The Mecca of Public Libraries

Don't ask me why I've taken so long to post this library. I am from New York after all! Well, when it comes to public libraries, I challenge you to find one more famous than this!
Technically, this is a research library although it is open to the public and is part of NYPL, the New York Public Library System, which consists of over 80 branches.

the most famous lion in New York

the grand reading room

the map division room

an old postcard featuring the library








For a history on the library, click on this link. I would rather present to you a blurb from this book by Marilyn Johnson. In her chapter entitled "Gotham City", she gives a very vivid view on the inner workings of the old library.

"This library is huge. It encompasses two city blocks, millions of items, miles of shelves, hundreds of librarians, a cavernous storage space beneath Bryant Park, the whole thing humming like a freeway. You locate what you want in the digital catalog, an ever-expanding index of knowledge. You write down your name and the particulars of the item, its call number and title, on an old-fashioned clip with a stubby pencil. You have just used the most sophisticated tool in the library and the least sophisticated; the twenty-first-century library embraces both. A reference librarian checks the call number against a map of the library, tucks the slip into one of the 1911-era brass tubes, and sends your request whizzing through pneumatic pipes to a station deep in the building's bowels. If you're lucky, the book is where it is supposed to be and arrives at the call desk on a conveyer belt; the slip you sent out like a prayer is answered."