New York City, Books Herman Yung New York City, Books Herman Yung

The New York Public Library’s Rose Main Reading Room is open again!

The New York Public Library’s Rose Main Reading Room is finally open again! I've missed it so much! I was at the NYPL main branch a few weeks ago and I was so bummed when I tried to enter this room only to find out that the opening had been delayed. But now it's open, open for all to experience in all of its restored beauty! And with that re-opening of course comes the re-shelving of books! The NYPL uploaded this video here that shows how long it took just to fill this room's bookshelves with volumes once again. That's about 52,000 books in total according to the video description.

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New York City Herman Yung New York City Herman Yung

Do you know how many books the NYPL holds?

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The New York Times wrote a short piece on the controversial topic of storage at the New York Public Library. The thought must have come to mind to anybody visiting the NYPL's main branch: Just how many books can the NYPL hold? After all, it is the 2nd largest public library in the United States (2nd only to the Library of Congress). With numbers ranging dramatically over the years, it's always been a tough number to pinpoint. Odd, I suppose, since every single book and article in the library is supposed to be cataloged and numbers for checkout or perusal.

Now, the NYPL is saying their catalog comes out to about 2.5 million books. Despite some controversy, that number came about exactly how I thought it should -- through a computer that catalogs every barcode and item in the library system. Why it was so difficult to publically come out with that number previous is beyond me.

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