Boston Public Library

Boston Public Library is a location in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston

Background
It was the largest repository of historical documentation in the Commonwealth, and a vibrant location before the Great War. After the war, Curator Givens led a crew to the library to retrieve and preserve any surviving information, but decades of neglect, water damage, looting, and vandalism had ruined most of the books. The super mutant attacks eventually killed the team.

Similar to certain other municipal buildings (including some hospitals and police stations), the library has a book return terminal where overdue books can be returned in exchange for book return tokens, which in turn can be used to obtain various prizes.

Layout
The library is occupied by Mk 1 turrets, Protectrons, and leveled super mutants.

The library's main entrance is an Advanced-locked door on the west side of the building. Passing an easy speech check at the nearby intercom will unlock the door, and will also trick the security system into thinking the player character is an employee, making all turrets and Protectrons inside the library friendly towards the player character. Attacking a friendly turret or Protectron will then result in combat with that unit only.

Inside the main entrance, a tripwire triggers a three-grenade bouquet. In the entrance room is a book return terminal. To the north is the main hall, with several super mutant corpses at the south end, and two turrets, three Protectrons, and the corpse of Dalen at the north end. A computer room (with the corpse of Curator Givens) connected to a Master-locked storage room (containing a steamer trunk and other loot) is north of the hall. On the northeast side of the hall is a door chained from the other direction.

Returning to the main entrance, a hallway runs to the east. Descending a ramp formed by a collapsed section of floor in a side room to the south allows access to the library's central courtyard. A set of stairs guarded by a turret at the north end of the courtyard leads up to a reading room with a Novice-locked terminal on the other side of the chained door from the main hall. East of the reading room is a balcony with a Novice-locked terminal and a second book return terminal. Stairs lead down from the balcony to the entrance to Copley Station, with a nearby tripwire triggering three grenade bouquets holding a total of seven grenades.

Continuing south from the balcony is a series of smaller rooms, including another reading room with several broken terminals, a pair of restrooms, a filing room with a chemistry station, and an office along the hallway east of the main entrance.

Loot

 * Massachusetts Surgical Journal issue #13 - In the book return terminal in the southwest corner of the building by the main entrance, obtained as a prize in exchange for 50 book return tokens.
 * Vault-Tec lunchbox - In the southwest room with the book return terminal by the main entrance on a table.
 * Library storage room key - In the main hall on the west side of the building, in the northeast corner on a table next to Curator Givens' terminal.
 * Intelligence bobblehead - In the computer room in the northwest corner of the building, on the large computer.
 * Stealth Boy and bottlecap mine - In the small Master-locked storage room off the computer room in the northwest corner of the building.
 * Nine overdue books:
 * Three are outside the building to the southeast across the street inside a Pulowski Preservation shelter.
 * Three are in the computer room in the northwest corner of the building on the ground at the foot of two sleeping bags.
 * One is in the reading room on the north side of the building on a shelf west of a Novice-locked terminal.
 * One is in the reading room on the east side of the building on a table next to a broken terminal near the door to the south.
 * One is in the women's restroom on the east side of the building in a stall.

Related quests

 * Public Knowledge: Upon speaking to Daisy in Goodneighbor, she will ask the Sole Survivor to clear super mutants out of the library and return her overdue books.
 * Neon Winter

Companion comments

 * When at this location, companions make comments, which are activated at two locations: at the entrance from Copley Station, and in the main hall.

Appearances
Boston Public Library appears

Behind the scenes

 * Boston Public Library a real-world location of the same name.
 * Nathan Purkeypile worked on the building kit and lighting for the Boston Public Library.
 * Robert MacCready's companion quote "No human being would possibly pile books this way" is spoken by Bill Murray in the 1984 movie Ghostbusters.

Bugs

 * One can get stuck inside the room at the bottom of the ramp to the south of the courtyard. A small room to the west blocked by rubble can be entered through the right side of the doorway, but is not possible to exit without loading a previous save.
 * The game may freeze when receiving the Massachusetts Surgical Journal from the book return terminal. It will not be possible to exit the terminal, and the "Item Obtained" overlay will be stuck on the screen indefinitely. This issue may possibly be avoided if the Enter key is used instead of the Activate key to select the prize in the terminal.
 * The library entrance intercoms may respond like an NPC (e.g. with "Huh?" or "Yeah?") instead of starting the dialogue explaining that the library is closed. This will make the entrance door to the library impossible to open without lockpicking, and leads to the turrets in the library followed by the resident Protectrons becoming hostile. Restarting the game or reloading a save won't fix the issue. However, entering the console command before being detected by the automated defenses will make the player character an ally of the turrets and Protectrons.