The New York Public Library

Your Questions Answered

By Anthony Marx
President, The New York Public Library

The ground under all libraries is shifting. From financial uncertainties to the challenges of guaranteeing digital access for all, the country's largest circulating library has no choice but to change. We must also preserve our position...

By Angela Montefinise

Be creative, draw a doodle, and you could see your artwork end up on Google!

That's the message Google is sending to kids across the country as part of its fifth annual Doodle 4 Google contest, which launched on January 18. Kids in grades K-12...

This year, Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau turns 300. To celebrate, the Consulate General of Switzerland in New York and the City of Geneva have curated a series of events exploring Swiss innovation. Included in the festival is "Occupy Rousseau," an evening of discussion around Rousseau and democracy at...

By Angela Montefinise

What is art?

This seemingly simple question is anything but -- in fact, it usually sparks endless debate and leads to countless "answers," one more complicated than the next.

Just ask Leon Botstein, president of Bard College, who tackles the difficult subject in a...

by Joshua Heineman

The New York Public Library has released a new website called The Stereogranimator, which allows patrons to create their own animated files or 3-D images from the Library's collection of stereographs, a popular 19th Century photo format. The web project gives this important, historic medium...

By KATE STOBER

Every two years, six emerging artists have the chance many dream of: a one-on-one mentorship with an expert in their field. Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative partners promising talent with world-renowned masters in dance, film, literature, music, theater and visual arts. For a year,...

By Vicky Gan, Intern, Strategic Planning Office, The New York Public Library

Crowdsourcing is a loaded term. Since its 2006 debut, the word has burgeoned to encompass commercial ventures, digital galleries, funding platforms, art collaboratives, and myriad other online initiatives. Diverse as they are, though, all crowdsourcing projects have one...

By Timothy Maguire


Almost half of the world's Internet users are on Facebook. But how many are "likable?"

For anyone with something to sell, this is a particularly tricky question. Dave Kerpen found a great example of how to be charming and...

by H. Jack Martin, Assistant Director for Public Programs/Lifelong Learning for Children, Teens and Families, The New York Public Library

Who's dead in your neighborhood? What was the cause of their timely or untimely demise? The New York Public Library has the answer. This spring, the Library...

By Justin Downs

The work I have come to do is a mixture of idea and reality. The classical name for the work is Research and Development, and what it entails is making thoughts corporeal. World fairs are the cutting edge of where ideas that have become material are showcased....

By Christopher Shoemaker, The New York Public Library

Music thumps off the walls and pours out the open doors. Curious visitors climb the Fifth Avenue steps and peer into a throng of teens dancing across the marble floor. For one night, quiet is a rare commodity at the New York...

By Heidi Singer

How did the Cold War play out in Mexico, with its fascinating mix of politics, religion, and Hollywood? For a Columbia University historian who is giving a free lecture at The New York Public Library tomorrow evening, much of the story can be understood in...

By Angela Montefinise, The New York Public Library

It's not every day that a former national security advisor recognizes you, taps you on the shoulder and apologizes for not returning your calls.

But that's exactly what happened to journalist Shane Harris in March 2004 at a small,...

By John Fiske

Author John Fiske set his historical novel around the design and construction of the New York Public Library's landmark Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Here, he explains how that idea came to light.

The...

by Gayle Snible, The New York Public Library

Dr. Seuss, Maurice Sendak, Margaret Wise Brown, Eric Carle, Richard Scarry, Ezra Jack Keats. These are the authors and illustrators that come to the grown-up mind when thinking of popular children's books. Do you remember reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to your...

by Michael Wenyon

A Note From The Library

Following up on our Centennial Celebration, we wanted to offer an article from writer Michael Wenyon about how the Library has contributed to some famous inventions throughout the years. You can explore more in our current exhibition Celebrating 100 Years,...

By Angela Montefinise

It was three years ago today that the violent storm Cyclone Nargis slammed into the country of Burma, changing its landscape and population forever.

The cyclone devastated the impoverished nation, washing away whole villages, tearing apart families, and destroying countless businesses and industries.

The death toll...

By Jess deCourcy Hinds

After my week-long fellowship at the New York Public Library's Cullman Center Institute for Teachers last year, I held onto one precious memento: a single golden yellow call slip. Looking at it now, I smile.

Throughout the week in which I researched and wrote furiously...

By Frank "Fraver" Verlizzo

As a Manhattan-born teenager at the High School of Art & Design on East 57th Street, I was star-struck. I would go to a Broadway show whenever I could afford it. I practically lived at the movies. I once raced through an end-term French exam so...

By Jennifer Lam

In November 1882, Emeline Hopkins Cornell wore a stunning custom-made wedding dress to marry Herman Livingston in Catskill, NY. The white satin gown trimmed with point lace was largely copied from European designs and featured orange blossoms, a bustle and a fitted waist. After the wedding, the...