The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, New York City

I WAS looking for the Morgan Library in New York, but the hotel clerk heard me say only "library." I was directed to go around the corner on 5th Avenue, and sure enough there was a library, but it was not the Morgan Library. Rather, it is a branch of the New York Public Library system. It has been permanently located there as the Mid-Manhattan Library, diagonally across 5th Avenue from the New York Public Library, for many years. I decided to make a detour and see what it was all about. It looked very new.

To most of us, a library means books, a reading room, regular or occasional exhibits, and the ability to research topics from the books available. I did research at the neoclassical New York Public Library on 5th Avenue long ago for my dissertation on Nathaniel Hawthorne. This is the flagship of the extensive New York City public library system.