated by hood (from brasil) and Gold, with same of the oldiest academic books of the world on a previligiate historical place on a historical city, must be visited to fell the real value of this art work.

My favourite is the Joanina Library that belong to the University of Coimbra in Portugal. It’s all in gold and have bats in there to eat all the book bugs.

These are all beautiful, and of course, the famous libraries of Oxford and Cambridge had to be included. But here is my nomination:

Heidelberg Uni library, beautiful example of Renaissance elements in Ars Nouveux period architecture.

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/49733342

I’m so bored of this library/book fetishism.

Not just looks, but accessibility of the stacks — so students can have that peerless experience of serendipity, just going through the shelves of one section where they might have sought one book –makes a great library. Vassar’s a standout in that regard, Widener not.

University of King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, CANADA

Pity, I think USC’s Doheny Library beats Berkeley’s library by a long shot!

Duane Library, Fordham University (prominently displayed in the film The Verdict).

Totally agree with Ravi; “World’ should be replaced by ‘US/UK’

I should definitely go to the library and check whether the affirmation ‘only 20% of US citizen have a passport’ is right..

very nice pictures tho :)

Yale has a beautiful library! The walls are see through!

I agree with Helen. Why not include beautiful libraries from the rest of the world? (Not just the U.S and Western Europe).

Comments should be disabled on all posts. Spoils the content. It’s like someone else’s marginalia in a book. Irrelevant and annoying.

Best Oxford library has to be the Taylor Institute – so much prettier than the DH, although quite a lot smaller and less imposing. Always feel privileged to work in either though! Also, for the record, I like marginalia…

That photo of the Vassar library is rather awful… way to miss the stained glass window, or the lobby.

Michigan was one of last few places they were considering filming Harry Potter. It pretty much looks exactly like the hogwarts dining hall

I’m sorry but Quinnipiac University library is way more beautiful than any of the libraries listed here

Vassar is Number One – sorry everyone. The picture doesn’t begin to do it justice. And it happens to be in the United States by the way. Further, anyone who posts a comment correcting the spelling or grammar of another is rude.

Thanks for showing the Harvard library. They didn’t think it was worth showing it to us during a campus tour of prospective students and their families.
Information on these libraries should include year built and architect.

So “world” = USA + Western Europe?

You can criticise the list, but I’d like to celebrate the photos, be sorry that no one gave Emily a round-the-world plane ticket, and note that the top three are really interesting choices — diverse in look and feel.

The Radcliffe Camera in Oxford. Unique circular architecture, amazing atmosphere.

The Sorbonne Library never looked this good when I was there. And as for les toilettes… n’en parlons pas!

My Alma Matter is the first one, in fact the building next to this is Faculdade de Direito UC(University of Coimbra) where I study. I can’t say I’m proud of this because I did nothing to make this happen, but I am very happy that the beauty of this room is recognized amongst such great great ‘competitors’.

Aww Yeah UofM! I’m studying at the law library from now on.

These are beautiful libraries but no libraries from Asia and Latin America are represented. Is this biased?

The Pontifical Lateran University library in Rome is not in Italy but in the Vatican City

Surprised NYU’s Bobst didn’t get in…it’s magnificent.

“Best of” lists are always limited by human preference and time to research. The author gave us 25 awesome libraries and our literate readers gave us many more beauties. This is the beauty of crowdsourcing. Thanks to all who gave us links to their favorites :)

university of rochester has the nicest library in history. Rush Rhees Library. look it up if youre a retard

For those of you pointing out that it is all USA + Europe, perhaps you should stop lamenting and let us know about beautiful libraries in your countries/regions that are outside outside these 2 areas.

Has the author ever been outside the US and Britain? This list is pathetically narrow. Some of these are beautiful, but there are way more impressive libraries in Latin America (Brazil), the Middle East and Tibetan monasteries.

The Real Gabinete de Leitura, Rio de Janeiro
Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco, Lima
Biblioteca Parque Medellin, Colombia
Library of Picture Books, Isawi, Japan
Tibetan Monastery Thangka Libraries

@Ralph:
“The University of Oklahoma’s reading room is easily as cool as some of these and certainly better than Berkeley or Pitts”.

Come again? Is this one of those beauty-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder or “my home-team is better than your home-team”arguments? Don’t know about Pitts…but, until you step into the North Reading Room of Doe, you won’t get why more undergraduates and PhD students and faculty want to be at the most expensive public university in the US that also has more Nobel Prize winners than a certain public institution with a *cool* reading room in Norman. It’s not the beauty of the North Reading Room alone, but it sure contributes to Berkeley’s historic reputation for academic excellence.

I’d recommend the library of the University of Helsinki!

I sugest the library of the Mafra Convent, in Portugal:

Yes, they are all pretty buildings, but what I want to know is “what is in the books?” I am more interested in what is on the shelf that makes it different than what shelters the shelf. It’s like “judging a book by it’s cover”. As everyone knows, “it’s what on the inside that counts”.

I love the Bapst Library at BC & Cornell’s Law Library!!!! Good choices!

NYU Library?!

Was the author not able to use the internet to search for libraries not in the US or the UK? I’m not joking.

Oh, and I have to say that I actually really dislike the more modern ones that are included here. Some modern buildings are nice–Tama Art University, as another commenter posted–but these ones, in my opinion, do not deserve to be placed next to the likes of Queens College Library at Oxford (slide number eleven). But opinion does tend to make lists like this irrelevent, doesn’t it? Perhaps a better way to determine the ‘top 25′ would have been to have people submit pictures of their favourites libraries, post them without their location (which could influence some people’s opinions), have the viewers votes, and then post the results? That way there actually would be a wealth of libraries from all over the world being seen and sifted through before the top ones were picked out.

Ditto on the Mt. Holyoke library!

What about the Dipòsit de les Aigües: Central Library of the University of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona?!

Kristi, Christina, and Chris must spend all their on the Arts Quad at Cornell, because the compiler of this list was correct — the Law Library IS the most beautiful on campus.

I love this post. I live on a raw and majestic island in the North Atlantic Ocean, where my husband and I have built a library on the second floor of our Saltbox home, with 3000 volumes overlooking the wild gray sea. Our library a constant source of nourishment and plenitude…but I do see we have some distance to go before we can make it into the top 25….

It’s senseless to complain that there is a poor showing outside of the US and western Europe if you don’t have the courage to suggest the library you feel is missing. I’ve traveled thru Latin America and Asia and even studied in Argentina, but didn’t visit university libraries there. The National Library in Rio is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen in my entire life, but, alas, it is not a part of a college/university so wouldn’t qualify. Still, you can see a couple pix on this Wikipedia page and do a search for more – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Library_of_Brazil

To Ravi, despite my extensive travels, I don’t actually stop into every college/ university library in every town I’ve visited around the world…. DO YOU?

Instead of berating the author, if you know a library in Latin America, Asia, or Africa that deserves being on this list… why not offer a suggestion? If you can’t make a suggestion, why don’t you keep your negativity to yourself? There are too many complainers in the world today who like to put others down and identity problems without offering solutions. Stop it. You are not helping. Knocking people down is soon to be an Olympic Sport, I’d imagine with the way people so competitively and fiercely engage doing so.

Thank you, Emily, for this gorgeous list and the beautiful photos.

To the naysayers: didn’t your mothers teach you the basic rule of life, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

That goes for internet comments too. Peace on earth this holiday season and always.

Provinzialbibliothek Amberg, Germany

Bogazici University Library

I love looking through these pictures of beautiful places and if I had my druthers, I would have said that my alum (Ohio State University) should have remodelled their Main Library with some of the same architecture. But after they finished the remodel, I have to say their current look is truly the most functional for students. I cannot tell you the difference in the numbers before and after remodel, but anecdotally, I think students have started packing the halls post-remodel. http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi&q=osu%20thompson%20library

what about noise levels ?
A primary desireratum in a library is quiet; I will bet dollars to donuts that all these modern librarys are noisy beyond belief
(although I’m biased, they all look like monuments to the vanity of the architect and deep wallets of the donors, rather then buildings that work as librarys)

There is something a little dishonest in this, because the pictures you see are not of *working* libraries, in the sense of buildings that hold hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of volumes, plus raritys and special collections.
What these pictures show are show-piece reading rooms that are like the formal dining room; you really dont know what the upstairs of the house is like from the antimacassar covered furniture downstairs

A reading room over at the New York City Public Library gets my vote, not for the inner architecture, mind you, but by the beautiful oil paintings on the walls. It’s like being in an art museum, rather than a library….

Print is dead.

Well, it may not be the most beautiful, but it’s one of the most unusual. The public library in the city of Renton, Wa is actually a bridge across the Cedar river. The windows are set low so that you can see the salmon swim by, and you can really see their bright pink color during spawning.

No lovely libraries in Asia or Africa or Middle East or South America?

Some of these look like bus station canteens.

My picks:

–Lincoln College Library in Oxford is indeed beautiful. I was very fortunate to be a Lincoln College student for my Masters.
–Bibliotheque Mazarine in Paris is stunning also.

Douglas Library Reading Room, Queen’s University. This isn’t the best picture of it, but you’ll get a sense of it. http://tinyurl.com/7lqbht9

About half of these I would say qualify for the title of the post, but otherwise underwhelming. Why all these Ivy League schools, as if one would expect that when there are so many gorgeous university libraries that would have pushed them out of this competition. Of course one each for Cambridge and Oxford would have been ample instead of them sucking one-fifth of the contender spots here. Guess all the university libraries in Australia, Asia, and South America were a waste of architectural prowess. Meh.

Wow, just wow (well to a majority of the list). Some were a bit underwhelming especially some reading rooms. Anyway, this is a subjective list; the libraries listed in here may have been the only libraries that the author visited at the time being. And I agree with the comment above: why are there no libraries listed for Australia, Asia, and South America?

The Powell Library is absolutely beautiful! Much better photos are available. Worth checking out if you are in Los Angeles and on the legendary UCLA campus.

Wow they are all incredible! Especially George Peabody Library, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

Hayden Library at Arizona State University is totally underground.

It is pretty sweet!

It is sad to see many libraries closing, including university libraries.

Selected libraries are certainly beautiful, but I’d like to remind you that there are libraries other than in America and Europe. Let me introduce Yonsei Univeristy Library in Seoul, Korea. It’s modern, convenient, lively, and full of students… (http://library.yonsei.ac.kr/main/main.do?sLang=en)

The A.D. White Reading Room in Uris Library at Cornell University is also exceptional.

Has there been a book published on these 25 Libraries? Is so what is the publisher??
Thanks

Lincoln College (Oxford) is the most beautiful library I have ever seen, either in person or in photos.

the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève (paris) should be in the list too !

The Ciombre Library looks like the library from Beauty and the Beast.It’s very elegant and royal looking.

Coimbra, the most beautiful, yes!

Yes whomever said the Mount Holyoke Library is right on, it is stunning, much more so than many of these.

The Cornell Law library is wonderful but it pales in comparison to A. D. White at Uris.

It’s like in Hogwarts.

Did you notice how only one of the top 5 is in the US. Europeans definitely beat the Americans here. I’m not surprised. It’s also possible that the panel didn’t visit Asia or China… There’s some great stuff there as well..

I definitely think the Loyola Marymount library should be on that list! Pictures just don’t do it justice — it’s breathtaking! http://library.lmu.edu/

Ann Arbor! Did anyone else freak out when they saw UofM in Ann Arbor on this list! Starkid went there!

My favorite university library in the US is John Gaw Meem’s Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Regional architecture, lovely spaces, beautiful artwork.

thank you for your effort , those are great libraries and i‘ve liked them all especially yale university library & thanks again

The University of Illinois Undergraduate Library may not be most beautiful but it certainly is unusual. It is underground. My Arcitectural firm designed it. It was built underground to avoid shading a 100 year old experimental agricultural field which has been growing corn on an un-fertilized plot continuously for over 100 years.

Two i didn’t see listed here: UCSC (Univ. of California Santa Cruz) Science Library — in the middle of a redwood forest. And UCSF (UC San Francisco) main library, 5th floor reading room — amaaaazing view of the Bay and Marin. Check them out!

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