She’s beauty! She’s grace!

This Halloweekend, Bwog revives our library review series from the dead to bring you a review of Barnard’s beloved new Milstein Center. Bwoggers Sarah Braner and Isabel Sepúlveda bring you all the details from the hottest new spot campus.

Location: 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027 (Situated between Barnard and Altschul halls)

Hours: 8:00am – 12:00am Monday through Thursday, 8:00am – 6:00pm Friday, 10:00am – 6:00pm Saturday, 10:00am – 12:00am Sunday

Contact: 212-854-3953; library@barnard.edu; https://library.barnard.edu/

(If you want to provide feedback on Milstein and its operations, send your thoughts to newbuilding@barnard.edu)

Seats: 375 study spaces from the Lower Level to the 5th floor, including seminar and group study rooms (everything else is academic departments and offices)

Amenities:

  • Printers: Color Pawprint on the first floor, Black/White Pawprint on the 2nd-4th floors.
  • Scanners: A few on every floor, 2nd floor by the desktop computers, 3rd-4th by the Pawprint.
  • Lighting: Natural and incandescent light.
  • Chairs: Green chairs by the windows, or if you don’t like absolute comfort, not-too-shabby black and purple chairs in the study zones. Also some fun cushioned benches!
  • Outlets: So, so many. Outlets – regular and USB! – are available in all study carrels. Some can also be found next to a few green chairs, and two in every study cubby on the 2nd floor. Group study tables also have regular outlets and USB inserted in the center of the tables.
  • Computers: Desktop computers are available on the 2nd floor.
  • Bathrooms: Bathrooms – one women’s, one gender inclusive, and one men’s – are on every floor.
  • Water Fountains: One on every floor.
  • Food/Drink: Peets Coffee on the ground floor!
  • Windows/View: HUGE windows, nice view of the Barnard walkway for people-watching on every floor. Butler could never.
  • Group Rooms: 3 on the 1st floor, 2 on the 2nd floor, 5 on the 3rd floor,
  • Talking: It’s designed to get less social as the floors go up. The 1st and 2nd are more collaborative, while the 3rd and 4th floors tend to be silent. However, the 2nd floor gets pretty quiet too.
    Smoking: Barnard is a ~smoke free campus~.
  • Books: Barnard’s library is the campus library that specializes in Women, Gender, and Sexuality studies. It also houses a selection of circulating Arts and Architecture books and general undergraduate library for students of Barnard College. There’s a number of special collections in Milstein as well: Barnard Alum Collection; Barnard Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Alum Collection; Barnard First Generation-Low Income (FLIP) library; Course Reserves; Lesbian Fiction Collection; LGBTQ YA Collection; Media Collection; and Zine Collection. The Barnard Archive is also located here.
  • Bonus: Absolutely beautiful terraces on the 2nd through 4th floor! Perfect for when you need a break to go outside and enjoy the sunlight. There’s also the Barnard Zine Library, which hosts a number of cool events and workshops. And don’t forget about the Design Center!

Atmosphere: The first floor is very social, while the second through fourth tend to get really quiet and focused. Being so new, the atmosphere of the Milstein Center seems like it hasn’t quite decided what it wants to be yet–another Butler, absolutely silent and incredibly stressful, or one of the more relaxed study spaces on campus. Right now, it seems to be offering a bit of both, depending on which floor you decide to study on. Once the novelty of this new space wears off for good (probably around finals season), we might find out who Millie really is. For now, we can just enjoy her in her duality.

Favorite Spot: We’ll stan the green chairs until the world ends.

Recommendation: The Milstein Center is perfect for anyone looking for a study space with lots of light (and warmth, at least now that the AC has been turned off). Those on the hunt for absolute silence definitely will find their place here but those trying to escape that can also find a place–and unlike Butler, the occasional noise won’t make you feel like you’re about to get your head ripped off. It’s a really great place to buckle down and get to work, or spend some time just people-watching passers-by on the walkway. Unfortunately, the short hours, especially on the weekend, and occasional difficulty in finding a seat, can be a deterrent from this otherwise pretty awesome spot.

butler? who is she? via Bwog Archives