Photography
The New York Public Library designs the future.
The New York Public Library is doing an outstanding job incorporating education, technology and design into their present and future plans. If you share a hope for a better education system and a love for digital learning solutions as we do, then this should strike your interest.
• A new plan, designed by the great British architect Norman Foster, will create a state-of-the-art circulating library within the main branch (which is called the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building), a 101-year old landmark in New York City. Foster’s design will open spaces currently closed to the public, creating a four-level atrium, with bookshelves, sitting areas and desks, and will incorporate the books, programs, and services now found at the “heavily used but seriously deteriorating” Mid-Manhattan Library across Fifth Avenue. The project, expected to be completed in 2018 will cost $300 million. Half of that will come from the city and the rest from donations and the sale of properties. Long term, the project will save $12 to 15 million from the library’s tight yearly budget according to Anthony W. Marx, the library’s president.
After the renovation, which has been somewhat controversial, the building is expected to receive 4 million visitors per year. It will be open seven days a week, most days until 11 p.m. Incredibly enough, the branches will remain open throughout construction! Check out the 3D renderings and benefits for project below (it does not have sound, your speakers are fine!):
Benefits after the renovation:
- More public library space than is currently available in all three locations combined
- Open 7 days a week, 12+ hours most days
- Books and DVDs to browse and check out
- Natural light and beautiful views onto Bryant Park
- New spaces for children and teens
- Classrooms, computer labs, expanded research areas
- Business Research Center and Job Search resources
- Expanded spaces for scholars and writers
- Research materials properly preserved beneath Bryant Park
- Savings that can be spent on new librarians and curators and more books
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“This visionary project by the New York Public Library, embodied in this beautiful building by Norman Foster, is central to this great institution’s evolution as a vital part of our city, as it has been for over a century,” said City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn. “I applaud NYPL for listening and heeding the concerns of the stakeholders, and for crafting a project that sensitively addresses its dual mission as a great center of scholarship—and as the people’s library for all New Yorkers—for the next century.”
• As part of the new services in place for the Central Library Plan, the NYPL has also partnered up with award-winning lynda.com, a great resource for educational purposes and digital arts.
This new collaboration will provide the Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL) on 34th Street with free access to lynda.com’s extensive library of over 1,500 courses of instructional training videos and tutorials on topics as diverse as social media strategies and digital photography technology. More courses are added each week! This is the online company’s first access to a public library space. Videos from lynda.com will be available at SIBL on a range of workstations, which allows the library to provide options for individualized and self-paced training, as well as formal group training and follow-up practice sessions. Laptop owners, Mac users in particular, can bring their laptop to practice with exercise files while taking lynda.com courses on SIBL’s public workstations.
• A new series of workshops and events kick off in January 2013 and we are proud to announce our involvement with the New York Public Library in teaching three 1-day workshops for photographers and visual artists Check them out and register now!
Meeting Deadlines and Streamlining Your Workflow, January 15, 2013.
The Art of Storytelling: Still vs. Moving Images, January 29, 2013.
Digital Filmmaking for Photographers, February 12, 2013
If that was not enough for you, the SIBL is going to soon offer financial consultations, credit crisis counseling services for those in debt and financial planning for New Yorkers trying to save for college or retirement. Job search assistance via workshops and databases, as well as one-on-one career coaching and onsite business advisory from SCORE mentors will also be available.
We are very enthusiastic about these updates and as always we encourage you to please share your comments, feedback and questions in the comment box below. Thank you!