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The sentence in question is “You can drop in to either library from 10am–5pm and make your notebook.” Should it be “to either library” or “at either library”? Thanks.

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There's no grammatical issue here. Either one is acceptable, and they mean the same thing. – John Lawler Jul 31 '12 at 14:05
Also see “At” or “in” the office? – jwpat7 Jul 31 '12 at 14:13
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It’s easier to drop into libraries with open skylights. – tchrist Jul 31 '12 at 14:20

2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

There's no grammatical issue here. Either one is acceptable, and they mean the same thing.

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just to understand a bit better. Why did you post John Lawler's answer as community wiki? Shouldn't he have posted his own answer himself? Did you do it to prevent other people from copying the same answer and getting credit from it? – Paola Jul 31 '12 at 14:59
@Paola I was following this example. – coleopterist Jul 31 '12 at 15:14
@Paola: Just to add to that (it was me that did it last time), when John writes actual answers they do tend to be quite a bit longer. He could doubtless say more on this specific question if he wanted, but I agree with coleopterist that the comment is a perfectly adequate answer here. Crumbs off John's table are often better than a full plate somewhere else (erk! - I don't want to get a reputation for brown-nosing here! :) – FumbleFingers Jul 31 '12 at 23:35
Is drop in "at" more AE and drop in "to" more BE? It sounds like it to my BE(northern) ears. – mgb Aug 1 '12 at 1:28
up vote 1 down vote

While either may pass muster as "acceptable", "Drop in TO the library" is somewhat confusing, as it introduces the image of "dropping into" as in "through the roof/ceiling".

There may be some regions where the phrase "drop in to" is so common that there's no such confusion, but "Drop in AT the library" avoids the problem altogether, and that's what I'd choose.

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