Pratham Books: Shutters Down on NYC Library

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Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Shutters Down on NYC Library

Libraries seem to be pulling their shutters down (or being made to pull them down) and the Donnel Library is just one of them.

Via Boing Boing:

I work for Archive.org at a scanning center in NYC. Until a couple of months ago we worked at the Donnell Library in midtown. If you have ever been to MOMA it was the big library across the street. The city of NYC decided to turn it into a luxury hotel for some reason. There are a ton of people who frequent the library for books, internet and an amazing film library. It was really really sad to see it go. I didn't grow up in NYC, but many coworkers of mine did and they had so many memories of being a kid there and seeing their amazing Winnie the Pooh collection and watching movies for free.
The library is going to be reopened at a fraction of its size in the basement of the hotel, but that is only because by law the space MUST be used for a library and it won't be open for years. Anyway, because of my job for the Internet Archive, we were the very last people out of the building long after all the librarians had moved on. On my last day of work I wondered the building and took shots of the demolition. The pictures, at least to me, are pretty emotionally stirring. I really think you guys will be interested in seeing them.