Category: Uncategorized

Acclaimed novelist and long-time library supporter E.L. Doctorow gets straight to the point! Whatever its rationale, advertised or secretly savored, the Central Library Plan is an act of such manic mutilation as to constitute a death wish for the 42nd St Research  Library.

“Maus” comix legend and Pulitzer Prize-winner Art Spiegelman on the NYPL’s plans for the 42nd Street Library:

On Saturday, March 29, Lynn’s Kids International Organization, a non-profit organization for the advancement of underprivileged children, and Citizens Defending Libraries, a group fighting to protect New York City libraries, will meet outside of the 42nd Street Library for a short walk asking our elected officials to protect library branches throughout the city – our… Continue reading Join the March for Women and Education at the 42nd St. Library

photo ©Nina Shubin Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz: To destroy a library is to destroy the dream of civilization. To destroy the NY Public Library is to destroy our sixth and best borough; that beautiful corner of New York City where all are welcome and all are equals, and where many of us were first… Continue reading Junot Diaz: “To Destroy a Library is to Destroy the Dream of Civilization”

Edmund Morris – Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning biographer of Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and Ludwig van Beethoven – adds his voice against the Central Library Plan: Sir Norman Foster’s mandate to squash the contents of two New York Public Library branches into the Main Building on Fifth Avenue is a volumetric impossibility made… Continue reading Edmund Morris Slams the Central Library Plan

State Senator José M. Serrano has just called on Mayor de Blasio to stop the Central Library Plan!  I am writing to respectfully request that you take the necessary measures to prevent the advancement of this plan… Moreover, I am also concerned about the overcrowding that would take place under the new proposal. Library patrons… Continue reading State Senator José M. Serrano Speaks Out Against Central Library Plan

David Levering Lewis, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of W.E.B. DuBois (and 2002 Library Lion), joins the chorus of outrage about the NYPL: For some time, a hypothesis that dared not speak its name has reigned over the NYPL debate. Several months ago, this hypothesis was nourished by an opinion served up by the sharp-eyed New… Continue reading David Levering Lewis: Central Library Plan is a “Developer’s Dream”

Fantastic article in The Guardian. Matthew Zadrozny is back, standing tall for library nerds the world over! The virtual destruction of the New York Public Library rests on faulty premises. In a world of cheap personal computers, ubiquitous internet access and vanished book stores, libraries will always be special. For in addition to preserving manuscripts… Continue reading The Guardian Highlights Dangers to the 42nd Street Library

Strong words of support from prize-winning author and MacArthur Fellow Lydia Davis: I couldn’t feel more strongly about the importance of keeping the 42nd Street research library intact, restoring the books to its stacks, and protecting the ongoing separate existence of the Mid-Manhattan and SIBL branches.  Instead of misguidedly “consolidating” libraries, closing branches, exiling books… Continue reading Lydia Davis: Central Library Plan “Would Take the Very Heart Out of One of NYC’s Finest Institutions”

Thank you to all the people who braved the rain to send a message to the NYPL trustees at yesterday’s rally! And of course we had to include Mayor de Blasio, as a reminder of the commitment he made on these same steps last July to halt the Central Library Plan!