Libraries
Libraries
American Craft Council Library
The ACC Library collects materials on contemporary American craft. It also holds the archives of the ACC, which operated the American Craft Museum until 1990. The ACC's founder, Aileen Osburn Webb, was instrumental in the development of the contemporary American Craft movement.
Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
At Columbia University. An open-stack research library containing over 250,000 volumes and 1800 periodical titles.
Bard Graduate Center Library
The Bard Graduate Center Library is a non-circulating research collection supporting advanced studies in the decorative arts, design, garden history, landscape studies and culture. The Library's collection comprises approximately 40,000 volumes, including rare books, microforms, and videos. In addition, the Library subscribes to more than 250 periodicals and provides on-line access to numerous subscription databases: periodical indexes and other research tools.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden Library
Provides reference services to home gardeners, staff, and the professional horticultural community. A convenient access point from which to learn more about all of the Library's collections and about the Garden's plant collections. The Library is located on the second floor of the historic McKim, Mead & White Administration Building. Members may borrow one or two books for up to two weeks.
Brooklyn Public Library
Numerous branch libraries throughout Brooklyn, many of which offer special collections, educational programs, discussions and exhibitions. The Central Branch is home to the Archives and The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, online and print.
Center for Fiction
Founded in 1820 as the Mercantile Library, the Center is "the only organization in the United States devoted solely to the vital art of fiction." Their collection includes over 85,000 classic and contemporary fiction titles and related nonfiction, literary journals, newspapers, and magazines.
Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library
Over 60,000 volumes detailing Masonic history, origins, philosophy, symbolism, current events, esoterica and occultism; historical files for every Lodge, Chapter, Council, Commandery and Valley in New York State; extensive holdings of Masonic periodicals from all over the United States and the world, from the 1700s to the present, including a large collection of Shrine publications; subject files containing articles, essays, speeches and studies on numerous topics relating to Freemasonry; biographical files on Masons known for their achievements both within the Craft and in wider historical contexts; extensive collections of Masonic memorabilia, ritual artifacts, jewelry, aprons and other textile artifacts, artwork, engravings, paintings, and collections gathered by Past Grand Masters of New York; rotating exhibits in the Reading Room of Masonic memorabilia and ephemera.
Columbia University Libraries
Columbia's 25 libraries, with 9.5 million volumes, 117,264 current serials, and an extensive collection of electronic resources, manuscripts, rare books, microforms, and other non-print formats, ranks as one of the top ten academic library systems in the nation.
Greenacre Reference Library
Previously known as The Information Exchange, this is the research library of the Municipal Art Society of New York. Established in 1978, the library is devoted to the complex ecology of New York City and beyond, urban culture and the environment, natural and built.
The collection contains approximately 3,000 books and reports along with 2,000 archival publications and ephemera produced by MAS over the course of its history. In addition, hundreds of files containing thousands of clippings, brochures, reports, and other materials from the journalistic record are available for review by request.
The Grolier Club
The founders originally intended the Library to be a working reference collection of standard bibliographical works and books relating to the art of printing. It is still so used, although the scope of the Library has grown in succeeding decades. In addition to current works, the collection includes many rare and early bibliographies. The Grolier Club is also preeminent among libraries documenting the buying, selling and collecting of books, and the Library's research core is a collection of over sixty thousand bookseller and book auction catalogues, perhaps the largest (and certainly the most accessible) archive in America of this notoriously rare and ephemeral material.
Horticulture Society of New York Library
The General Collection provides a broad range of reading materials for gardeners and others curious about plants and gardens. The Botanical Illustration Collection, housed in the conference room for browsing, offers finely illustrated historical and contemporary works on wild and cultivated plants. The American Landscape History Collection supports research on the unique American approach to garden and landscape design with exceptional texts and periodicals produced during the creative period of 1890–1940. The History of American Horticulture Collection includes many practical books and magazines available to gardeners from the 1850's to the 1950's.
Maritime College Stephen B. Luce Library (SUNY)
The library's holdings of print books contain over 80,000 volumes with special strength in marine engineering, maritime history, naval architecture, marine transportation, oceanography, transportation economics, and management. In addition, the library has access to approximately 20,000 electronic books to support the academic program. The Library also holds many archival collections, including those of Sailors' Snug Harbor and the Marine Society of New York.
Mertz Library at the New York Botanical Garden
Founded in 1899, the Mertz Library has evolved to become one of the largest, most comprehensive botanical libraries in the world and is a treasury of knowledge about all aspects of the plant world.
Mina Rees Library, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Over 305,000 print volumes, 555,00 microforms, and 8,258 electronic and print serial subscriptions, with a focus on the humanities and social sciences; materials that support course requirements and preparation for qualifying examinations at The Graduate Center, CUNY's principal doctorate-granting institution.
Morgan Library & Museum
Located in midtown Manhattan at Madison Avenue and 36th Street, the Morgan houses one of the world's greatest collections of illuminated manuscripts, books and bindings, prints and drawings, historical documents, music, and objects d'art from the ancient, medieval, and Renaissance periods to the present. The former private library of Pierpont Morgan and J. P. Morgan, it includes various collections on New York as well.
Museum of Modern Art Library
A comprehensive collection devoted to modern and contemporary art. The noncirculating collection documents painting, sculpture, drawings, prints, photography, architecture, design, performance, video, film, and emerging art forms from 1880 to the present. The Library's holdings include approximately 300,000 books and exhibition catalogs, over 1,000 periodical titles, and over 40,000 files of ephemera about individual artists and groups.
New York City Department of Records Municipal Library
The statutory depository for all official reports and studies done by government agencies. Includes publications from the 19th century; biographical files about local officials; executive orders, local laws, and city charters.
New York Society Library
The oldest library in NYC, founded in 1754 by a civic-minded group that believed the availability of books would help the city prosper. A subscription library, it now contains nearly three hundred thousand volumes -- the result of the tastes of its members over almost the last quarter millennium. Although primarily a library for the general reader, it has considerable potential for research: among its gems, the Society's first ledger, an invaluable window into the reading habits of over 500 18th-century Library members, including many of our nation's founders, digitized from 1789-92, and currently being expanded to the years 1799-1805; plus, a large collection on New York City.
New York Public Library
Eighty-five neighborhood locations in Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan, and four research locations, along with numerous archives and special collections.
Old York Library
Contains a unique assemblage of books, maps, images, newspaper, and memorabilia of New York City. The collection, found in the 1960s by Seymour Durst, chronicles the history, geography, architecture, culture, politics, and many other aspects that tell the story of NYC.
Queens Borough Public Library
Sixty-three branch locations in addition to the Central. Programs, lectures, special collections, and exhibits.
Sotheby's Institute of Art Library
The library has a collection of more than 8,000 books and digital subscriptions covering the fine and decorative arts, including painting, drawing, ceramics, furniture, interiors and design. Coverage of specific subject areas includes art business, art law, contemporary art, museum collections, exhibition catalogues, patronage and connoisseurship.
St. Johns University Libraries
The main library is at the Queens campus, also home to the Asian Library and the Rittenberg Law Library. The Staten Island campus is served by the Loretto Memorial Library. (Materials can be be loaned between the two.) The Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Library at the Manhattan campus contains one of the world's largest collections on insurance, risk management and actuarial science, serving the school of risk management as well as members of the insurance industry.