Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Libraries

Beneath New York Public Library, Shelving Its Past for High-Tech Research Stacks – The New York Times

The New York Public Library is creating a vast underground space for its research collection, after abandoning plans to move much of it to New Jersey. Credit James Estrin/The New York Times
The New York Public Library is creating a vast underground space for its research collection, after abandoning plans to move much of it to New Jersey. Credit James Estrin/The New York Times

As they skate or snack in Bryant Park, visitors might dismiss the stately New York Public Library next door as a dog-eared relic in an age of digital information.But unbeknown to most of them, 17 feet below ground, in a concrete bunker worthy of the White House, the library is expanding and updating one of the most sophisticated book storage systems in the world.Since March, after abandoning a much-criticized plan to move the bulk of its research collection to New Jersey, the library has been working instead to create a high-tech space underground for the 2.5 million research works long held in its original stacks.

Source: Beneath New York Public Library, Shelving Its Past for High-Tech Research Stacks – The New York Times