Norlin Library

They’ve got everything you need if you ask. The environment is quiet, focused, and ideal for studying for long hours.

I basically live here these days so I might as well write a review about my second home!
I can see how some people would say it’s overwhelming. Sometimes it’s very hard to find a spot and there is always a lot of people running around trying to get their lives in order. Personally though, I’ve become quite fond of Norlin.
One thing I will say — Great people watching (I know that’s not what a library is supposed to be) but seriously, if I ever need a break from studying, I just close my laptop and look around for ten minutes. The other thing that’s nice about Norlin is if you need another break, it’s big enough to take lap and come back and be productive again!
Love the location, right in the middle of campus and close to most of my classes. Beautiful views from some of the windows and the building itself is quite pretty as well!

Really pretty, really great variety and amount of books, articles, etc to check out, really nice place to study/​read/​relax between classes, etc…
If you can find a spot.
Very popular library. Right in the middle of campus. Very busy. Finals week? Good luck finding a chair.

This place is the best library in Boulder for studying and doing research. It is great to have less number of shady homeless folks sitting in front of the computers playing Farmville or similar game than at the public libraries.

Nice library, great Quad!

Hey Norlin,
You’re okay. During finals you’re a bit of a hassle. You become overrun by undergrads with good intentions, but who really just want to socialize – see and be seen.
I love that you have the new system where I can request a book online and you will have it ready for me at the front desk pick-​up. Interlibrary loan and prospector are also dependable. You rarely hook me with a late-​fee charge when I am one day late because your rarely up to speed on checking those books in.
Some of the study furniture is aging and gross, but for the most part the remodel was a success and I love the Laughing Goat section.
You’re a-​okay,
Diane

The Norlin Library will always hold a special place in my heart. Aside from the Muenzinger Building, I spent more time here than anywhere during my time at CU.
Especially while researching my honors thesis, I’d spend entire days in the subterranean depths of the building, working my way through the maze-​like sub-​basements and recessed corners. Ah, I loved this place.
Being a Psych major, this is one of the best libraries you’ll ever encounter thanks to the back issues of countless psych journals (I hear old Muenzinger was quite the journal fanatic).
Just be careful you don’t get locked in. I was here late one night in one of the many out of the way rooms and they nearly closed up with me inside!
And like everybody else I’ve heard the rumors of all the mad sex that goes on in the library. I can only say that I never got any there. Then again, I was always too busy studying.

The Norlin Library is the main library of the University of Colorado at Boulder (yes kidoes, there are more libraries on campus. In fact there is an entire library system).
As a former employee, you all are going to get the inside scoop on this place.
Well, the Norlin library’s collection is excellent, especially for non-​fiction, and is open to the public. The stacks are organized by the library of congress call-​system, which is much better than the Dewey-​decimal system of course, so things should be fairly easy to find, given all the terminals downstairs that can be used to look up books. The library also has many places to study for you students, and has a serious periodical section for old issues of magazines and newspapers.
However, the politics of this place makes the upkeep seriously lacking. The budget is limited — like with everything else with CU — (thank you Republicans) so who gets what resources becomes a personal matter. The re-​shelving in particular is fairly poor. This is not because of a lack of dedication by the student-​employees nor direct mismanagement from supervisors, but instead is from severe under-​employment. What this means is that there is a backorder of books that need to be put back onto the stacks, as well as a large number of missing books. I don’t know how many times I’ve been there looking for a book that the computers tell me is there, but that cannot be found in the stacks and is therefore lost somewhere in the system.
Of course the pay for employees of the library isn’t exactly stellar either, so this also leads to a problem.
So: this place has a huge collection but is not run efficiently or even adequately.
A real shame.