“Mr. Foster has pulled the various floors of the circulating branch back from the wall, creating balconies that officials hail as an architectural boon because visitors will be able to take in the full height of the slot windows. To me, what results is an awkward, cramped, banal pastiche of tiers facing claustrophobia-inducing windows, built around a space-wasting atrium with a curved staircase more suited to a Las Vegas hotel.”
Modernizing the New York Public Library
“[P]ublic libraries in America … are dynamic, versatile community centers. They welcomed more than 1.59 billion visitors in 2009 and lent books 2.4 billion times – more than 8 times for each citizen. More than half of young adults and seniors living in poverty in the United States used public libraries to access the Internet. They used this access, among other purposes to “find work, apply to college, secure government benefits, and learn about critical medical treatments”. For all this, public libraries cost just $42 per citizen each year to maintain.”
Why Public Libraries Matter … | Forbes [photo]
![“[P]ublic libraries in America … are dynamic, versatile community centers. They welcomed more than 1.59 billion visitors in 2009 and lent books 2.4 billion times – more than 8 times for each citizen. More than half of young adults and seniors living in poverty in the United States used public libraries to access the Internet. They used this access, among other purposes to “find work, apply to college, secure government benefits, and learn about critical medical treatments”. For all this, public libraries cost just $42 per citizen each year to maintain.”
Why Public Libraries Matter … | Forbes [photo]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/362eb2656203f96431b38510339ebcb0/tumblr_mgqg65k1iD1qzprlbo1_1280.png)
