Written by Teaching and Undergraduate Services Librarian Kaneisha Gaston.

Butler Library recently transformed empty shelves in the Lounge (room 214) into a new browsing display, called Butler Browsing. Butler Library is home to the Libraries’ Milstein Undergraduate Library, which supports the University’s undergraduate courses, introductory-level guides to academic disciplines and popular interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary titles. Butler Browsing will complement these collections by supporting Columbia affiliates’ personal reading interests and curiosities outside of the classroom. 

Visitors can expect to find three categories of books on display each month: newly-published titles, Columbia authors, and curated titles. The new titles category will include some new fiction and other popular-interest titles added to our collections each month. Columbia titles will feature books written by faculty, staff, alumni, and students, connected by common themes, histories, or genres. Lastly, the display’s curated titles will derive from suggestions provided by library staff and the wider Columbia community; it will also seek to  highlight interesting collections and the scholarship of BIPOC and minoritized authors. 

Columbia affiliates can borrow items from Butler Browsing by retrieving the item(s) from the Lounge (room 214) and presenting a Columbia ID at the Circulation Desk on the third floor of Butler. All items are subject to the Libraries’ current borrowing policies and procedures. Anyone can search for Butler Browsing titles by visiting CLIO and searching by location, “glx, 214”. 

To learn more about Butler Library, visit the Butler Library web page. To contribute ideas for Butler Browsing, complete our “Browse with Butler” intake form. We accept ideas on a rolling basis.