Amsterdam University Library

Yes it's pretty. But it's a serious failure. We humanities students are struggling SO much to actually use this space. We must arrive very early (before 10am) to get a spot in a silent room. But project rooms are ALWAYS crowded. Of course they are, they are so tiny. Nice furnitures, nice lighting but NOT ENOUGH tables and chairs. We students are very frustrated. We feel dispossesed. We had a very decent learning space in Singel and PCH - now we have a pretty book box for tourist tours and PR ... We wrote to the UVA people and all they speak about is money. Marketing took over education. How sad.

Please be careful of the man who collects bottles with the deposit. I left my clearly new water bottle near by the water pipe when I went to the toilet. When I came back, my bottle was gone. I then heard a jingling sound, so I followed it one floor down and saw a man who was quite aggressively collecting recycled bottles from the garbage bins. When I approached him, he clearly knew what I was looking for. He even started searching for my bottle in his large bags full of recycled bottles before I asked whether he had taken a bottle from the floor above. It’s honestly shocking, because anyone can tell that this bottle belonged to someone and was not trash, let alone considering where it was placed. It was not near a garbage bin at all. Please be aware of this. I’m also wondering whether the library management team, if they know this person, could talk to him about not taking items that clearly belong to others.

Indeed a beautiful building but the security guards are wildly rude. They are acting like they are guarding Gringotts or something and mistreat students for stupid reasons. I had an incident recently where I was entering the building and a lady was in front of me. She clearly used her card to enter and then I used my own to do so, but the security guard in the front desk stopped me and while shouting told me to call the lady to come back, because supposedly, I used my card to let her in and thus she must leave or whatever. He insisted and I literally told him I saw her using her own card and I can’t call her back because I literally don’t know her and obviously since I don’t know her why would I let her in, like dude. Even if that was the case, it is impolite to shout and brag for such a minor reason and he could have easily treated the situation calmly. I really do think this sense of mistrust between working staff and students is quite the opposite of what the academic spirit supposedly is.

If you show up later than 10:00 there is no place to sit. The collaboration rooms are far too small. For humanities students the library at PCH was great, and if you needed to work on a project together it was still possible at Singel. Now these good libraries are gone and we only have this useless building. It is clearly built for aesthetics, not function. Same with the whole new campus layout. There aren't even any benches outside for students to sit in between classes when it is nice weather out...

The employees are extremely rude to students who pay a significant amount of money to attend this university. They are not even properly performing their duties as security staff, because there are some homeless people collecting bottles. Last time I was experiencing a health emergency and asked for help, but the girl at the front desk said she couldn’t do anything. However, she has no problem yelling at students who enter the library without a physical student ID, even when they show their ID and Canvas account as proof. I have also seen her making personal calls with her friends while sitting at the front desk. I cannot believe this is the level of service students have to experience at a highly ranked university like the University of Amsterdam. As a student, this treatment feels humiliating and unacceptable 🤣

During my visit to the university library, the security guard at the entrance spoke to me in a rude and impatient tone. When I tried to continue asking questions, he abruptly ended the conversation without providing any necessary explanation. This manner of handling the situation felt highly unprofessional and negatively affected my impression of the university.

Pretty building but this library is just not functional. There is not enough study space to accommodate students. There are not enough plugs and water dispensers. The lights are extremely bright. Cafeteria is tiny and does not sell food. Such a big shame for an education for which we pay tuition fees, in one of the most recognised universities of the world. What is next? No toilets? I hope someone responsible is reading all these reviews restating the same problems, so the developers fix the library’s problems and make students’ life as should be.

As a UvA student visitor I can tell you that the comment regarding rude staff is legit. It is reasonable to make sure that student are safe in the library and people do not randomly enter and exit. However, the security literally treats people who forgot to bring their ID Cards like criminals. Even if they proof their identity as Dutch international students with passport and Residence Permit. For people who is not from UvA- Most of the UvA property do not request student id or any form of proof for enter and exit. So most student don’t bring their id cards around. The fact that this building requires id check is reasonable but unexpected when most UvA buildings don’t require the same. It is correct to ask a student out when no id present but the way they do it is extremely disrespectful.