Getting Your Bearings

If you’re a graduate student, you may wish to attend one of our “Getting Your Bearings” orientations, designed to help you begin using the powerful information tools at your disposal and to point you to some of the most important library services and personnel at Butler Library and elsewhere on campus.

The Libraries will be offering six “Getting Your Bearings” sessions to introduce graduate researchers to our collections and services.

The sessions begin with a 40 to 45 minute tour of key points and  services in Butler Library, including an intro to our Rare Book and Manuscript library.  This is likely to be of most interest and  relevance to people working in the humanities, history, and social sciences. The tours will begin at the Reference Desk in  Butler 301.

Wednesday August 27  at 4:00 pm
Thursday  August 28 at 2:00 pm
Tuesday September 2 at 3:30 pm
Wednesday September 3 at 2:00 pm
Thursday September 4 at 12:00 pm
Thursday September 4 at 3:30 pm

The second half of the session,  which will take place in Butler  203, will be devoted to an overview of the Libraries’ online information  system and ways to get the most out of it, and would be of value to all graduate students.  Participants who want to attend only the second half should feel free  come directly to Butler 203 (on 8/27, 9/2, 9/3 and 9/4) or Butler 306 (on Thursday 8/28) about 40 to 45 minutes after the beginning  of tour.

Butler Library Tours

We are also offering general tours of Butler Library at 4:00 pm the first week of classes:

Tuesday September 2nd at 4:00 pm
Wednesday September 3rd at 4:00 pm
Thursday September 4th at 4:00 pm
Friday September 5th at 4:00 pm

All tours meet in Butler Library lobby near the security desk at 4pm.  Sign up here, or show up in person.

Other campus libraries are also offering tours, see a more complete list here: https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/spotlights/2014/08/27/library-tours/