Results tagged “newyorkpubliclibrary”

       

The New York Public Library is pitting Philly and NYC against each other in this fantastic catalog of old baseball images they put online. They say: "The 2009 World Series brings together two cities uncommonly rich in baseball history. Some of the game's earliest years are chronicled in over 500 photographs, prints, drawings, caricatures, and printed illustrations donated in 1921 to the New York Public Library by early baseball player and sporting-goods tycoon A. G. Spalding (whose name to this day is printed across every ball used in the National League)."

Bookworms, rejoice! The New York Public Library has announced expanded hours at 10 locations, with some opening as early as 8 a.m. and closing as late at 11 p.m.! Here's a list of the locations, which also include five locations that had expanded hours from a pilot program; NYPL President Paul LeClerc said, “This is a moment to celebrate. In the current economic climate we have seen that access to libraries is essential. People with different circumstances and needs require their libraries at different times. I am enormously gratified that whether seeking a job, writing the next great novel, completing a school project, researching a new business or checking out the latest best seller, all our users will have time for in-depth pursuit of what they seek from us. I am very grateful to Mayor Bloomberg, Speaker Quinn, and the City Council for preserving funding for library hours, and our staff deserves credit for their willingness to experiment with new ideas and approaches to serving our users." Today the Mid-Manhattan location (Fifth Avenue and 40th Street) is having a party at its one-day only "Cover to Cover Cafe" (free coffee and Tim Hortons Timbits) until 11 p.m.

                    

Visit a used book store and, after about an hour, all the old books will start looking pretty much the same—the pages get yellowed, the edges become ragged, and the binding starts to disintegrate. What you end up with is shelf after shelf of cheap, trashy, tatters, but that's not so with the New York Public Library's collection of its old books. We went back to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Bryant Park last week to get a closer look at Rare Books Division, a 280,000 volume-strong collection filled with striking, unique works dating back hundreds of years into history, including everything from the first book published in North America to the book in which Ernest Hemingway jotted down his Nobel acceptance speech.

       

This September the New York Public Library will bring you back to school with some topographical history lessons. They're celebrating the New York Harbor Quadricentennial with an extensive exhibit featuring rarely seen maps, atlases and other treasures from their own personal collection. The exhibit is titled Mapping New York’s Shoreline, 1609-2009, and opens on September 25th... but here's a sneak peek.

No one will shush you for trying to save the New York Public Library from drastic budget cuts. In fact, they're asking for you to Shout It Out on their behalf. Stand up and support your local branch—and if you need some convincing, here's Bette Midler, Jeff Daniels, Barbara Walters, Tim Gunn, Amy Tan, Malcolm Gladwell, Nora Ephron, Mike Nichols, Mario Batali and many more talking about why the library has been so important to them.

                            

Last Friday morning we were lucky enough to spend some time in the New York Public Library's main branch, which opened up in 1911, before the doors were unlocked to the public. Librarian David Smith and some of the other NYPL staff took us around on a tour of the massive structure, from the remains of the Croton Reservoir, to the Allen Room (reserved for writers with book contracts) to the room where Charles Dickens's dead cat's paw resides (seriously), we saw it all! Well, except for the miles of books in the stacks that are housed under Bryant Park, that's top secret. Stay tuned for some interviews with more of the folks behind the books, and until then, we highly recommend you show some support (or at least get your library card)!

Last summer the NYPL shut its five-story, 88,000-square-foot Donnell branch in Midtown Manhattan, which opened in 1955 and was known for its massive collection of movies, music, and children’s books, among other things. The plan was to sell the building for $59 million to Orient-Express Hotels Ltd., who would raze it and build an 11-story hotel, with a new library on the ground floor and in the basement. But then the economy went all oopsy, and Orient-Express backed out last month.

If you want to visit the real Winnie the Pooh and friends, they're just a hop, skip and jump away at the 5th Avenue New York Public Library. Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, Piglet and Kanga moved in to their renovated space earlier this week, and ScoutingNY has a little bit of background on how they ended up there (previously they had been at the Donnell Library Center in Midtown). These are the original stuffed animals given to Christopher Robin Milne (pictured here) by his father A.A. Milne. "One day, Christopher's father, A.A. Milne, and an artist named Ernest H. Shepard, decided that these animals, and two other imaginary friends, Owl and Rabbit, would make fine characters in a bedtime story." Now anyone can visit the plush muses, who are "as happy as when they lived in the 100 Acre Wood."

David Smith has worked at the 42nd and 5th branch of the New York Public Library for 30 years, starting as a clerk and eventually landing at the General Research Division. Before becoming a librarian he was a bookstore clerk, Queens College student, cab driver and under the employ of Sufi Bakery and a butcher shop on Queens Blvd called Joe Salta's Meats.

    

The New York Public Library has a new exhibit on display starting today (and running through March 6th. Titled Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience, it will open tonight at the Countee Cullen Branch on 136th Street with a feature screening of documentary Before You Can Say Jackie Robinson, as well as a discussion with former Negro Leaguer Robert Scott.

The New York Public Library is in temporary possession of a new coffee-table book that weighs in at 61-lbs. The NY Times reports that the rarity was recently hand-made "by scholars, artists and artisans," and is called Michelangelo: La Dotta Mano. The book cost around $126K to make (what recession?) and will be on view through Monday. The cover of the book is "a bas-relief depiction of Michelangelo’s 'Madonna of the Steps,' sculptured on a piece of white marble from one of the Polvaccio quarries in Carrara, Italy, that supplied stone for the master’s statues." Decadence lives! ArtInfo reports that according to "a fine-art publication house in Italy whose charitable foundation donated this copy to the New York library, the book is intended to be 'a provocation in the age of the Internet.'" If you've got some cash to burn, 99 limited edition copies will be made, 20 of which have already been sold. Library president, Paul LeClerc, says: “It is one of the single greatest books made in the last 100 years. There is nothing else at this level.”

Another day, another chef panel: Last night at the New York Public Library, the chef Grant Achatz met up with former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold for a talk moderated by Wired magazine editor Mark McClusky. The topic was the experimental and sometimes maligned cooking techniques like the ones practiced by Achatz at his restaurant Alinea and Myhrvold at home in his kitchen/high tech laboratory.

      

With news that British architect Norman Foster will "transform" the beloved Fifth Avenue Beaux Arts building of the New York Public Library, one can only be curious about the seven floors of stacks and basement--equivalent of 1.25 million cubic feet--that will be renovated. There are no renderings yet, but there are some clues about the stacks and basement from archival drawings and photographs, courtesy the NYPL.

British architecture firm Foster + Partners has been selected to renovate the New York Public Library's Fifth Avenue Beaux-Arts building. Norman Foster, who married new with old at the British Museum in London and the Hearst Tower in NYC, told the NY Times, "It's the greatest project ever."

      

After his mother died from cancer, Dr. Robert Jackler of Stanford University worked through his grief by searching out print tobacco ads from the '20s through the '50s. Appearing in publications like Life and the Saturday Evening Post, the ads featured such cigarette-smoking luminaries as Rock Hudson, John Wayne, Joe DiMaggio, Ronald Reagan, and Santa Claus. And of course there were plenty of models hired to pose as doctors and dentists for ads with slogans like, "38,381 Dentists Say, ‘Smoke Viceroys.' They can never stain your teeth." Because if it was only, say, 38,300 dentists, nobody would have bought it.

     

A new photography exhibit examining the shifting views of public and private space, , opens today at the New York Public Library. Five photographers' recent projects "deal with the life of the city in terms of passage (of seasons and time, people and place) and exchange (between individual and collective, interior and exterior)."

This afternoon, not only can you take out a book on perfecting your tennis backhand, you can work on your Wii Tennis backhand at the New York Public Library's Humanities and Social Sciences Library (the big one on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street in Manhattan).

In the late 1990s, a plan to name a Yale dining hall after Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman fell through. Oh well, now the Wall Street kingpin is getting a library named after him – and not just any library. Thanks to a $100 million donation, the main branch of the New York Public Library, the one on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, will be renamed The Stephen A. Schwarzman Library.

Sure, you've seen TV shows or movies where someone receives caller from someone saying they have a bomb. But the nitty gritty of dealing with such a call can be boiled down to some handy forms. Reader animalvegetable took these photographs of forms (after the jump) from the New York Public Library that advise someone to (try to) classify the caller's voice, listen for background noises, and get the details.

Slowpokes and procrastinators beware: Late fees from overdue library books in New York could be costing you points off your credit score. The New York Times has an article today that describes how the The New York Public Library and the Queens Public Library have been using a private company named Unique Management Services, which is a collections agency that library late fines are referred to when not paid by book borrowers. One rabbi in Far Rockaway found this out when he tried to apply for a mortgage!

By 2011, our New York Public Library will have a new face. The building, which looms over Bryant Park and 5th Avenue, has been subject to urban pollution and a whole lot more in the past 96 years. From the press release:

The Library announced that it is undertaking a three-year restoration of the facade of the historic building now formally known as the Humanities and Social Sciences Library. The project will include a complete cleaning of the building's Vermont marble, repair of almost 3,000 cracks, protection and preservation of the many sculptural elements, and repair of the building's roof, stairs, and plazas.

(fishbowl, vol. 3, by hbomb1947 at flickr)

An exhibit at the main branch of the New York Public Library is drawing outrage from Republicans because some of the work on display depicts former and current members of the Bush administration posing for fake mug shots. Each official in the visionary series, called “Line Up”, is seen holding a slate with a date of arrest corresponding to a date when the official said something about Iraq that was not “reality-based.” Matthew Walter,...

Recently we sent Katie Dickinson to an advanced screening of “The Kite Runner” hosted by the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Club. The screening was followed by a Q&A session featuring director Marc Forster, screenwriter David Benioff and author Khaled Hosseini. Here's what she reported back: Spanning two continents and three decades, the novel "The Kite Runner" tells the story of Amir, an immigrant from Afghanistan, and how a childhood friendship with his servant,...

Books, or at least book shelves, must be on this couple's wedding registry: The Post has a cute story about a couple whose engagement took place at the Strand Bookstore. Joshua Reich and Shianling King "always told friends they met at the Strand," but they actually met online - their first date was supposed to be at the Museum of Modern Art, but the lines were so long that they went to the Strand instead....

Jack Kerouac. “Face of the Buddha.” Pencil on paper, 1956(?). NYPL, Berg Collection. Jack Kerouac. “Stella by Jack.” Pencil on paper, 1966(?). NYPL, Berg Collection. To help commemorate the 50th Anniversary of On the Road, the NYPL has put together a great exhibit titled Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road. The exhibit explores the work and life of the Beat writer and showcases "the three extant typescript drafts of the novel, including the...

READING: We originally thought this was going down yesterday, but you still have a chance to see it! Not in a million years would we have thought we'd be listing a reading by former Guns n' Roses guitarist, Slash. But it turns out old rockers love to dish on their sordid lives, and this mysterious musician is no different. Tonight he'll read from his book, called Slash, which apparently "redefines sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll."

MUSIC: It's CMJ, check out one of the zillions of bands playing. Since trying to pick just one show is tough, we'll suggest one for you. Head over to Brooklyn tonight for Dirty on Purpose, A Place to Bury Strangers, Sisters, Coin Under Tongue and Indian Scout. They'll be taking the stage at Death by Audio.

is considered a classic. It contains recipes such as Blood Cake with Fried Eggs, Tripe Gratin, and Crispy Pig’s Tail. Stuff like that. This isn’t stunt eating, Fear Factor-style, nor is Henderson’s food supposed to be particularly innovative, but it is. The chef’s “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” approach to cooking simultaneously emphasizes frugality and simplicity. In some sense, that's almost unheard of these days.

A memorial to thousands of people buried in downtown Manhattan will open to the public Friday at 1 p.m., and there will be a candlelight procession at 8 p.m. from Battery Park to the monument at Duane and Elk Sts. The African Burial Ground National Monument is set to open 16 years after construction workers discovered human remains while doing foundation work on a downtown federal building.