Ok, Can you tell I am on my soap box about the library?? The prior post had to do with the architecture, which we loved, but the logistics there are equally impressive.
This location of the library is a "research" location, which means all materials are available to use AT the library--not taken home.
When the library originally opened, a patron requested certain materials, and they were "delivered" to your "station" as deplicted by a number, as in the photo.
Today, here is how it works: You fill out a slip that specifies the materials you want to examine. You turn it in at a desk. The request is sent via an hydrolic "tube" system, (like the tube you have at a bank drive in window) where it goes to "pages" in the 5 floors of stacks to be pulled. (The stacks are 120 miles long -- no wonder you couldn't find your item on your own.) It generally takes about 20 min or so minutes (depending on what you request) for your materials to be gathered. In the main reading room (the size of 2 football fields, and the largest uncolumed room in the US) a number lights up on a board that corresponds to your request number and you pick up your materials.
The tour guide emphasised over and over how important it is that the library is accessible to ALL regardless of their stature or means in life. In fact, the brochure provided by the library states "The collections in this building, and their accessibility to the general public, reflect the profoundly democratic and all-encompassing nature of the entire New York Public Library system.
I commented to Gary, this philosophy seems to be in keeping when what we learned while visiting Greece. In this city (culture), the accessibility of arts and literature to the common man are the pathway for advancement of all citizens.
As we ended our tour, our guide pointed out a marble plaque dedicated to a man who arrived in NY as an immigrant that couldn't speak or read English. He learned English, and used the library to read extensively about the stock market and investing. He was quite successful, and when he died, he left his considerable fortune to the public library system in appreciation of the opportunities it afforded him.
