Press Release

New $100 Million Science, Industry and Business Library Opens Its Doors to The Public With Electronic Access to Catalogs, Databases, and The Internet

New York Public Library Provides Help to Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses With Research Collection and Circulating Library at SIBL

May 2, 1996, New York City: After five years of planning and construction, The New York Public Library welcomed its first patrons today to the $100 million Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL) in the former B. Altman department store building at Madison Avenue and 34th Street.

The architects Gwathmey Siegel & Associates, working with William D. Walker, the Andrew W. Mellon Director of The Research Libraries, and his staff, created a user-friendly library in a striking setting on the ground floor and in the lower level of the landmark structure. With 1.2 million books in the research collection; 110,000 periodical titles; millions of patents and microforms; a circulating collection of 50,000 books; and an open-shelf reference collection of 60,000 volumes, SIBL is the world's largest public library devoted to science, technology, economics, and business.

Paul LeClerc, President of The New York Public Library, said, "This is the most information-packed and technologically sophisticated library in America. We expect more than a million people to use SIBL in its first year, and just as we've done for a century, we'll welcome everyone to use this library free of charge. SIBL should become the most powerful new engine in the city's economy."

SIBL opened with particular emphasis being placed on providing help to people who want to start or expand small businesses. A World Wide Web site has information to help entrepreneurs, and members of the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) can be consulted on site. Detailed material on international trade is also available.

Last week Elizabeth Rohatyn, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The New York Public Library, and Dr. LeClerc presided at an inauguration ceremony and preview of SIBL with Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, City Council Speaker Peter Vallone and major contributors who formed the public/private partnership that made SIBL a reality. They paid tribute to Marshall Rose, Chairman Emeritus, who envisioned the new library. The ceremony took place in Healy Hall, the light-filled, two-story atrium, which was named for the late Timothy S. Healy, former Library President.

Mayor Giuliani said, "SIBL is a major step forward for the City of New York and for learning. To have New York City with a facility like this for all of our people to be able to expand and to use and to understand is really to put New York in a very important position for the 21st century. For science, for business, for industry, we're the capital of the world. The enormous amount of money invested in this is nothing in comparison to the tremendous rewards that we will get."

Speaker Vallone said, "How could we not provide this gem for our next generation so that they could take us into the next century with the tools that are necessary. And you can be sure that this government of ours will do everything we can to keep SIBL alive and prospering into the future."

Resources
The 160,000-square-foot facility includes five tiers of stacks above the public space. The stacks hold 1.2 million books and more than 110,000 periodical titles, which, together with a comprehensive collection of patents and approximately one million items on microform, both housed in the Microform Room, constitute the research collections of science and business materials; in addition, a 50,000-volume circulating collection lines the block-long wall of shelves in the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Circulating Library and Reading Room, located on SIBL's first floor.

These vast collections are enlarged and enhanced by an array of electronic resources that connect SIBL's users, both inside and outside its walls, to other libraries and institutions here and abroad. Seating for 500 readers includes wiring for readers to plug in their laptop computers to networked connections that give them access to the online catalogs of The New York Public Library - both circulating and research - and to its World Wide Web site on the Internet. Users without their own laptops can access the same resources on the eight online terminals in the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Circulating Library and Reading Room and the 42 terminals of the Online Catalog Center.

The heart of the electronic library is the Electronic Information Center, where, at 70 workstations, users can bring science and business information from all over the globe to their computer screens. But not only the computer-literate are welcome at SIBL. People unfamiliar with new technologies may sign up for free, hands-on instruction given by trained staff in the Harrison S. Kravis Electronic Training Center, equipped with 30 workstations, plus two additional rooms that can also be used for training.

"SIBL has been designed to address the information needs of users with varying degrees of technological sophistication and from diverse educational, economic, and cultural backgrounds," noted Mrs. Rohatyn. "For those who can't afford computers and the other expensive tools needed to take advantage of the latest forms of information, this wonderful new library opens a door to the information age."

Services
Visitors in need of specialized information are likely to find it at the McGraw Information Services Center, where a profusion of free services is available, from research assistance from subject specialists to information tailored to specific needs. "SIBL's programs were developed to meet the needs of people in the business and science communities at every level of experience," said Mr. Walker, "and we will constantly reevaluate the quality of our services to make sure that what we are providing is at the appropriate level for the user requesting it."

The Small Business Information Service gives small-business owners and fledgling entrepreneurs information in such fields as demographics and marketing, as well as access to software that lets the user create a long-range business plan. The International Trade Resources Service supplies worldwide trade data invaluable to companies competing in the global market. The Science Education Program is developing formal relationships with high school science teachers to encourage them to make use of SIBL's resources for their classroom teaching and curriculum planning. In addition to these free services, "NYPL Express" offers extended research, rapid document-delivery, and other fee-based services to individual and corporate clients.

The Building
Constructed by AJ Contracting Co. Inc. in 160,000 square feet of the Altman building, SIBL encompasses two floors of public space and five tiers of stacks, compressed into three floors. The architects Gwathmey Siegel & Associates have succeeded in creating an information-age facility with the inviting ambience of a traditional library. Contemporary in design, SIBL's interior blends elements that refer back to the early 20th-century landmark Altman building with those that look ahead to the 21st century. The wood used in furnishings and shelves restores or replicates the original warm oak; the original vaulted ceilings are supported by the original columns, now reinforced to hold the weight of the stacks and covered in traditional terrazzo.

The new staircase is covered in terrazzo too, offset by railings of sleekly modern stainless steel, which also accents the wall panels and perforated screens. To make SIBL as flexible as possible to accommodate rapidly changing technology, Gwathmey Siegel designed the two public service levels as areas of wide-open space, subtly delineated by panels and screens, and built them on raised floors with all the wiring running underneath, along with easily accessible connections for future adaptations.

These two levels are architecturally united by the 33-foot-high ceiling of Healy Hall, an atrium that serves as the main lobby for the lower level and as a reception area for events -business seminars and meetings, lectures and workshops -held in the adjacent Conference Center. Healy Hall and the Conference Center, as well as the Kravis Electronic Training Center, are available for rental by outside organizations, through the Library's Special Events Office. Ten electronic kiosks, developed and donated by IBM Corporation, are placed at strategic points throughout the user-friendly library to guide visitors to SIBL's resources and services.

History
The opening of SIBL is the culmination of a massive project to build a separate facility for the Library's burgeoning holdings in science and business. Mr. Rose, Library Chairman from 1990 to 1995, was the driving force in creating an information center that he envisioned as a vital element in New York's leadership in a global economy and in The New York Public Library's leadership in a global information network. Mr. Walker worked with his staff and with the architects to plan the programs, resources, and environment for an information-age library.

Funding: A Public/Private Partnership
SIBL is a $100 million project - $84 million for planning and construction and $16 million for endowment and operations - supported through a partnership of public and private funds, and a long-term financing arrangement. The $24.5 million goal in government funds has been reached, with $13 million from the City of New York, $7.5 million from the State through the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and $4 million in federal support through the Small Business Administration and the Economic Development Administration.

In the private sector, the lead individual gift came from Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman, the lead corporate gift from PaineWebber Group Inc., and the lead foundation gift from The Starr Foundation. "Insightful interpretation of timely information is at the heart of every intelligent business decision," said Donald B. Marron, Chairman and Chief Executive of PaineWebber. "It makes good sense to facilitate public access to such information, it benefits PaineWebber, the community and all business. We are proud to support this new facility, which we consider one of the finest resources in the world." The SIBL campaign is within $15 million of reaching its $100 million goal.

Other major donors include Richard B. Salomon, Library Chairman Elizabeth Rohatyn and Felix Rohatyn, Library Chairman Emeritus Marshall Rose and Jill Rose, Harold W. McGraw Jr., RJR Nabisco, Chase Manhattan Bank, Library Trustee Alan C. Greenberg and Kathy Greenberg, and the Altman Foundation, "SIBL will be a vital engine for economic growth," said Mr. Rose, "and it will give us the opportunity to strengthen and extend The New York Public Library's leadership role in providing information locally, nationally, and now globally."

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