Famous University Libraries: The World’s Most Instagrammable

From education to escapism, libraries can be a sanctuary for the public and students. Whilst most library-goers get stuck in with a book, others appreciate them for their architecture, design and beauty.

Interested in making learning more exciting, Theknowledgeacademy.com sought to establish the world’s most popular beautiful university libraries according to Instagram data.

The World’s Top 20 Instagrammable University Libraries
Rank	Library name	University name	Location	Instagram hashtags
1.	Radcliffe Camera	Oxford University	Oxford, England	40,394
2.	John Rylands Library	University of Manchester	Manchester, England	22,135
3.	Trinity College Library	Trinity College	Dublin, Ireland	18,339
4.	Suzzallo Library	University of Washington	Washington, USA	6,670
5.	Butler Library	Columbia University	New York, USA	3,666
6.	Widener Library	Harvard University	Massachusetts, USA	3,025
7.	The Maughan Library	King’s College London	London, England	3,014
8.	Powell Library	UCLA	Los Angeles, USA	2,882
9.	Biblioteca Joanina	Coimbra University	Coimbra, Portugal	2,853
10.	George Peabody Library	Johns Hopkins University	Maryland, USA	2,748
11.	Cambridge University Library	University of Cambridge	Cambridge, England	2,124
12.	Sterling Memorial Library	Yale University	Connecticut, USA	2,029
13.	Bobst Library	New York University	New York, USA	1,990
14.	Weston Library	Oxford University	Oxford, England	1,855
15.	Senate House Library	University of London	London, England	1,595
16.	TU Delft Library	University of Technology	Delft, Netherlands	1,584
17.	LSE Library	The London School of Economics and Political Science	London, England	1,470
18.	The Sir Duncan Rice Library	Aberdeen University	Aberdeen, Scotland	1,370
19.	Manchester Metropolitan University Library	Manchester Metropolitan University	Manchester, England	1,143
20.	Uris Library	Cornell University	New York, USA	864

The analysis:

• The university library with the most Instagram hashtags (40,394) is Radcliffe Camera, Oxford University
• The top three most Instagrammable university libraries are located in England and Ireland (Radcliffe Camera, John Rylands Library, and Trinity College Library)!
• The USA and UK both feature the most university libraries in the list (8 each)
• Portugal (Biblioteca Joanina), the Netherlands (TU Delft Library) and Scotland (The Sir Duncan Rice Library) also make the top 20

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Methodology:

1. Theknowledgeacademy.com sought to determine the world’s most Instagrammable university libraries.
2. The study considered just under 300 university libraries by using reputable sources including ‘Town & Country’, ‘4icu’, ‘Best Masters Programs’, and ‘Matador Network’.
3. Theknowledgeacademy.com then used Instagram to discover how many hashtags each university library has. To do this, they inserted the name of each respective library, or building, into Instagram’s search feature to establish a hashtag’s figure. Where appropriate, variations of each hashtag were also considered.
4. The libraries were then ranked from most to least Instagrammed based on the total hashtag sum.
5. Instagram hashtags are correct as of 22nd October 2021, but are subject to change.