If you ever find yourself up at Columbia Medical Center’s campus, check out the Health Sciences Library! 

I’m a big library aficionado. I find myself really productive when sitting down at a desk in an environment full of other people working. Although I’m up at Columbia Medical Center for work every week, I don’t usually get the chance to explore. However, this past Friday I was set free to do some good old-fashioned literature review on my own. I contemplated where I would sit and do this—the little ledge in the NYSPI (New York State Psychiatric Institute if you’re boring, Nis-pee if you’re fun) Kolb building overlooking the river? The tables in the NYSPI Pardes building overlooking the river? Rivers are fun! I love the Hudson, I love the George Washington Bridge! What would I rather do than look at them while doing my work? 

Wrong. I had been there, done that. I wanted to explore. I thought to myself—there are so many different graduate schools up here, there’s got to be a library somewhere. Having NYSPI swipe access, I deduced that I would probably be able to get into a few of them. I went to Google Maps and searched “library,” and lo and behold—one. One library. For a million different graduate schools? Okay…

So I tried it out—Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library, in the Hammer Health Sciences Center up a run of stairs on 168th Street. Fun fact, guys! Anybody can visit this library between 9 am and 5 pm, the times when you’re not required to swipe! Otherwise, the library is open 24/7, but only for CUIMC students, faculty, and staff. Certain people also get certain privileges, such as borrowing library books from the Health Sciences Library and using their electronic materials. 

It’s sort of a standard library. There are places you can eat and can’t eat. There are individual and group study spaces. There are places where you can speak and where if you make so much as a peep, a future doctor will take out your spleen. Apparently there are study rooms too, which I thought was really cool, but I didn’t see them. All in all, it’s a weird space. There are mostly soft chairs, high seats at really high tables, or little rolly chairs congregated around circular tables. It seems like it’s beckoning collaboration instead of the Butler grind, but I don’t think I heard anybody speak the entire time I was there. 

I’m not gonna lie to you guys, this library isn’t all that great. It’s kind of like if those random rooms in Lerner had no windows, short ceilings, and were full of stressed med students. I didn’t really love it and don’t ever want to go back. 

But! Did I mention there’s a cafe? Lots of great food—pastries, fun little drinks, even tiny cups of cereal! I didn’t take a picture of it because I was scared, but I was highly, highly impressed. It was much more stocked than all the cafes on Columbia’s Morningside campus. So, in summary, I don’t recommend the Health Sciences Library, but I do recommend their cafe! Check it out next time you go up to 168th and Broadway. It’ll give you a little smile. 

Health Sciences Library via Emma Burris