As LJ reported last Tuesday, the New York Public Library’s $1 billion makeover depends not only on an extraordinary $100 million donation but also the sale of valuable real estate like the Mid-Manhattan Library, which likely would bring more than that sum.
Also, unmentioned in the library’s public statement, but announced in a document distributed to staff, is the potential sale of another valuable midtown Manhattan property: the Science Industry and Business Library (SIBL). In 1995, the former B. Altman department store building on 34th Street became SIBL, housing the science and industry collections from the flagship library at 42nd Street (renamed the Humanities and Social Sciences Library), and the business collections from Mid-Manhattan. Now SIBL collections might move back to the flagship library, which will be renamed for donor Stephen Schwarzman.
"It is possible, but by no means certain, that we will sell SIBL and the Annex years from now," NYPL spokesman Herb Scher told me Friday. "If we did, the funds would go toward the plan we announced this week. There is space in the Central Library plan for collections from SIBL. And the 34th Street location will also be used to house Mid-Manhattan collections while the new Central Library is built. We will evaluate after that the need for such a facility within our system and in this location."
Today’s New York Times has an essay by Edward Rothstein about the tension between cultural aspiration and democratization at the library.
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[...] the potential sale of the Science, Industry, and Business Library (SIBL) has been suspended, though on December 19, [...]