NYC Arts: The Complete Guide to Art and Culture

The New York Public Library comprises four scholarly research collections and a network of 83 community libraries in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island.  The research libraries are the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (formerly the Humanities and Social Sciences Library), on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street; the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, at Lincoln Center; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, in Harlem; and the Science, Industry and Business Library, on Madison Avenue and 34th Street. 

The New York Public Library is a privately managed, nonprofit corporation with a public mission, operating with both private and public financing in a century-old, still evolving private-public partnership. The research collections resemble the holdings of the great national and university libraries, and the community circulating libraries (organized as the Branch Libraries) resemble classic American municipal libraries.

The New York Public Library is visited and used annually by more than 15 million people. There are 1.86 million cardholders. The Beaux-Arts style building on Fifth Avenue usually springs to mind at any mention of the New York Public Library. Designed by Carrère & Hastings and completed in 1911 at a cost of $9 million, it is one of the city's finest public structures. It is hard to imagine research being conducted under more elegant conditions.

The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building is home to all library collections touching on history, languages and literature, art, popular culture, philosophy, religion, psychology, anthropology, theology, geography and politics. Special collection strengths here lie in the areas of American history; the book arts; children's literature; British and American literary culture; family history; Judaica; maps and cartography; publishing and bookselling; rare Slavica; and Asian-American, gay and lesbian, Hispanic and Latin American, Middle Eastern, Native American and women's studies. The Children's Center at this research library is a circulating library that reopened in November 2008.

Among the library's extraordinary holdings are a Gutenberg Bible; ancient Torah scrolls; the first five folios of Shakespeare's plays; paintings by Rembrandt Peale; Edisonian cylindrical recordings; George Washington's Farewell Address to his troops; prints by the Japanese master Hokusai; political cartoons by British satirist William Hogarth; and an early draft of the U.S. Constitution in Alexander Hamilton's hand. The center mounts exhibitions in four fine galleries. Also on offer are lectures and readings by top writers, critics and historians, politicians, fashion designers, filmmakers and media figures.

Ongoing events for children and adults are held at most branch libraries. 

• Directions: Subway: 4, 5, 6 to Grand Central - 42nd Street; 7 to Fifth Avenue; B, D, F, M to 42nd Street - Bryant Park

• ADA Compliant Restrooms
• Archive
• Disability Access: All public service units of the Library are wheelchair accessible. The Humanities and Social Sciences wheelchair ramp entrance is on 42nd Street.
• Disability Assistance: To ask for assistance, call (917) 275-6975 or e-mail grdref@nypl.org. TTY Reference is available at (212) 930-0950.
• Gift Shops: The Humanities and Social Sciences Library on 42nd Street has a gift shop that favors books and New York City souvenirs (as well as souvenirs of the library itself).
• Public Phone
• Reading Room
• Reference Center
• Tours: Guided tours take place in all research libraries except for the Library for the Performing Arts.