A Re-envisioned Library System to Meet the Needs of a Growing, Changing New York

• Fifth Avenue Building Dramatically Renovated to Become Flagship Lending and Research Library, A Model for the Urban Library of the Future
• Large Hub Libraries Established in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island as Anchors to Neighborhood Branches
• Expanded Digital Resources Increase Access to Library Collections
• $100 Million Gift From Stephen A. Schwarzman is the Largest Outright, Unrestricted Donation to a New York City Cultural Institution

Press Release

The New York Public Library will honor James B. Lee, Jr., Vice Chairman, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Co-Chairman, The Investment Bank, at the Library’s annual Corporate Dinner on June 26, 2008. The event will take place at The New York Public Library, Humanities and Social Sciences Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, with cocktails in Astor Hall at 6:30 p.m. and dinner in the Celeste Bartos Forum at 7:30 p.m.

Press Release

May 21, 2008 – The 2008 New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism was awarded last night to Charlie Savage for his book Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy (Little, Brown & Company). The award is given annually to a journalist whose work brings clarity and public attention to issues, events, or policies and includes a $15,000 cash prize. Library President Paul LeClerc and Bernstein Selection Committee Chair James F. Hoge, Jr., Editor of Foreign Affairs, Council on Foreign Relations, presented the award at a program held at the Humanities and Social Sciences Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.

Press Release

Shifting views of public and private space through the cameras of five contemporary photographers reveal the constantly changing and often unfamiliar urban landscapes of New York City in Eminent Domain: Contemporary Photography and the City, an exhibition of more than 200 photographs at The New York Public Library.

Eminent Domain features the recent photographic projects of five New York-based artists that 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). The works, by Thomas Holton, Bettina Johae, Reiner Leist, Zoe Leonard, and Ethan Levitas, will be on view at The New York Public Library’s Humanities and Social Sciences Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street from May 2 to August 29, 2008. Admission is free.

Press Release

April 30, 2008 – At a ceremony Monday evening, Ron Currie, Jr. was presented with The New York Public Library’s 2008 Young Lions Fiction Award by Library President Paul LeClerc. The ceremony was held in the Celeste Bartos Forum of the landmark Humanities and Social Sciences Library. Ethan Hawke, one of the founders of the award, was joined onstage by actors Brian F. O’Byrne, Amanda Peet, and Michael Shannon to read excerpts from each of the finalists’ works. The four other finalists for the award were Ellen Litman for The Last Chicken in America; Peter Nathaniel Malae for Teach the Free Man; Dinaw Megestu for the The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears; and Emily Mitchell for The Last Summer of the World.

Press Release

The monumental marble facade of The New York Public Library stretches 390 feet along Fifth Avenue in a grand statement of presence and purpose. Yet in the 96 years since the building opened, the Library's exterior, which also faces Bryant Park, 42nd Street and 40th Street, has been subject to forces of weather and urban pollution that have taken their toll, wearing away at the beauty and form of the intricate stone structure. Today 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. The restoration will be completed in time for the building's centennial, in 2011.

Fact Sheet

Press Release

The New York Public Library has selected the 25 Books to Remember from 2007. Chosen by a group of librarians who are specialists in their genres, these outstanding works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry provide an informative or transformative reading experience, and are chosen for their literary excellence, uniqueness of concept and command of subject matter. The Books to Remember list is published by The New York Public Library’s Office of Adult Services, and is available free at all 87 branches of the Library. The full list can be viewed here.

Press Release

New York Public Library President Paul LeClerc and Chief Operating Officer David G. Offensend have announced the appointment of Todd M. Corbin as the Library’s Chief Investment Officer. As such, he is the senior executive responsible for working with the Board of Trustees’s Investment Committee to manage the Library’s endowment fund, currently valued at $740 million.

Press Release

(New York, NY) April 4, 2008 – A new donor support group, LGBT @ NYPL, will help to expand, build, and make accessible The New York Public Library’s extensive Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) collections, one of the few such efforts by a non-LGBT organization.

Press Release

The New York Public Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers announces the selection of its tenth class of Fellows: fifteen exceptional creative writers, independent scholars, and academics, coming to the Library from as near as Brooklyn and as far away as Warsaw. The Fellows, whose appointments were announced today by Library President Dr. Paul LeClerc and Jean Strouse, the Sue Ann and John Weinberg Director of the Center, will use the research collections and online resources of The New York Public Library’s landmark Humanities and Social Sciences Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street to pursue a variety of book projects. They will be in residence at the Center from September 2008 through May 2009.

Press Release

Among the most celebrated choreographers of his time, Jerome Robbins belonged to New York. His work showcased the grit and the glory of the city through populist masterpieces such as West Side Story and On the Town, and moved fluidly between ballet and Broadway with technical artistry and vernacular energy. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts presents the first major retrospective of the man and the city he loved: New York Story: Jerome Robbins and His World, which explores Robbins' work and the many overlapping New York worlds that met in it. The exhibition draws from the library’s collections of Robbins’ personal archives, and the vast majority of the materials on display have never been seen by the public.

Press Release

Two new exhibitions at The New York Public Library show French artists turning to the new photographic processes to record the countryside and the cityscape in the second-half of the 19th century. Sketches on Glass: Clichés-Verre from The New York Public Library presents the work of four artists from the Barbizon school who turned to cliché-verre, a hybrid technique that combined aspects of printmaking and photography, to sketch the French countryside and idyllic landscapes. A complementary exhibition, Monumental France: Photographs of Édouard Baldus, displays 38 rare, early photographs by Baldus, who was hired by the French government in the 1850s to document the country’s great architectural monuments.

Press Release

The New York Public Library presents the first major New York City exhibition in decades celebrating the 17th century poet John Milton, featuring beautifully engraved early editions of Paradise Lost, portraits, prints, and other rare materials never before seen by the public. John Milton at 400: A Life Beyond Life marks the poet’s quadricentenniel anniversary, and will be on view at The New York Public Library’s Humanities and Social Sciences Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street from February 29, 2008 to June 14, 2008.

Press Release

To celebrate the recent donation and opening for public viewing of the Katharine Hepburn Papers at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Library is presenting a new series of free public programs, Remembering Kate. The programs will include readings from the legendary actress’ personal papers for the first time and reminiscences by family, friends, and colleagues. including actors Zoe Caldwell, Katharine Houghton (Hepburn’s niece), Charlotte Moore, Marian Seldes, and Sam Waterston; talk show host Dick Cavett; and director Anthony Harvey.

Press Release