While we may all know about the New York Public Library (NYPL), and perhaps have visited or borrowed items, most of us have probably not made full use of the vast and extensive collections they maintain. Anyone who lives, work, or studies in NY State can obtain an NYPL library card, offering access to the 56 million items they hold; from print books, Ebooks, and streaming video, to renowned research collections used by scholars from around the world.

CUNY Graduate Center students, staff and faculty have special NYPL privileges, including access to NYPL’s research libraries with extended 120-day loans on books from the three research libraries. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of what the NYPL can offer – whether you are exploring archives for the first time, or a seasoned researcher, NYPL’s robust collections can provide you with a unique opportunity to expand your research skills and knowledge.

Wednesday 10/26 – NYPL In Person at Mina Rees Library

This Wednesday, on October 26th from 6pm-7pm, we are hosting a meet and greet at the Mina Rees Library, with experts from various research and archival divisions at NYPL. Representatives from the following divisions will be sharing their knowledge, expertise and tips:

• General Humanities Reference
• Center for Research in the Humanities
• Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books
  
• Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs

Simply take a moment to register for this great opportunity, and feel free to stop by to obtain an NYPL Library Card, or pick up a validation sticker for your existing NYPL card. Also, find out more about your special NYPL privileges as a Graduate Center student, faculty, or staff member. 

On Wednesday, we’ll hear more from the following NYPL divisions. Here is some useful information from their websites, detailing the valuable and rich resources you can have access to.   

Center for Research in the Humanities

Located on the second floor of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the Center for Research in the Humanities is dedicated to quiet research, work with the Library’s collections, temporary displays, and collections-related programming. The Center has four shared study rooms which are reserved for researchers and writers whose work will benefit from the consultation and intensive use of research collections (GC doctoral students are encouraged to apply!). They host  a monthly event, ‘Collection Open House Series,’ bringing together a wide range of items from manuscripts, photographs, maps, pamphlets and more, telling important stories of histories and culture. The next open house looks at 100 Years of Feminist Activism and takes place on November 8th.

Manuscripts and Archives Division

This Manuscripts and Archives Division is located in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building and has a vast collection of manuscripts and archives in 11,353 collections, comprising of over 60,500 feet of documents. They also have 731,492 digitized pages. This division holds papers of individuals, families and organizations from the 18th-20th Centuries, primarily from the New York region. These primary sources can include anything from a single letter to meeting minutes, sound recordings and drafts of literary works. You can find out more about their holdings, here.

Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs

The Wallach Division of Art, Print and Photographs include works of art as well as reference materials on painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photography and the history of architecture from prehistoric times to the present. Together, these collections include more than one million works of art in various mediums and formats, complemented by nearly 700,000 monographs and periodicals.

We look forward to seeing you at our Meet and Greet on Wednesday October 26th, at 6pm, in the Mina Rees Library’s Dissertation Reading Room.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.