Library Stuff

“The budget plan for the New York Public Library’s renovation project is preliminary and imprecise at this point, Neil L. Rudenstine, the library’s chairman, acknowledged in a letter last month to trustees that was obtained by The New York Times. The cost projections have been one focus of the debate over the project, with critics calling for more financial detail beyond the current estimate of $300 million. The library has suggested that the plan would produce $15 million in savings a year, allowing the library to extend hours, acquire more books and hire more librarians system-wide.”

via NYTimes.com

“After one visit, she returned with her hair in dreadlocks. Another time, her long blond locks were primly fashioned into a traditional bun. One day, she came back wearing a uniform of the exclusive all-girls Brearley School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. These have been the many phases of Kirsten Larson, an American Girl doll who sat on a shelf in the Ottendorfer branch of the New York Public Library, in the East Village, until a resourceful children’s librarian began lending her to girls, many of whose parents, because of financial or feminist reasons, resist buying the dolls.”

via NYTimes.com

“To see how New York City’s library systems stack up next to other big cities’ libraries in terms of government support, you might want to check the cookbook shelves under “chopped liver.” In Columbus, Ohio, the libraries are open an average of 29 more hours a week. San Francisco’s receive up to three times as much per capita from the local government. Meanwhile, New York’s three public library systems — workhorses all — are trying to do more with less: the city’s contribution to their operating budgets has declined by more than 7 percent, adjusted for inflation, over the past decade, even as circulation and program attendance have increased.”

via NYTimes

“The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is pleased to announce the release of the Dorothy Loudon Digital Exhibition. Dorothy Loudon (1925-2003) was a Tony Award-winning Broadway star, cabaret singer, and television performer. She is best remembered for her performance as Miss Hannigan in the original Broadway cast of Annie and for the playing the leading role of Bea Asher in the 1978 musical Ballroom. This online exhibit, funded by a generous grant from the Dorothy Loudon Foundation, provides researchers and fans with digital access to selections from her personal and professional papers, held by the Library since 2005.”

via The New York Public Library

“In September 2015 the Picture Collection, which is located on the third floor of the Mid-Manhattan Branch of The New York Public Library, will celebrate its centennial. The Picture Collection’s origins were closely tied to immigration into New York City at the beginning of the 20th century. Advances in printing and publishing at the time, combined with the population explosion, created an increase in demand from the advertising markets. The need for a specialized collection of images arranged by subject heading quickly became evident and artists and designers requiring specific visual resources turned to the Library for help. The circulation department began collecting images and on September 13, 1915 the Collection opened to the public. Today, almost one hundred years later, professional artists and designers, students, and researchers continue to be inspired by the Picture Collection.”

via TThe New York Public Library Blog

“Responding to objections raised by scholars, writers, artists and others, the New York Public Library has revised its plan to remove most of the books from its flagship Fifth Avenue research center to make room for a circulating library. Library officials said that an $8 million donation would help pay for enough new storage space to keep 3.3 million of its 4.5 volumes at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, at 42nd Street.”

via NYTimes

“In the past year, Penguin Group USA has slowly pulled away from the library e-book market. Now it is tiptoeing back in. The publisher is working with New York City libraries and 3M on a pilot program that will make Penguin e-books available in city libraries beginning in August, Penguin said on Wednesday. If it is a success, the program could be expanded in public libraries across the country.”

via NY Times

“An iPad app by Inkle Studios and Profile Books based on Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” drew some rave reviews for its sophisticated choose-your-own-adventure approach when it was released in April. Now a second ambitious interactive take on the classic monster novel has jolted to life in Apple’s App Store, courtesy of the New York Public Library.”

via NY Times.

WSJ – “Passions are being roiled around the city by what some see as the nefarious actions of the trustees of the New York Public Library. The story to date: to consolidate its holdings, update its infrastructure and strengthen its endowment, the NYPL intends to sell two large mid-town branches, and to oust seven stories of closed stacks in the main research library on 42nd and Fifth to make room for a lending library, and maybe a coffee shop. There are good reasons to deplore certain aspects of this plan, as NYPL trustee Robert Darnton notes in his measured essay in the June 7 issue of The New York Review of Books. Chief among these is the loss of storage space – according to Darnton, approximately half of the books now stored in the stacks will be moved to the ReCAP facility in Princeton, requiring researchers to order them twenty-four hours in advance.”

NY Times – “Roy Stryker, founder of the Farm Security Administration’s photography project, was determined to compile a visual encyclopedia of the United States in the 1930s and ’40s and preserve it for future generations. So, while photographers like Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans and Russell Lee crisscrossed the country, Mr. Stryker was sending boxes of prints to Ramona Javitz, the director of the New York Public Library Picture Collection, to make sure there was a repository other than the National Archives.”