Welcome to the AskEHBL Blog!

Welcome to the AskEHBL blog for the E. H. Butler Library at Buffalo State College. This blog will help us present timely and convenient access to information about the library and its collections, services, resources, activities, and anything else we thought you might find useful. As an introduction, I thought I might start with some me general history about the library…

History of Butler Library

E. H. Butler Library is the library for the Buffalo State campus and provides services for the entire academic community. The building is named after Edward Hubert Butler Sr., the founder of the Buffalo News. Construction of the original library building began in May 1950. The library was formally dedicated in memory of Mr. Butler two years later on May 16, 1952. It was the first building on campus to be named in honor of a person.

The present building was started in August 1966 and was officially dedicated on April 14, 1970. Since then, the building has gone through modifications to accommodate emerging technologies and to meet changing standards for safety and for accessibility to all patrons.

Butler Library has a seating capacity of about 2,000 and is an ideal place for both the serious researcher and the casual reader. The library serves Buffalo State students and members of the faculty and staff with more than a million research materials, including over a half million books, more than 900,000 microforms, more than 20,000 audiovisual and nonbook items, subscriptions to over 17,000 print and online periodicals, and an ever-growing virtual collection. In addition, the library houses several special collections and the Buffalo State College Archives. Archives and Special Collections provides information about the Butler Ice Fountain, a brief history of the college, and more.

During the academic year the library is open to the public 111.5 hours per week. The library catalog and research databases, many with full-text articles, are accessible 24 hours per day, seven days a week.