A Chronology of Press Clippings about the NYPL’s Central Library Plan

Here’s a list, in roughly chronological order, of articles that have appeared to date about the New York Public Library’s plan to remove 3 million books and seven stories of shelving from its 42nd Street research building.

• Robin Pogrebin. “British Architect to Redesign City Library.” New York Times. 23 October 2008.
• Nicolai Ouroussoff. “Treading Carefully but Not Timidly in a Civic Masterpiece.” New York Times. 23 October 2008.
• Scott Sherman. “Upheaval at the New York Public Library.” The Nation. 19 December 2011.
• The New York Public Library. “Reimagining the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.” NYPL.org website. Undated.
• Charles Petersen. “The Lions in Winter.” With part 2 here. N+1. 9 May 2012.
• Norman Oder. “‘Upheaval at the New York Public Library’? At the Least, Some Clouds Over Transformation Plan.” Library Journal website. 22 December 2011.
• Robin Pogrebin. “Ambitions Rekindled at Public Library.” New York Times. 16 February 2012.
• “Controversy at the New York Public Library.” The Leonard Lopate Show. WNYC. 12 March 2012.
• Caleb Crain. “Build More Deliberately,” “The NYPL’s Central Library Plan: Some Updates and Corrections,” and “The Culture of the New York Public Library’s Research Divisions.” Steamboats Are Ruining Everything. 15 March, 27 March, and 1 April 2012.
• Scott McLemee. “Stop Cultural Vandalism.” Inside Higher Ed. 28 March 2012.
• Anthony Grafton. “A Tale of Two Libraries and a Revolution.” The Daily Princetonian. 2 April 2012.

Updates:

• Kelly Burdick. “Opponents of radical NYPL renovation coalesce.” Moby Lives, the Melville House blog. 4 April 2012.
• Christopher Shea. “The Changing Culture of the New York Public Library.” Ideas Market, a blog of the Wall Street Journal. 4 April 2012.
• Anthony Marx. “Improving a Treasured Institution.” Inside Higher Ed. 6 April 2012.
• Brian Braiker. “New York Public Library’s plan to take books off shelves worries scholars.” The Guardian. 6 April 2012.
• Garrison Keillor and the staff of A Prairie Home Companion. “Guy Noir Visits the New York Public Library.” A Prairie Home Companion. 7 April 2012.
• Jennifer Maloney. “Libraries Rethink Their Role in City.” Wall Street Journal. 9 April 2012.
• “New York Public Library President Anthony Marx.” The Leonard Lopate Show. WNYC. 10 April 2012.
• Anthony Marx. “NYPL Embraces the Future of Libraries—Today: Your Questions Answered.” Huffington Post: The Blog. 10 April 2012.
• Robin Pogrebin. “Library Chief Defends Plan to Renovate.” New York Times. 15 April 2012.
• Francine Fialkoff. “Rich NYPL, Poor NYPL.” Library Journal. 16 April 2012.
• Victoria Bekiempis. “New York Public Library Renovations: Good or Bad?”. Runnin’ Scared: A Village Voice News Blog. 16 April 2012.
• Scott Sherman. “The Battle Over the New York Public Library, Continued.” The Nation. 18 April 2012.
• “Anthony Marx, New York Public Libary President, Answers Reader Questions.” Arts Beat blog, New York Times. 20 April 2012.
• Edmund Morris. “Sacking a Palace of Culture.” New York Times. 22 April 2012.
• Jennifer Howard. “Debate at N.Y. Public Library Raises Question: Can Off-Site Storage Work for Researchers?” Chronicle of Higher Education. 22 April 2012.
• Scott McLemee. “For Books, Against Boilerplate.” Inside Higher Ed. 25 April 2012.
• Mark Lamster. “Where’s the Model?” Observatory: A Design Observer Blog. 25 April 2012.
• Chloe Schama. “Let in the Riffraff: In Praise of the New York Public Library’s Renovation Plan.” The New Republic. 27 April 2012.
• Kelly Chan. “Norman Foster’s Plans for a More ‘Democratic’ New York Public Library Meets Fierce Opposition.” Object Lessons, an Art Info blog. 27 April 2012.
• Christina Boyle. “Battle of words: Sweeping Central Library redesign plan stirs controversy.” New York Daily News. 6 May 2012.
• New York Daily News editorial board. “New York Public Library must look to the future.” New York Daily News. 7 May 2012.
• Polly Thistlethwaite. “The New York Public Library Central Library Plan and its Critics.” ACRLog: A blog of the Association of College and Research Libraries. 7 May 2012.
• Marilyn Johnson. “Diversions from the NYPL.” This Book Is Overdue, the author’s blog of Marilyn Johnson. 8 May 2012.
• New York Times editorial board. “A Library for the Future.” New York Times. 9 May 2012.
• Charles Petersen. “Lions in Winter.” With part two here. N+1. 9 May 2012.
• Robin Pogregin. “Cultural Heavyweights Let Public Library Know They Don’t Like Planned Revamp.” Arts Beat, a New York Times blog. 9 May 2012.
• Robert Darnton. “In Defense of the New York Public Library.” New York Review of Books. 7 June 2012 (online 14 May 2012).
• Jennifer Maloney. “New Vision for Library.” Wall Street Journal. 16 May 2012.
• Samuel Goldman. “The People’s Palace?” The American Conservative. 16 May 2012.
• Shannon Christine Mattern. “Scholars and Ruffians: Reactionary Elitism in the NYPL Debate.” Words in Space, a media studies professor’s blog. 17 May 2012.
• Robert Darnton, Howard Dodson, Joan Scott, Charles Petersen, and Caleb Crain. “Seizing the Future or Renouncing Its Past?” Room for Debate, New York Times website. 17 May 2012.
• Robin Pogregin. “Public Library Head Faces Critics of Renovation Plan.” New York Times. 23 May 2012.
• Dan Rosenblum. “In a Heated Debate, Experts, Scholars, and Administrators Discuss a Plan that Would Radically Reshape the New York Public Library.” Capital New York. 23 May 2012.
• Renee (@reneemc). “5/22 NYPL Panel Discussion, The New School.” A Storify collection of live tweets, assembled in reverse-chronological order. 23 May 2012.
• Robin Pogrebin. “Former Employees Feel Silenced on Library Project.” New York Times. 23 May 2012.
• Jon Reiner. “America’s Public Library Crisis: Who’s Reading the Books?” The Daily Beast. 23 May 2012.
• Editors of The Nation. “The Fight to Save the New York Public Library.” The Nation. 18 June 2012 (published online 30 May 2012).
• David Smith. “A Librarian’s Plea to Keep the Stacks of Books.” Letter to the editor. New York Times. 1 June 2012.
• Francine Fialkoff. NYPL Secrecy Must Go.” Library Journal. 5 June 2012.
• Reid Singer. “What Do Norman Foster’s Plans for the New York Public Library Mean for its Storied Architecture?” Blouin Artinfo. 6 June 2012.
• Jesse Browner. “The Personal Side of Public Libraries.” Speakeasy, a blog of the Wall Street Journal. 6 June 2012.
• Ginia Bellafante. “Shh! Scholars Fight Over Library Plan.” New York Times. 10 June 2012.
• Margot Adler. “Loud Debate Rages Over N.Y. Library’s Quiet Stacks.” Morning Edition, National Public Radio. 12 June 2012.
• Hannah Yi. A Rumble in the Stacks.” The Daily Need, a PBS blog. 12 June 2012.
• Joan Scott, Caleb Crain, Charles Petersen, and Robert Darnton. “‘In Defense of the New York Public Library’: An Exchange.” New York Review of Books. 12 July 2012 (published online 21 June 2012).
• David Brussat. “Save the New York Public Library.” Architecture Here and There, a blog of the Providence Journal. 21 June 2012.
• Lois Weiss. “NYPL office condo is sold for $60.8M.” New York Post. 21 June 2012.
• Kelly Burdick. “A new plan for the NYPL?” Moby Lives, the Melville House blog. 21 June 2012.
• Charles Warren. Save the New York Public Library: Ripping out the stacks is not the answer.” New York Daily News. 28 June 2012.
• Jason Farago. “What lies behind the battle over the New York Public Library.” The Guardian. 7 July 2012.
• David A. Bell. “The Bookless Library: Don’t deny the change. Direct it wisely.” The New Republic. 2 August 2012 (published online 12 July 2012).
• Mark Lamster. “Still Here: A funny thing happened on the way to its predicted obsolescence. The library became more popular than ever.” Metropolis. July 2012.