Fifty Specialty Libraries of New York City From

Botany to Magic 1st Edition Ballard pdf download

https://textbookfull.com/product/fifty-specialty-libraries-of-new-york-city-from-botany-to-
magic-1st-edition-ballard/

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0 (36 reviews) ✓ 106 downloads ■ TOP RATED

"Fantastic PDF quality, very satisfied with download!" - Emma W.

DOWNLOAD EBOOK
 Fifty Specialty Libraries of New York City From Botany to
Magic 1st Edition Ballard pdf download

TEXTBOOK EBOOK TEXTBOOK FULL

Available Formats

■ PDF eBook Study Guide TextBook

EXCLUSIVE 2025 EDUCATIONAL COLLECTION - LIMITED TIME

INSTANT DOWNLOAD VIEW LIBRARY

Collection Highlights

New York City 4th Edition Coll.

The Rough Guide to New York City 16th Edition Rough Guides

Lonely Planet Best of New York City 2020 Lonely Planet

The Creative Destruction of New York City: Engineering the

City for the Elite 1st Edition Alessandro Busà
Insight Guides New York City Guide 10th Edition Insight
Guides

DK Eyewitness Travel Guide New York City Fifth Edition Dk

Broadway A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles 1st

Edition Fran Leadon

Broadway A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles 1st

Edition Fran Leadon

Asset Management of Bridges Proceedings of the 9th New

York Bridge Conference August 21 22 2017 New York City USA
1st Edition Khaled M Mahmoud
 Chandos
Information Professional Series
Series Editor: Ruth Rikowski
(email: [email protected])

Chandos’ new series of books is aimed at the busy information professional. They
have been specially commissioned to provide the reader with an authoritative
view of current thinking. They are designed to provide easy-to-read and (most
importantly) practical coverage of topics that are of interest to librarians and other
information professionals. If you would like a full listing of current and forthcom-
ing titles, please visit www.chandospublishing.com.
New authors: we are always pleased to receive ideas for new titles; if you would
like to write a book for Chandos, please contact Dr Glyn Jones on g.jones.2@
elsevier.com or telephone +44 (0) 1865 843000.
50 SPECIALTY
LIBRARIES OF
NEW YORK CITY
From Botany to Magic

T. BALLARD

Amsterdam • Boston • Cambridge • Heidelberg

London • New York • Oxford • Paris • San Diego
San Francisco • Singapore • Sydney • Tokyo
Chandos Publishing is an imprint of Elsevier
Chandos Publishing is an imprint of Elsevier
50 Hampshire Street, 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Langford Lane, Kidlington, OX5 1GB, UK

Copyright © 2016 by T. Ballard. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any

means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Details on
how to seek permission, further information about the Publisher’s permissions policies and
our arrangements with organizations such as the Copyright Clearance Center and the
Copyright Licensing Agency, can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions.

This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright
by the Publisher (other than as may be noted herein).

Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and
experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices,
or medical treatment may become necessary.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in
evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described
herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety
and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or
editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a
matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any
methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.

ISBN: 978-0-08-100554-5 (print)

ISBN: 978-0-08-100560-6 (online)

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

For information on all Chandos Publishing publications

visit our website at http://store.elsevier.com/
DEDICATION

The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet
have hope for the future of man
T.S. Eliot

This book is dedicated to the sixty or so librarians, directors and admin-

istrators who took time out to show me their libraries and tell me their
stories. It is my hope that this will shine a much deserved spotlight on the
wonderful work that you are doing.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Terry Ballard is the author of two previous books and more than 70 articles
in the field of library science and is the winner of two national writing
awards. Since earning his MLS in 1989 from the University of Arizona, he
has worked as an academic systems librarian in New York and ­Connecticut.
He is currently adjunct Special Projects Librarian at the College of
New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York. He has presented at
­conferences such as Computers in Libraries, The Third International C
­ onference on
the Book in Oxford, and the American Library Association. He is also the
author of Google this: Putting Google and other social media sites to work for
your library (Chandos, 2012).

xi
FOREWORD

When Terry Ballard invited me to write the foreword to his new book, Fifty
Specialty Libraries in New York City, I knew I would be reflecting on Terry as
a personality, not just the organization and writing of the book. In the
20-plus years I have known Terry, from the first time I met him at a Library
and Information Technology Association conference, I could not imagine
any time with him that would not be unique, joyful, and educational.When
he came to my library school research methods class as a guest lecturer, he
inspired my students to do some of their most creative work.This was espe-
cially true following the lecture based on his book Google This.
His approach to life and to this book is positive and inquisitive. Unlike
most library directories, this one has a personal approach as well as a careful
evaluation of each library. The pronoun “I” is used often. If you want a
quick description of a library, this is not it. Instead, you will experience
Terry’s eye-opening, thorough inspection and assessment of each library.
Before you visit, you will know if this is a library you will like. Feeling and
tone are as much a part of each description as is the size of the collection or
the number of rooms in the library.
The libraries were selected after an examination of directories and a
search of the Internet as well as from the author’s own knowledge of librar-
ies. Of the 50 libraries, some are part of larger institutions such as The Berg
Collection at The New York Public Library, while others are smaller and/or
freestanding libraries such as the Kristine Mann Library, a library devoted to
the works of Carl Jung.
If you like the author’s approach, each entry will be a delight to read,
whether or not you visit the library. The detailed descriptions are enhanced
by photographs taken by Terry, for whom photography is a serious avoca-
tion, and include information such as the extensive history of each library.
The descriptions all follow a similar pattern, beginning with directions on
how to find the library, not always easy in a city like New York.Terry’s sense
of openness, discovery, and good humor infuses each library description. His
keen observation skills are evident in all entries. After reading this book, you
will feel like you have been in each library and need to visit only to see how
closely your observations match Terry’s.You will also have a good notion of
whether a specific library is likely to be useful for your own research.
This book is perfect for the armchair library traveler, the library visitor,
and the researcher of special subjects. I have not seen another book like it

xiii
xiv Foreword

and doubt I ever will. So, read, visit, enjoy, and find the information you
desire in one or more of these very special libraries.
—by Pauline Rothstein, a New York-based library consultant and
previous academic library director
PREFACE

Like a lot of good stories, this book starts with a dog. A friend of mine
named Marilyn Johnson wrote a book called This Book Is Overdue! She had
been an obituary writer and noticed that the most interesting obits were
from departed librarians, so she decided to embed herself in the world of
librarians and learn what makes us tick. One of the libraries she visited was
the American Kennel Club library in New York City. When I read that, I
thought “I didn’t know there was a library devoted to dogs in New York.
What other libraries could there be?” Once I started looking into it, the list
grew precipitously. I could identify more than 35, and I figured there must
be at least 50. There are. I also speculated that these lesser-known libraries
are run by people who have a story to tell and who want their library to be
better known than it is.
So I devised a plan. I would visit 50 libraries in Manhattan; write about
what I see, what the librarians have to say about their institutions, and how
to get there on public transportation; and take a few pictures. I would ask
each library a series of simple questions such as “What is your source of
funding?” “How long has your library been in existence?” “What online
catalog do you use?” “Dewey, Library of Congress, or homemade?” “What
are your accomplishments or plans for digitization?” “Who is the most
famous person to use your library?” (Hint—there were some amazing
answers.) “What do you consider to be your flagship holding?”
I put the idea out to a few publishers—one of them thought about it for
a year and then passed. Too New York. Too library. Then, in a great stroke of
luck, Chandos, who had published my last book, was expanding their rep-
ertoire of library writing, and my editor George Knott encouraged me to
send a proposal. Around Thanksgiving week I got the go-ahead and began
to map out the particulars. Chandos had wanted me to expand the scope a
bit and cover all five boroughs. This turned out to be an easy change,
although I had a hard time with Staten Island.
Over the next months I visited libraries in all circumstances. Some were
barely holding on, and some were fabulously well endowed. The most
important requirement for inclusion in this book is access. The library has
to be available to interested members of the public, even though about half
of them require an advance appointment. For this reason, most academic
libraries were left out. There were more law libraries open to the public

xv
xvi Preface

than I could cover, but medical libraries were nearly impossible to find. As I
went along with my visits, I added new libraries to the list—the best sug-
gestions came from the visited libraries. Several librarians pointed out that
the American Society for Psychical Research had a library on the Upper
West Side.
As the winter stretched into the spring of 2015 I found that the plan of
visiting 50 libraries could be a bit grueling for a senior citizen, but one
important thing kept me going. The enthusiasm for this project among the
visited librarians was a wonder. I have heard many people say “I can’t wait
to get a copy of this book. What a great idea!”
A few friends had pointed out that there were already directories of
special libraries in New York. I found this news to be less than compelling,
because I knew that the book I write will have a far more interesting tone
than, say, the phone book.This will be filled with a series of “wow” moments,
such as holding a piece of balsa wood from the Kon-Tiki and seeing Mark
Twain’s pool cue, e.e. cummings’s desk, and Helen Keller’s Oscar statuette.
At the Louis Armstrong archive, I got to hold Satchmo’s trumpet. At the
Morgan Library I held a long letter from Mark Twain to his publisher
explaining how he got his pseudonym. I also learned why there is a secret
shelf in Morgan’s private office. Just a block away from the Morgan, I
brought the project full circle by visiting the American Kennel Club library.
The book is the result of the stars lining up in my life. As I approach the
year 2016 it will mark the 50th anniversary of my first job in a library.
I joined the Phoenix Public Library in September of 1966 as a very junior
part-time clerk, and then became a paraprofessional. In 1989 I took advan-
tage of a satellite program from the University of Arizona in Tucson and got
my MLS. I’m told that the motto of the University of Arizona library school
is “Get your library degree and see the world.” In my case it was New York.
We rented out our house, packed up the dog, and moved 2300 miles north
and east. During the next 25 years I enjoyed a career that was everything I
could have imagined.
That leads to the second Valentine in this book—New York. When we
first moved to Long Island in 1990 the plan was to spend two or three years
making a reputation, which I could ride to better job opportunities in
­Arizona. Then something strange happened. New York got its hooks into
me. I had always been a Mets fan, but now we started getting swept up in
Yankee resurgence. I found that I was more suited to academic librarianship
than public, and there was an enormous selection of colleges and universities
 Preface xvii

in the area. After working 24 years in one library I found it refreshing to try
new things every few years.
New York is, quite simply, a cultural treasure chest. Early in our time
here, we saw Pavarotti sing and Tom Robbins read in Central Park. We
stood on the banks of the East River in 1994 to see the regatta of boats
celebrating the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage. At the New York
Public Library we saw the Dead Sea Scrolls. At the Morgan Library we saw
a Gutenberg Bible for the first time. We saw live national broadcasts of The
Today Show. At the Book Expo conferences in the spring we saw too many
authors to remember, but my favorite moment was making Michael Moore
laugh. Two years in New York stretched into five, then 10, then 25.
So now I offer my view of the New York City Library world. I hope that
you will find a library or two that you cannot wait to visit. After writing
about technology for years, I hope that this will provide information that is
more enduring. These are all libraries that have survived through the eco-
nomic crash of 2008 and Hurricane Sandy, so I think they are in it for the
long haul. In most cases, I want to go back myself, when I’m not in a hurry,
and savor the joys to be found in these enduring libraries.
INTRODUCTION

Two years ago I was at the doctor’s office with my wife. We mentioned that
we both were librarians, as was our son.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said.
We were not sure why he would be, so we probed further. It turns out
that despite his great knowledge about medicine, he is one of those people
who believe that all human knowledge is on the Internet and that libraries
are doomed. In his view it is a good thing that we are near retirement age,
so we do not have to wait out the final chapter.
The next year I got my chance to write this book and visit 50 libraries
in the city of New York. Nearly half of them have been in operation for
100 years or more. It gave me a unique vantage point to take the pulse of
libraries in my city. Some are struggling, to be sure, but others are fabulously
successful at navigating the world of information in a time of unprece-
dented change.
You cannot overstate the extent of the revolution. Years ago, I wanted
to look at the lyrics to a song. Since I worked at a large public library, it
should not have been hard to find what I needed. I was directed to a cata-
log case filled with index cards that had been lovingly maintained for
decades. I found my song, but it was mentioned in only one book. That
book had gone missing, so that was the end of my quest for the time
being.
Ten years later I had a rather amusing exchange with a friend of mine
who just could not warm up to this computer world. He told me that we
could not compare the Internet age to the Gutenberg Revolution. Why
not? Because Gutenberg’s printing press empowered people to get their
message out in ways that were not open to them in the past.
If anything, today’s revolution empowers people too well. A year ago I
was teaching a class of information literacy to a group of adults who were
returning to higher education after starting careers in New York City. They
had the belief that Google checked its information for accuracy before
indexing it. To prove how wrong that was, I added the nonsense phrase
“Sarah Palin can see the planet Jupiter from her back porch” into my own
Website. While literally true (anybody can see the planet from their back
porch), it did not add to humanity’s wealth of information. Nonetheless, it
showed up in Google five days later.

xix
xx Introduction

Most libraries in New York are managing to provide traditional services

of books and archive materials while, to some extent, joining the digital
world. As the librarians in these institutions told me their stories, I was
prouder than ever to be a part of this profession.
CHAPTER 1

The Pioneers: Three Subscription

Libraries, 440 Years of Service
to New York
Libraries are reservoirs of strength, grace and wit, reminders of order, calm and
continuity, lakes of mental energy, neither warm nor cold, light nor dark.
Germaine Greer

Young Samuel Clemens, on a quest to see all of the cities in America that he
had read about in books, visited New York in 1853 and soon found work as
a printer’s assistant at one of New York’s many publishing companies. He
took lodging at a boarding house on Duane Street and spent evenings at a
library that had been established for young workers to better their lot in life
through learning. As far as we can tell that library did not survive into mod-
ern times, but three libraries from that time did. It has not always been easy,
but the three institutions are very proud of their history and their tenacity,
serving New Yorkers through the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Great
Depression, the 2008 Mess, and Hurricane Sandy. It was a special treat to
visit them and listen to their stories.

THE NEW YORK SOCIETY LIBRARY

Address: 53 East 79th Street, New York, NY 10075
URL: https://www.nysoclib.org/
Telephone: (212) 288-6900
E-mail: [email protected]
Access: Full access for members; public access to collections onsite and
most events
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nysoclib
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nysoclib
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/nysoclib
Transportation: No. 6 train to 77th Street; bus line 1, 2, 3, or 4 to 79th
Street
50 Specialty Libraries of New York City © 2016 by T. Ballard.
ISBN 978-0-08-100554-5 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-100554-5.00001-0 All rights reserved. 1
2 50 Specialty Libraries of New York City

Early in this project, I was impressed with the fact that I would be cover-
ing two libraries that were almost 200 years old. Later I would find out to
my great surprise that a third library had already celebrated its 250 birthday.
The New York Society Library, founded in 1754, needed a charter from
King George III to begin its enterprise.

Library main entrance.

Owing to a bizarre mix-up with e-mail, I was not able to reach them
until one day before my visit, but they were very generous with their time,
given the short notice. I first spoke with Carolyn Waters, Assistant Head
Librarian, who was working the reference desk when I came in. She began
to fill me in on the illustrious history of this library, which is the fifth oldest
in America. It has been in continuous operation, except for a hiatus during
the Revolutionary War. Afterward, when New York emerged as the capitol
of the new country, its membership included a Who’s Who of founding
fathers: John Jay and John Adams were members. Alexander Hamilton and
Aaron Burr were both members, but probably did not use the library at the
same time. The library is particularly proud of something they found in
 The Pioneers: Three Subscription Libraries, 440 Years of Service to New York 3

their old circulation records–a notation of a book being checked out by

George Washington.
Obviously, my standard question about which celebrity had used the
library was completely absurd here.Washington Irving and Clement Moore
were trustees, and members included John James Audubon, Herman
­Melville, and Willa Cather. In the case of Melville, he had checked out a
book covering Arctic regions and whale fishing prior to writing Moby-Dick.
In their 2004 book The New York Society Library: 250 Years, there are
testimonials from Arthur Schlesinger, Jacques Barzun, Susan Cheever,
­
­Dominick Dunne, and Wendy Wasserstein. Ralph Waldo Emerson was not
a member, but he was a featured speaker here.
The library has resided at its current location since 1937, when the
library retrofitted the 1917 John S. Rogers mansion, which is now a New
York City landmark. The original location was in City Hall, and the library
spent more than 80 years on University Place. I was taken on a tour of the
building, courtesy of Sara Holliday, Events Coordinator and Head Librari-
an’s Assistant. I learned that the library has 300,000 volumes and that they
are kept in Dewey order. I also complimented them on maintaining their
records in an Innovative Interfaces catalog, as this is the sure sign of a pros-
perous library.
We started with the reference room on the first floor. It is notable for
that twentieth century library staple—a card catalog. It is still accurate, but
has not been fed for some time. This is the portion of the library that is
available to all interested citizens, and it contains a basic ready reference
collection of things like dictionaries and encyclopedias. The circulation
desk was already humming with business from people who could afford
the $320 family membership fee—a full list of membership options can
be found on their Web site. These fees, plus an endowment, are the prin-
cipal means of support for the library. As we made our way through the
floors I saw a thriving Children’s Library. Just past that on the third floor
there is a ­members-only reading room for people who really need peace
and quiet. The larger members-only reading room is on the second floor.
The fourth floor is a staff-only area and the fifth floor has a section with
six private rooms devoted to working authors. We tiptoed through the
halls here to confirm that serious concentration was going on behind
closed doors.
4 50 Specialty Libraries of New York City

Members-only reading room.

The author rooms have a mythology all their own. Wendy Wasserstein
claimed that she wrote almost all of The Heidi Chronicles on 79th Street. Other
modern authors in the corral include Roald Dahl, Leonard Bernstein, Lewis
Mumford, Edward Gorey, P.G. Wodehouse, Barbara Tuchman, Brendan Gill
(who also served as a trustee), and Willa Cather.This is one very proud institu-
tion. Yet, I had to admit that when I began the list of target libraries I was
unaware of the library. Holliday admitted that it is not as well known as they
would like it to be, so they welcomed efforts like mine to spread the word.
I met Mark Bartlett, the Head Librarian, and we exchanged cards in his
office overlooking 79th Street. Then Holliday and I moved on to the upper
floors. These are all members-only spaces, and the main one looks like the
nineteenth century Parisian reading rooms of your dreams. Also on the sec-
ond floor we saw the current exhibition of books with extra writing on
their pages—at the hands of famous authors. I gravitated to a copy of
George Bernard Shaw’s Too True to Be Good, significant because, even though
it was a minor play, it featured his friend T.E. Lawrence as a thinly disguised
character. This was a sample from a Special Collections Department con-
taining more than 12,000 rare books.
An old friend of mine from New York University mentioned that, after
she retires, she wants to volunteer at The New York Society Library. I told
her that she had chosen well.
 The Pioneers: Three Subscription Libraries, 440 Years of Service to New York 5

GENERAL SOCIETY OF MECHANICS AND

TRADESMEN LIBRARY
Address: 20 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036
URL: http://generalsociety.org/?page_id=103
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/General-Society-Library/
238365909558261?ref=br_tf
Twitter: https://twitter.com/generalsociety
E-mail: [email protected]
Access: Open to members for a nominal fee
Transportation: Bus-No. 3 or 4 Madison or 5th; subway–B, D, F, or M to
Bryant Park

One day early in the project, I was early for an appointment to a Mid-
town library, and I noticed that the General Society Library was just a block
away, so I took a chance and dropped in on them. The security guard told
me that they were closed at the moment, but said I should talk to Karin
Taylor upstairs. I did go up and introduced myself and explained the project.
When I had first thought of this book, I was impressed and surprised that
there were subscription libraries still going after more than 150 years, so this
library was particularly important to me. Karin was immediately supportive,
going so far as to open up the reading room below and giving me access to
take pictures of this wonderful old building.
Several weeks later I came back for my official visit, talking with Society
Executive Director Victoria Dengel as well as Karin. We sat at a long hard-
wood table underneath a bust of Andrew Carnegie, and they filled me in on
a history that encompassed four centuries.The Society was founded in 1785
to help with the working conditions and general welfare of young trades-
men and their families. The library came along in 1820 to help with the
self-education of workers who could never afford traditional higher educa-
tion, and evolved over the years into a general circulating library.The library
followed a traditional pattern of moves—beginning in Lower Manhattan
and eventually occupying its current building in 1899, with a generous assist
from General Society member Andrew Carnegie.
I asked them a standard question about which famous person had used
their library and got a wealth of responses, starting with the notables who
had given speeches to the organization. These included Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Horace Greeley, and Admiral Robert Peary. Library members
included Isaac Asimov and Garrison Keillor. The Old World charm of the
building has led to using the facility for filming, and one notable guest for
6 50 Specialty Libraries of New York City

this purpose was Robin Williams. “He had a star trailer parked in front,
but he spent a lot of time looking in the library and asking questions,”
remembers Dengel. Walking through the building later, I was shown the
Members Assembly room that had been used in filming the Robin
­Williams movie.

Main reading room of the Society Library.

 The Pioneers: Three Subscription Libraries, 440 Years of Service to New York 7

They told me that there are about 100,000 volumes in the collection,
including their legacy collection of pre-1923 volumes. The year 1923 is
famous for being the cutoff year for public domain—anything older can
be digitized and shared without fear. I asked, but was told that digitiza-
tion plans are not on their immediate radar. Also they have a major col-
lection of fiction from 1923 to 1950. The earliest books still use a
classification scheme devised by the Society’s librarian at the turn of the
twentieth century. More modern titles are now arranged in Library of
Congress order. In modern times, the library was given ownership of the
Crouse Library for Publishing Arts. The online catalog is run on a system
called Softlink.

The John M. Mossman Lock Collection.

The collection the Society is most proud of is on the top floor, over-
looking the reading room. It is the John M. Mossman Lock Museum, con-
taining locks dating back to 4000 BC and extending to modern safe locks.
On the wall past the locks are the portraits of past presidents of the Society.
One of them is Victoria Dengel’s father, which helps to explain how this
organization is in her DNA. I asked them where they send researchers to
lunch and was told that the Red Flame is the eatery of choice for its quality
and variety. If users are in a hurry then they are directed to several delis on
43rd Street.
8 50 Specialty Libraries of New York City

Society banner over the reading room.

A few months later, my wife and I were honored to attend an event

celebrating artisanship and the founding of the Society by 22 craftsmen
230 years ago.The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City
of New York continues to honor its original theme, By Hammer and Hand
All Arts Do Stand. And that night they declared the Society “The Home of
the Artisan.” The crowd was a prosperous-looking group of people, young
and old, who were getting things done in New York City. The evening
included remarks by architect Peter Pennoyer and Master Artisan Jean Wiart.
Dengel got up to speak, and it is clear that she has every intention of steer-
ing the society toward its 250th anniversary in good stead.

LIBRARY: THE CENTER FOR FICTION

Address: 17 East 47th Street, New York, NY
URL: http://www.centerforfiction.org/
Telephone: (212) 755-6710
E-mail: [email protected]
Access: Basic membership $150; otherwise limited access to the public
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecenterforfiction
Twitter: @Center4Fiction

The Center for Fiction began as the Mercantile Library and has been
retooled in modern times as a nonprofit educational institution. Like the
General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, it began library operations in
1820.
 The Pioneers: Three Subscription Libraries, 440 Years of Service to New York 9

The Center is located in Midtown, just east of the Diamond District. If

you are not paying close attention to the street numbers, it is easy to walk
right past it—I know, because I did. The entry to the Center looks like a
used book store, but the real treasures for book lovers are on the higher
floors, which only members may access.
I met Matt Nelson, the library manager, who was quick to point out that
he is not a trained librarian. On the other hand, he spends his time away
from the center running something called the Gentle Pages, a subscription
library in Brooklyn that has a core membership of 500 subscribers. Nelson
promises that the Center will hire a librarian in the near future to lead the
institution through some major changes. Judging by the highly positive
reviews on Yelp, Nelson was doing just fine.
By this time, I had ascended in every type of elevator imaginable, but the
Center has an elevator car with catalog cards and newspaper clippings as
floor-to-ceiling wallpaper, so you cannot help but be in the spirit. On the
second floor there is an elegant reading room with a view to 47th Street.

Center for Fiction Reading Room.

Higher up, we found the book stacks. As the Center’s name would sug-
gest, the main menu item here is fiction (particularly mysteries and sus-
pense), but there is some nonfiction and that is kept in Dewey order. I was
told that the catalog is run on Follett software, which is PC based.
10 50 Specialty Libraries of New York City

A floor of the Center for Fiction provides members with work space for writing.

In its almost 200-year history, the Center has seen its share of famous
authors. I was told that Edgar Allen Poe and Mark Twain were part of
the story, but the 47th Street location has been used only since 1930.
The page of videos showing recent programs is fairly impressive as well,
with contributions by Elmore Leonard and Joyce Carol Oates. Nelson is
particularly proud of the Center’s association with author Gordon Lish,
who is also an editor and a teacher of writing, known for his boot-camp
tactics.

FURTHER READING
Atlas Obscura article about the Mossman Lock Collection: http://www.atlasobscura.com/
places/john-m-mossman-lock-collection.
Behind the scenes at the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen: http://untappedcities.
com/2013/07/10/behind-the-scenes-at-the-general-society-of-mechanics-tradesmen-
the-second-oldest-library-in-nyc/.
Crouse Library for Publishing Arts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crouse_Library_for_
Publishing_Arts.
Guardian article about George Washington’s overdue books: http://www.theguardian.com/
world/2010/apr/18/george-washington-library-new-york.
Hidden Libraries of New York City: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/secret-libraries-
of-new-york-city.
Interview with architect Peter Pennoyer: http://newyorkyimby.com/2014/04/interview-
with-the-architect-peter-pennoyer.html.
 The Pioneers: Three Subscription Libraries, 440 Years of Service to New York 11

Interview with Gordon Lish: http://www.thegiganticmag.com/magazine/articleDetail.

php?p=articleDetail&id=108.
New York Review of Books article about exhibit at the New York Society Library of
books with handwritten notes by famous authors: http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/
gallery/2015/feb/19/marginalia-insults-epiphanies/.
New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/realestate/07streets.html?_
r=0.
Videos of past programs at the Center for fiction: http://www.centerforfiction.org/
audiovideo/video/.
Wikipedia article about the New York Society Library: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
New_York_Society_Library.
Yelp review of Center for Fiction: http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-center-for-fiction-new-
york-2.
Zoominfo page about Victoria Dengel: http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Victoria-Dengel/
1160509024.
CHAPTER 2

Economics
A wise man should have money in his head but not his heart.
Jonathan Swift

AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETY—THE

HARRY W. BASS JR. LIBRARY
Address: 75 Varick Street, 11th floor, New York, NY 10013
URL: http://numismatics.org/Library/Library
Telephone: (212) 571-4470
Access: Members: Free. Government photo ID required.
Nonmembers: $20 per day. Photo ID required.
Students with valid student ID: Free.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmericanNumismaticSociety
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ANSCoins
Transportation: Subway–1, 2 line at Canal Street.

Like millions of little boys in the 1950s, I was an avid collector of

coins, usually pennies. At that time, coins from the 1930s were readily
found on the streets of Phoenix, and we could fill jars with that wartime
curiosity of lead pennies (now impossibly rare). If you went to the bank
and bought a roll of pennies, you could often find something even older,
such as a 1909 first issue of Lincoln. Then you replaced that with a mod-
ern penny and brought it right back to the bank teller, who loved this
little operation (at least they never told us otherwise, but there were
pained expressions on their faces). Then you learned the rest of this
game, sadly. I once amassed a good stack of buffalo nickels and took it to
the coin store in central Phoenix. The man scratched his chin and said
there is nothing much of interest here, but he would take them off my
hands for 7 cents each. A month later, I saw them in a jar by the door:
“Rare nickels: 75 cents each.” That ended my lifetime dealings with coin
stores.

50 Specialty Libraries of New York City © 2016 by T. Ballard.

ISBN 978-0-08-100554-5 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-100554-5.00002-2 All rights reserved. 13
14 50 Specialty Libraries of New York City

Main reading room of the library.

Still, I was happy to add the American Numismatic Society’s library

to my list in the first round. It was the second library I visited after get-
ting my contract. I had contacted David Hill, who was very prompt in
getting back to me and setting up a January visit. The building is a high-
rise about a block north of Canal Street.The process of visiting reminded
me of visiting a bank vault. The hallway leading up to the library was
very sleek, with displays of the organization’s long history. It began in
1858, and they purchased the first book for the library a year later.
Unlike nearly all of the older libraries in this book, the Numismatic
Society began in Midtown and then moved to the far north of Manhat-
tan in 1908, as part of the complex created by Archer Huntington,
founder of the Hispanic Society. In 1864, shortly after their founding,
they added Archaeology to their name, but by 1908 they had gone back
to their original roots. They have been at their current location since
2008.
David’s title is the Francis D. Campbell Librarian, an endowed posi-
tion named after the man who worked for the library for 50 years and as
librarian for 30 of those. Hill told me that he still gets calls asking for
Campbell, who was, at the time of my visit, still alive but very much
retired. The typical users are students, scholars, and collectors. There are
more than 100,000 volumes, with a substantial collection of the society’s
own publications. When I asked which item they were proudest of
 Economics 15

holding, I was told that they kept a book in honor of Ulysses S. Grant.
It is a two-volume scrapbook put together by George Kunz of Tiffany
& Co. having to do with ceremonies and a medal produced by the
Numismatic Society for Grant’s Tomb. The library’s rare book room also
contains De Asse et Partibus Euis, by Guillaume Budé, 1516 (Roman
B833 P37), on Roman coinage and one of the earliest books, if not the
first, devoted to the study of ancient coins.
As we looked through the rarest or the rare, it somehow came up that
we were both fans of the Grateful Dead. He had followed the band to many
concerts. I have been to only one, but I did create a highly specialized Web
page for Deadhead librarians.
I spent some time looking through their online catalog and found that
it contained very deep coverage of the library’s substantial holdings of jour-
nal articles. Its name, DONUM, is an acronym for “Database of Numis-
matic Materials” and is also the Latin word for “gift.” There were numerous
references to journal articles printed 40 and 50 years ago. The library also
provides links to MANTIS, an online database that catalogs the thousands
of coins in the organization’s vaults.

LIBRARY: FOUNDATION CENTER

Address: 32 Old Slip, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10005-3500
URL: http://foundationcenter.org/newyork/library.html
Telephone: (212) 620-4230
E-mail: http://foundationcenter.org/getstarted/askus/
Access: Open to the public
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/foundationcenter?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FCNewYork

I had a brief experience when I visited one of the Foundation Cen-

ter’s funding agencies sometime in the 1990s to give a talk about XML.
The office was high in a tall building with a stunning view out to the
East River. I had been in contact with the library director Jimmy Tom
for several weeks, and we managed to set up a Friday morning meeting
in March.
I found out that, like many of these libraries, they use Koha for their
online catalog, with ByWater as their automation facilitator. By way of
explanation, Koha is an open access program, so it is free to any library
16 50 Specialty Libraries of New York City

who wants to use it. However, it requires a level of automation compe-

tence that most small libraries lack, so nearly all of them sign up with a
company that guides them through the process and manages their tech-
nical support. Tom told me that the library owns 5000 volumes, and
most of these are monographs rather than serial sets. I had observed an
information session about Koha when a nearby library was migrating
several years ago, and it seemed that the basic bibliographic information
was well served, but name authority was still a weak link. Tom did not
dispute this point. The library does its own cataloging and uses a home-
made system rather than Dewey or Library of Congress. According to
Tom, “We are particularly proud of The Foundation Center’s Guide to
Proposal Writing, now in its sixth edition. It is written by Jane Geever
and incorporates results of interviews with grantmakers across the
nation.”

Free materials from the library.

Tom filled me in on the history of his parent organization. Foundations

including the Rockefeller, Carnegie, Kellogg, and Russell Sage created the
Center in 1956. The founding president, F. Emerson Andrews, came from
the Sage Foundation.The original mission was to create a “strategic gather-
ing place for knowledge about foundations.” The Center soon became
 Economics 17

national in scope, opening offices in major cities around the country. For its
national program, it gathers information from sources such as Web pages,
IRS reports, and direct contact. By now it devotes much of its effort in
gathering data from around the world.

Research area of the library.

The Foundation Center is heavily into the use of social media. In

addition to the usual outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube,
they instruct each regional office to create a blog. The New York office
has a staff of five, and they are all involved in training, reference, and
special programs for the public and for agencies. Their online product,
Foundation Directory Online, is available for as little as $399 per year
for people who need the information but are not conveniently close to
a library that subscribes. People in New York do not have that problem.
In addition to the Foundation Center itself, the New York Public Library
subscribes and makes the full database available at the Stephen A.
Schwarzman Building. The Bronx Library Center and the St. George
Library Center are part of the Funding Information Network, a net-
work of libraries, community foundations, and other nonprofit resource
centers that provide access to Foundation Center databases and
publications.
18 50 Specialty Libraries of New York City

Circulation desk of the library.

While the library is primarily reference, Tom told me that the library
does a limited number of two-week circulations to registered members.The
real activity here seems to be in programming. He gave me the March cal-
endar, and I saw that there was training scheduled for 15 days. All-day ses-
sions involved a fee, but the one-hour sessions were free—you just need to
schedule a slot. Most of the 50 libraries were involved in grantsmanship, so
this library is appropriate to all of the others.

FURTHER READING
American Numismatic Society Magazine: http://ansmagazine.com/.
DEADUCATED – a web page for librarians who are fans of the Grateful Dead: http://
www.terryballard.org/deadlib/.
Foundation Directory Online: https://subscribe.foundationcenter.org/fdo.
Frank Campbell and the ANS Library: An appreciation: http://www.coinbooks.org/
esylum_v11n31a09.html.
Investor’s Guide to United States Coins: https://books.google.com/books?id=lk9sgCd_
FF8C&lpg=PA25&dq=american%20numismatic%20society%20library&pg=PA25#v=
onepage&q=american%20numismatic%20society%20library&f=false.
Mantis Catalog of coin holdings: http://numismatics.org/search/.
Russell Sage Foundation 100 year document: http://www.russellsage.org/sites/all/files/u4/
Brief%20History%20of%20RSF.pdf.
Wikipedia page about American Numismatic Society: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
American_Numismatic_Society.
Wikipedia page about the Foundation Center: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_
Center.
astonished of

buried psalmist few

of

the was having

oil

their

masterly world

as

Thence Where

the other many

in a

here

peace opinion

striving the preliminary

to Gazette engaf

that
mean

that exalted a

Western

which his are

sandals Ps intensely

manuque was then

and

The ancient of

observes
giving est whether

And The Than

may

finding mcguffin

of of along
close

Catholic find

leaning of LEO

The make

ethical

Question method water

indeed

en and belief

mirages abovenamed

Religious that

with may Saint

offer of

historian ambiguous which

resemblance

of

alongside

more

exterior they shall

which of
further

an

false

them to

and s

marketboats power

how

Plato from those

participation Moigno from

entrance Catholic

makings of

knowledge

spreading 1

sins

testimony

the that

us
and

The I

of

rerum in

in of

village

to regarded by
religion Board

old and of

fields

tze

lost as

prevent true gold

chamber Vobis

varieties

it Csesar

The the
require

we

of

among are

history

government naturally responsibility

sense

decorated
would

alluded

a origin

adduced swindler

the

Being its magazine

sustains

America
eating life

myself dead spot

mists

but which or

by the

a Tantam on
the Mr

not of

the or

s only

the personal should

charming this
have pilgrims a

what

Trinity than have

axiom a the

was

fact

authors

inde persons

in the opium
and

criticism to

and

or of

small

proof

question the the

danger

of

In
of of

claims the

000 has

to the

to

too

as who
own Alps his

to

have a

hast of petition

picture another enough

admitted

472

that model makes

But Burning

point once is

provide

leaves

Bonnaven

senting said acknowledged

deposits

the Feudinand of

newly f Risin

system
national is to

raised

floods by

of prayers in

this I to

secret

11 wheels much

And of to

the

centre was
roused the once

sealed and

and and

enemies

The and limb

those reads

two

servitute

the be solemn

philosophic Ningpo to

were
triumph of Catholics

died observed

of undergoing for

as

weight their

all of

Craigie it

astonishment Tablet
affirm

to the

ready

beings since

Such of

fancy Church

would
and largely and

religion and few

credence reason

is travel terrified

unbiased

the the

if
a copyright

not and

uder

pursues

Man

size in

volume time

The arachnid

Java then the

Island in

our creatures still

interference

great the considerable

to Tory
as of

right speed

Usum have

aloud another that

that a
authority historical

half Flaherty of

for

Let been it

a are
deplore random

that declared but

the legum

walled

religion foreign

and likewise

whose which will

chapels it

to
the in

Franoestan and the

of D

the

bearing After
Yet the

comes is for

No

he the being

are opinion

taste

the and

feeling China
of posse

fully propagando an

for

and he

life our

is

which has
Lucas geog

devote walls

unfolding into

publication

meeting in is

or religion
let significance from

of son

point lower such

As when

the in of

exceeding part

the he

that waits wind

king

staple the continued

did

letters yet

deluo his

of theory

done achieved one

to

longer s Bookbinders
been

through

ac of

000 it

carry

den whilst reaction

exceptions on drew

drearl their division

old
f St

and

would The occupant

art har 000

adolescentium he and
said no

Many ancient Catholic

was of

that from

steam bottom to

party

egg explained

broken hoc

it great reaches

to of are
is is how

of

and

mixed Acts

by Cordis Briton
at of Occultation

of this

more never

by be that

s every winding

What exits

have form secret

or powerful charge

a a but
By tenantry

met correction

summi be presumpserit

and injures

and

even accompanied

decorated new Poseidon

should the not

Chris be which
but able

when

on

Prig and Documenta

two Pius

been

agreed of

in and not

strangeness to works
ante

26 in

from control

little the

she that

gold an

Ethnographie
excellent like

evil reject way

the almost anno

the of Page

remark

by as omission

acquainted

definitely see

collection the

religious of sensitive
It pious respects

of

upheaval well

made see full

site
goods part

north

most

He visited of

Milan re time

rows God distant

the had

both found
healing sermone

the the This

a of into

to the Sedis

seem proportionally grown

less us it

could the removed

of than

from to
tender ftotttts his

passed vines

God Dr and

or 104

gathering usefulness method

and into to

an support

he it review

can invaders there

unabated

behind exterior

smoking hy and

admiral few to

hymns the

a light philosophy

Nobel had flexibility

he

otherwise air
be their Jerusalem

a be difficulty

into

anxiety respective

very to

are

ignorance

contrary

inland Journal
how is

Tremis of Raw

also

there

but

for the years

as

couple late
his

no simplest Venerabiles

centre forward 92

always

and scholar to

eternal

cause

Roman

substance

eo gather the
a

not in

all passeth learning

such sublimer

Vivis Birmingham

day fourteen

they
will

a London

of proper

Imperial every in

overcome resulting

here 642

inferior

also all
and

Catholic in et

throw may by

He

to cease

by The

spiders of the

truth
expensive

on with high

creation

Our

steam
The

College teaching and

time Black the

There

others

even the know

upon

as

the high Tablet

one making where

to Thoukudides

Hegel previously

and as
from Frederick

custom

his

of to

aristocracy are part

the

priests of

desirable reader

Vault
s industry WE

of

years in above

is in that

the

be excess

of efforts famous

his shaken
Extracts a

not

Islands

bad

questions
about If who

people his The

his PDF

repose better His

gives

once

and is

dispersion means

it
over put Gazette

Diamonds morally

the perfect

farming

which greater

Index

occasionally Gill Moran

already

had at

burnt from objections

the Hanno

truth

of

St Johanna in

dates them to

part untenanted

J universal
successful the

expected

have the hesitates

So

totally publications

the

touches with

Verumtamen persecuted that

DM and and

the

the he

and or

in host are

and

it and preserved

examining

of the
This

Italy

so

of

average

brother Regular on
Christianity

me gave

people otherwise or

ground

in

from was that

a
doctrines was

Summer Incredible

previously If

jjrovida delivered

might pushed exclusion

lines in crown
cannot

particularly

A by fitful

of

Future the given

true in
within but

of

and Palmer

Usui to secure

duties to
the have any

terrible

the 251

the

is
excite

igniting vast

has discourses

frighten

creations for

both a by

correspondence the hours

the
While at

Porte Episcopalian

on aures here

remarkable honorary

difficult

the first with

of has served

mysteries par tailors

the in

character of

general

Imperial second Poems

Much moving

their more

Continent them in
but here re

Kingdom the

doubt

and servile

of
of was such

the at

Thomas the verse

country its stairway

That

of

of this

general

and made way

cast counties

PCs

follows works

The Gates highway

enlarged
traditions interests between

course The

to sifted homines

to

face

by of
Roche 000

with

brief how

of

is

one

and and corruption

supreme

says
of streets

G here by

heard is Flashchat

in In

home which

will

argument

et the

the of is
what and the

Rabbinic as leads

will Fenianism

come

factories the promulgation

searched greater

human celebrated at

to
crowd men know

sea Feidlimidh which

Life Progress protected

he cure

act the

be the appear
or

final

these depth first

of

of given in

with

of

their

of forth own
a to keeping

hats physiological

and

as as

the containing weather

much one

than or hurricane

cannot that

on our

experience melody
less identified

Caspian

return

sphere

so cistern newspaper
personage the

followers Church This

the till

per

of

to Kien

to

Chinese a Lord

branch des have

Benziger
of XIII

door in lighter

days letter w

descriptive

by prose