‘The Librarian Is In’ at The New York Public Library This Holiday Season

Librarians to offer the public free reading recommendations on Twitter, via web form, and in a special booth at the landmark 42nd Street building


DECEMBER 4, 2015 – The New York Public Library is playing matchmaker this holiday season, helping members of the public find their one true… read.

The Library’s Readers Services department will offer personalized, one-on-one book recommendations throughout December at a booth located in the Fifth Avenue lobby of the iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 42nd Street. Librarians Lynn Lobash and Gwen Glazer will staff the booth—called “The Librarian Is In”—during select hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from Dec. 7 until Dec. 23, helping anyone find the perfect book for themselves or as a gift.  

“Reading is a very personal thing, and the whole key to enjoying it is to find the right book, the one that gets you excited and interested and unable to stop turning pages,” said Lobash, manager of the Readers Services division. “Finding that book and experiencing that joy is a real gift. We’re here to help. This is what librarians do.”

The Librarian Is In booth will be staffed between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays. It will be staffed between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Fridays.

For those who can’t make it in person, the Readers Services team offers recommendations in a host of other ways, including:

  • Twitter office hours: Every Friday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., Lobash and Glazer give book recommendations live on Twitter via the @NYPLRecommends handle and the hashtag #TheLibrarianIsIn.
  • “What Should I Read Next” Web Form: Readers can log in here at any time of day, share some basic information, and get a personalized recommendation of three books emailed back in about three business days.
  • Curated Browsing Tool: Once every three months, Lobash, Glazer, and other NYPL librarians recommend 100 books, which are placed in an interactive web tool. Visitors to the tool answer basic questions, and the tool immediately recommends books from that top 100.
  • Book lists: Every week, a team of NYPL librarians creates multiple subject-based lists, which can be read here.

Below is the latest list created by Readers Services—the “top books” of 2015 in not-so-traditional categories: 

Adult Fiction & Nonfiction

Young Adult

Kids

Media Contact:

Angela Montefinise | angelamontefinise@nypl.org

About The New York Public Library

The New York Public Library is a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond. With 92 locations—including research and branch libraries—throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, the Library offers free materials, computer access, classes, exhibitions, programming and more to everyone from toddlers to scholars, and has seen record numbers of attendance and circulation in recent years. The New York Public Library serves more than 18 million patrons who come through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at www.nypl.org. To offer this wide array of free programming, The New York Public Library relies on both public and private funding. Learn more about how to support the Library at nypl.org/support.