Visited the New York Public Library (Flagship Building in Bryant Park), Not Impressed (restaurant, basement)
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It is a museum or library? There are more galleries and exhibits than book rooms.
The main reading room, the famous big one, is not that big. And there are more tourists taking pictures than people reading. And the books on the shelves in the room are like "History of Bricks from 1800-1850, 5 volumes". It seems those books are there more to impress than to be useful for most readers.
Other than the main reading room, I could not find any other open shelves in the library. Other "rooms" are either closed, or have like 10 books, and need special permission to access.
And the periodical room, I thought you can go in and read old newspapers. And it turns out you must submit a request to a librarian to retrieve a paper for you, instead of open shelves.
All in all, this does not seem to be a library by definition, more like a pretentious museum/"oh look how majestic this building is, and how we have leather bound books that no one will care to read about" venue.
90% of the people there are visitors, not readers.
You don't seem to be happy with much of anything you experience in NYC. You should seriously consider finding a city that better meets your expectations.
Go figure! Somewhere around 20 million people from all around the world come to visit New York each year, and the vast majority of them leave impressed. I guess there was bound to be someone who wasn't. Although I must say, if New York didn't impress this one person, I can't imagine what city will!
Actually, a "library" by definition is a "place set apart to contain books, periodicals, and other material for reading, viewing, listening, study, or reference, as a room, set of rooms, or building where books may be read or borrowed."
So based on how you described it, what part of it doesn't make it a library again?? You have a problem with having to request a old newspaper from a librarian? Would you rather they just leave copies of the papers from the 1920's on the shelf so people can just flip through them and damage them?
But let me be the first to apologize to you for wasting your time if you couldn't find the latest stephen king novel. You could've walked a couple of blocks uptown to the Barnes & Noble for that.
It's a research library, like the Library of Congress, not a lending library. There are other branches for that. The vast majority of the books, i.e., several million, are in the basement. You have to fill out a slip and have the book you want sent up. You can only read the books in the library (which is why they have so many small rooms). You can't check them out.
It's a place for scholars and, because of the building, tourists. You don't go there for new novels, but rare and scholarly items. It's one of the top three libraries in the world.
If you had understood its function, you may not have been so quick to call people idiots.
Don't tell me you missed the huge five story Mid-Manhattan Library right across the street!?!?! That's like an annex where you can find everything!!!
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