Posts by Matthew Boylan

The Bible is the most widely read book in the Western world. And since the advent of public libraries in the United States, patrons have always asked every conceivable type of question about it. ASK NYPL, the ready reference division of The New York Public Library that takes patron queries by telephone, email, chat and text, is often asked about biblical quotations, what was said (and by whom), what was the language used, and where did the quotation, phrase, name or prophecy appear in the Bible.

When the question arrived in our inbox at Ask NYPL, I noticed the email address ended in ".jp"

Mariko had approached the Asian Division of the Library of Congress. She asked if there was any possibility of finding information about her mother's employer, a Mrs. Obata, as she wanted to write about her. In 1931, Mrs. Obata had performed a traditional Japanese dance in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel "wearing a Kimono with a Shimada wig." When Mrs. Obata danced there, she was the only Japanese member of the Rubinstein Club — a women's choral group founded in New York in 1887. The reference specialist suggested that 

• Landlord-Tenant Disputes: Heat and Hot Water, Eviction, Foreclosure
• Complaints with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTA)
• Consumer Fraud and "Rip Offs"
• Discrimination based on Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation

Many New Yorkers no longer have much choice about who their health care provider is. Many times New Yorkers — if they are fortunate enough to have an employer sponsored or other health care plan — may be asked to choose from among those health care providers who belong to a particular heath care maintenance program or other health insurance program.

At some time in their life, most New York City residents will need to employ an attorney. This may reflect the need to make a will, a landlord-tenant dispute, a divorce, an accusation that one has committed a crime or as a result of a foreclosure or a business dispute. While there are certain legal resources available to those who have limited financial means and there are always attorneys from the larger and more expensive law firms who are employed by landlords, banks, corporations or the wealthy, many other New Yorkers may have a need for legal representation and may not know how or where to find it.

These services are generally available only to those of limited financial means. However, there are also certain legal services that are available for those of moderate means. If you are a person of limited financial means who faces a civil legal issue — one that is not a criminal offense — certainly the most comprehensive source of information about your legal rights is LawHelp.org. Its assistance is also available in Spanish at AyudaLegalNY.org. If you click on words, terms or agencies on this website, you will encounter a variety of providers of legal assistance to tenants, consumers, senior citizens, small business owners and victims of discrimination. Certain 

Without a doubt, the best location in the New York Public Library to conduct legal research about legal issues that arise in either the state or the city of New York is the Science Industry and Business Library. SIBL has a selective law library that contains such essential New York legal research tools as McKinney’s Consolidated Statutes of New York (annotated with New York and federal cases and state agencies that cite the statutes) and these statutes online without annotations.

A patron wrote ASK NYPL to ask about her uncle, who died in March 1945 while serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. She granted us permission to share the story of the search here.

Arguably the most important American lawyer of the 20th century, Thurgood Marshall was on the verge of bringing the landmark suit Brown versus Board of Education when he became embroiled in an explosive and deadly case that threatened to change the course of the civil rights movement and cost him his life. Author Gilbert King's new book Devil in the Grove, published later this month by HarperCollins, is the definitive biography of the young Marshall before he came to nationwide prominence by arguing Brown and a tale of his involvement in a now forgotten capital rape case that was held far from the Supreme Court, in a sweltering court house in a Klan-infested rural Florida 

The reference librarians of ASK NYPL recently received a very interesting question about Virginia Woolf.

“Virginia Woolf typed all her major works and other writings on a typewriter. But what brand of typewriter did she use?”

This question was recently posed to the Ask NYPL reference librarians: “What were the predecessors to The Library Shop located off Astor Hall in the Schwarzman Building?” This is a question whose answer proves to be quite intriguing. What we found reveals a room whose uses were as varied and that served as many needs as The New York Public Library does itself!

"When is the best time of year to buy a diamond?"

This question was recently posed to the ASK NYPL virtual reference service of The New York Public Library. First, if you're looking for a diamond whose size is a half carat or larger, make sure your jeweler offers you a grading report from one of the reputable diamond-grading labs below. To properly evaluate these reports, you must understand the four "C's" of diamonds: carat weight, cut, color and clarity.

If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one... Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe... seems to have been designed by nature.

— Thomas Jefferson, Letter to MacPherson, August 13, 1813