The New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is one of the leading public
libraries of the world and is one of America's most significant
research libraries. It is unusual in that it is composed of a very
large circulating public library system combined with a very large
non-lending research library system. It is simultaneously one of the
largest public library systems in the United States and one of the
largest research library systems in the world. It is a privately
managed, nonprofit corporation with a public mission, operating with
both private and public financing. Its flagship building, on Fifth
Ave. running from 40th to 42nd Street in Manhattan, is a National
Historic Landmark.
The historian David McCullough has described the New York Public
Library as one of the five most important libraries in America, the
others being the Library of Congress, the Boston Public Library, and
the university libraries of Harvard and Yale.
Although it is called the New York Public Library it does not
cover all five boroughs of America's largest city. New York City does
not have a single public library system but three of them. The other
two are the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Borough Public
Library, serving the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, respectively.
Photo 60a, Dec 2007