New York Public Library

“ In the realism of its plan and in the mixture of dignity and distinction in the design, The New York Public Library is typical of that which is best in the contemporary American architectural movement; and New York is fortunate, indeed, that such a statement can be made of the most important public building erected in the city during several generations. ”

“ Or is he primarily attracted to the library by some other consideration, his love for books and reading acting only in a secondary manner? The New York Public Library, for instance, carries on the registry books of its circulating department nearly 400,000 names, and in the course of a year nearly 35,000 new applications are made for the use of its branch libraries, scattered over different parts of the city. What brings these people to the library? This is no idle question. The number of library users, large as it is, represents too small a fraction of our population. ”

“ Owing to increase in both public and private contributions this library was enabled to make rapid growth in the years immediately following until in 1901, when it was merged in the Circulation Department of the New York Public Library, it was operating eleven branches with a circulation of over 600,000. This institution was the pioneer of the popular, as distinguished from the scholarly, library idea in New York. ”

“ The popularity of the Library has, consequently, been well earned. The public has reason to like it, because it offers them a smiling countenance; and the welcome it gives is merely the outward and visible sign of an inward grace. When people enter they will find a building which has been ingeniously and carefully adapted to their use. Professional architects like it, because they recognize the skill, the good taste and the abundant resources of which the building, as a whole, is the result ”

“ Publishers are putting out an avalanche of books on every phase of business. The demand for books of reference, books of the practical, in our libraries is overwhelming. Reports of the New York Public Library attest that seekers after books of technical information are numbered by hundreds of thousands. ”

“ The library is vastly more than a collection of books: it is a social, civilizing, moralizing force. We expect to find the library building in every city and town as much as to find the spire of the church or the flag of the schoolhouse. The visitor to Boston to-day finds the public library as commanding a pile as Trinity Church, and far more imposing than any schoolhouse. The visitor to New York finds the new public library building climbing into a mass and dignity as great as that of any cathedral. ”

“ With this as a basic fact we naturally suppose that in these states, at least, public libraries will be found catering to and helping to Americanize and to educate these citizens-to-be; because, if for no other reason, we proudly call ourselves the "university of the people." If the truth were told through questionnaire, or otherwise, about twenty-five out of one hundred libraries throughout New York state are sufficiently alive to the problem to supply books to attract and interest foreigners. ”

“ It is with keen interest that the experiment in New York City is being watched. It certainly seems as if the most economical arrangement would be to have the branch of the public library so placed in a school building that the students would have free access to it, and the public also, not only during school hours but public library hours. It seems the logical duty of the board of education to furnish the few necessary reference books that are in continual demand in every school room and also the sets of books which are used for supplementary reading. ”

“ This is more especially true when the people are foreigners. The New York public library has forty-one branches and all that are located in districts where foreigners live have, beside English books, collections of books in languages native to the residents. By so doing we believe that we convince of our friendship those adults who do not and even those who may never read English. This is a fundamental necessity, opening up various possibilities for imparting American ideas and ideals. ”

“ The public library system is a most valuable auxiliary to the school system, and is fast becoming indispensable. This is one of the great advantages which city pupils have over those whose home is in the country, and it will lead in the end to district libraries. In some States, as in New York, a successful effort has been made to inaugurate a system of traveling libraries, whereby a case of fifty or one hundred volumes, relating to a particular topic, will be lent for a time to any circle of readers. ”

“ Such documentary libraries would not be deserted, as some may suppose. The Patent Room of the Boston Public Library was visited last year by 1,765 persons, and a collection of the engineering, scientific, and official publications of the Government in New York would be a centre for professional study, and be visited by thousands yearly. To house the Government publications would require so much space that an ordinary library could hardly be expected to undertake the task without aid. ”

“ I look to see special library work for children increase in importance, but with due recognition of the fact that some of the needs and aspirations of a “grown-up” are present in many a twelve-year-old and that it is better that the clothes of a growing child should be a size too large than an exact fit.
The travelling library deserves a special word, because its success is indicative of the tendency to bring the book and its user into closer contact. In New York we began, only seven years ago, to circulate a few hundred books monthly in this way among half a dozen schools. ”

“ They found what they were seeking almost immediately—an observation post that seemed custom-made for the job of watching the grimy store across the square. It was a small branch library—one of the many subdivisions of New York’s huge public library system. ”

“ New York had long labored under the disadvantage of having no public library from which books could be freely borrowed by her citizens. Dr. Cogswell once remarked that a free circulating library in New York was impossible and that in five years any collection of books made for that purpose would be scattered forever beyond hope of recovery. He here showed the distrust of the book-collector and the attitude of the old style librarian towards the books entrusted to his care.
The Astor and the Lenox Libraries were for reference use only, and were never open in the evenings or on holidays. ”

“ Faithful as they have been to the fundamental requirement of adapting the building to its purpose as a library, they have also succeeded in making it look well; and they have succeeded in making it look well partly because the design is appropriate to its function as a building in which books are stored, read and distributed. A merely monumental library always appears somewhat forbidding and remote. The Library looks attractive, and so far as a large building can, even intimate.... ”

“ On the corridor leading west, and running along the 40th Street end of the building, are workrooms, open only to visitors having business engagements. These rooms are the office of the Order Division (No. 204) and of the Cataloguing and Accessions Divisions (No. 200 and No. 201) .
SOUTH COURT THIRD FLOOR
The most important room on the third floor and, indeed, the centre of activity of the entire Reference Department of the Library, is the Main Reading Room, approached through the Public Catalogue Room. The latter opens from the western side of the corridor at the head of the staircases. ”

“ The whole collection was sent to New York, and opened for public use in 1731, under the name of the “Corporation Library.” The death of the librarian occurred soon after, and the library was suffered to fall into disuse. In 1754, a number of citizens of means and literary taste, founded the “Society Library,” to which, with the consent of the city, they added the old “Corporation Library.” In 1772, the Society received a charter from King George III. It is one of the wealthiest and most flourishing institutions in the city. The annual subscription is $10. ”

“ Free Public Library. Gift of a two-story brick building, valued at $25,000, on condition that it be used forever as a public library and that $1000 additional be raised by the citizens, from J. S. Reynolds.
— Gift of $2000, for the purchase of books, raised by popular subscription.
NEW YORK.
Albany. Young Men's Association Library—Pruyn Branch Library. Gift of building, furniture, and equipment, cost about $20,000, from Mrs. William G. Rice, in memory of her father, the late Chancellor J. V. L. Pruyn. ”

“ In New York we have taken what many will consider a backward step, by partially closing, as an experiment, the shelves of two of our branches. So that although we may safely say that free access has come to stay, I do not look to see it applied very generally to large collections. One thing seems to me clear. Library administration is becoming increasingly business-like, and it is not business-like to accept a large annual loss without an attempt to minimize it. ”

“ That is supported by the funds of the Library; all the others are maintained by the City. Thirty-seven of the Branch buildings were erected from funds given by Mr. Andrew Carnegie. The collections of books in the Branches number from ten to fifty thousand, with a total of about 1,100,000 books.
Each Branch has an adult department, with its collection of books for adult readers, a children's room, and a reading room with current magazines, reference books, and, in many cases, daily newspapers. Many of the Branches contain lecture or assembly rooms. ”

“ The provision of books is more profuse, although there is, on the whole, more reading done in the United Kingdom. The largest municipal library system in America, and also in the world, is that of New York City, which, after struggling with a series of Free Circulating Libraries, blossomed out in 1895 into the series of combinations which resulted in the present great establishment. ”

“ BASEMENT
NOTE
Although the purpose of this Handbook is to tell the principal facts about the Library as an institution, its chief use is likely to be that of a guide to the Central Building. The section about the Central Building is therefore given first place. Any visitor who cares to take the trouble, before beginning his tour of the Building, to read the brief historical sketch (on pages 63-73) will have a better understanding of the organization and work of the Library, and see the reasons for a number of things which might not otherwise be clear. ”

“ Cowell says that during the year ending 31st August, 1877, 453,585 volumes were issued at the reference library alone (Liverpool Free Public Library) ; of these 170,531 were strictly novels. The high-percentage of novel reading is not confined to Free Public Libraries, for we find that in the Odd Fellows' Library of San Francisco, [Pg 86] in 1874, 64,509 volumes of Prose Fiction were lent out of a total of 78,219. The other high figures being Essays, 2280; History, 1823; Biography and Travels, 1664. In the College of the City of New York, of the books taken out by students between Nov. ”

“ In the Printing Office the catalogue cards of the Library, printed forms, and all the Library's publications are printed. For the publications, see page 78.
Travelling Libraries Office. The entrance to the Travelling Libraries office is from Bryant Park, at the southwest corner of the building. The office itself is not of interest to sightseers. As it is under control of the Circulation Department, its work is described on page 59. ”