Way back in November 2020, we got very excited about the New York Public Library’s opening up a grab-and-go service for researchers, parallel to their grab-and-go for the circulating collection. And then—just days later—the COVID-19 case rate in New York City evidenced a dramatic rise, and the research libraries shut their book loans down again.

Welcome to May 2021! Vaccinations are here, the case rate is declining, and beginning May 10, NYPL is restarting its Grab & Go for Researchers! There will also be limited on-site access to the collections themselves, also beginning May 10.

How do Graduate Center students (or faculty or staff members) avail themselves of this shining opportunity? For grab-and-go research books, you need only fill out a request form, using your GC email address.

The library notes that the checkout service is limited to “general collection books in good condition,” meaning books in the general research collection; the offering does not extend to Art & Architecture Division books or art books from the Schomberg Center.

On-site access is a little more complicated, and you might want to start the process now in order to be able to start using the library as soon as it’s available. First, you will need to make an appointment for a virtual interview with an NYPL librarian. This interview will determine whether you have a real need for the on-site collections, and then make you an appointment for a research visit.

You will need to wear a mask for your in-person visit, of course, and library staff will be taking temperatures before patrons are admitted. NYPL may be moving forward with reopening, but the pandemic, alas, is not over yet.

Image: “NYPL Reading Room” by kavitanath7, under Pixabay license (free for commercial use, no attribution required).

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