Saturday, April 21, 2012

Sacking a Palace of Culture; New York Times, 4/21/12

Edmund Morris, New York Times; Sacking a Palace of Culture: "Mr. Marx says soothingly that all those dislocated volumes will be retrievable on request within 24 hours. I remember when you could call up a big old tome, speckled and redolent of the 19th century, in 40 minutes. I remember drawer after heavy drawer of card catalog, wherein you could see and feel with your fingers the comparative outputs of say, Daniel Defoe and Isaac Asimov — to the latter’s disadvantage. I remember when the library elected to spend its budget on the enrichment, rather than the impoverishment, of cultural resources."

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

New York Public Library President is Taking Reader Questions; New York Times, 4/16/12

Robin Pogrebin, New York Times; New York Public Library President is Taking Reader Questions:

"[N]agging questions remain among many of the library’s loyal users: Will the main branch become overcrowded? Would a possible new cafe increase the amount of distractions and create spill issues? Would the money be better spent rehiring the library staff laid off during the recent recession?

Mr. Marx has recently tried to address these kinds of concerns in articles, on the radio and on TV. Now he has offered to take reader questions about the plan here. Submit them in the comments field below and a selection will be answered later in the week on ArtsBeat."

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

New York Public Library Defends Plan to Renovate; New York Times, 4/15/12

Robin Pogrebin, New York Times; New York Public Library Defends Plan to Renovate:

"The New York Public Library is engaged in a public-relations blitz to address criticism from scholars and writers who object to the library’s plan to reimagine its Fifth Avenue flagship building at an estimated cost of $300 million.

In the past few weeks the library’s president, Anthony W. Marx, has written articles for The Huffington Post and Inside Higher Ed, appeared on radio and television and assembled an advisory panel that includes people skeptical of the plan."