You will need to create a wrapper for it if you wish to use it as a library.
I would suggest you take the composer route.
You can check on packagist for a suitable library.
If you use this particular library phpcassa this is how you would go about getting it to work in Codeigniter.
composer.json
{
"require": {
"php": ">=5.3.0",
"thobbs/phpcassa": "1.1.0"
}
}
index.php
require "../composer/autoload.php";
system/core/codeigniter.php
// Where codeigniter starts to load the Main Controller
// $cassandraDB will be in the GLOBAL scope, so you may want to write a wrapper
$cassandraDB = new ConnectionPool('localhost');
// Then right after this
// if (class_exists('CI_DB') AND isset($CI->db))
// {
// $CI->db->close();
// }
$cassandraDB->close();
User Model
implement it how you wish in your models
public function __construct()
{
//YOU MAY NEED TO PASS $cassandraDB AS A DEPENDANCY!!
$this->users = new ColumnFamily($cassandraDB, 'Standard1');
}