Entrances. There are two entrances to the Library, the main entrance on Fifth Avenue, and the side door on 42nd Street, which gives admission to the basement, where the Central Circulation Room, the Newspaper Room and the Central Children's Room are to be found. On a first visit, however, the sightseer should use the main entrance on Fifth Avenue, in order to see the lobby, which rises through two stories, with broad staircases to the right and left. The flying arches of these staircases are of seventeen feet span, and are all of marble without any brick or metal work whatever. The marble used in the lobby is from Vermont. The ceiling is a true marble vault of forty feet span, supporting itself and the floor over it, with no metal whatever, except some reinforcing rods buried in the concrete filling in the floor above.

Between the pillars facing the entrance are two inscriptions. At the left is this:

THE CITY OF NEW YORK
HAS ERECTED THIS BUILDING
TO BE MAINTAINED FOREVER
AS A FREE LIBRARY
FOR THE USE OF THE PEOPLE

And at the right:

ON THE DIFFUSION OF EDUCATION
AMONG THE PEOPLE
REST THE PRESERVATION
AND PERPETUATION
OF OUR FREE INSTITUTIONS

The latter is a quotation from an address by Daniel Webster at Madison, Indiana, June 1, 1837.

PART OF MAIN FAÇADE

Elevators are near the northern or 42nd Street end of the building. There is also a staircase at this end of the building, in addition to the staircases near the main entrance.

Exhibition Room. Directly opposite the main entrance is the Exhibition Room, finished in white Vermont marble. The ceiling is supported by twenty-four columns of green veined white marble. The ceiling itself is elaborately and beautifully carved in oak. This room is devoted to exhibitions of rare books, manuscripts and prints. The exhibitions are changed from time to time, usually as often as three or four times a year. Open 9 a. m. to 6 p. m. on week days; 1 to 5 p. m. Sundays.

Current Periodicals Room. The corridor to the south from the main entrance leads to the Current Periodicals Room (Room Number 111). Here about 4,500 current periodicals are on file. A hundred of these are on open racks. The others may be obtained upon application at the desk. A classified finding list gives the reader the titles of periodicals kept here. As this room is sometimes confused in the public mind with a popular or club reading room, it should be remembered that this is one department in a building primarily devoted to the reference work of the Library. The few restrictions which are imposed are only for the purpose of keeping the files intact for binding. The Branches of The New York Public Library contain reading rooms where all the periodicals are on open racks.

Business Offices. Following the corridor leading south and then turning to the right along the 40th Street side of the building, one reaches some of the business offices of the Library—the office of the Bursar (No. 104), of the Building Superintendent (No. 103), of the Chief of the Circulation Department (No. 102), and of the Supervisor of work with children (No. 105). These offices are open for any persons who have occasion to visit them for business reasons, but they are of no interest to sightseers. In Room 100, devoted mainly to the cataloguing work of the Circulation Department, there is a card catalogue of all the books in this Department,—that is, in the Branches of the Library. The Room is open to the public, for the consultation of this catalogue, on week days from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m.

FRONT DOOR

BASE OF FLAGPOLE

Technology Division. Following the corridor leading to the north from the main entrance, there is, on the right, the room of the Technology Division (No. 115), devoted to applied science and engineering. The collection of books in this Division, or under its control, numbers about 65,000. In this room, as in all the special reading rooms, with a few exceptions, books are on open shelves for the free access of readers and students.

Patents Room (No. 121). At the end of the corridor parallel to 42nd Street, is the Patents Room, a part of the Technology Division. It is open from 9 a. m. to 6 p. m. on week days, and is closed on Sundays. Patents may be consulted evenings and Sundays by arrangement with the technology librarian, Room 115.

The Library for the Blind (No. 116) is on the inner or western side of the corridor leading north from the main entrance. This collection contains about 8,000 books in embossed type for blind readers, and, in addition, 5,500 music scores, also in embossed type. These books are lent not only in Greater New York, but are sent free by mail to blind readers in all parts of the States of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. A teacher employed by the Library goes to homes and institutions in the City of New York to teach adult blind persons to read by touch. The room is open on week days from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. A bronze tablet on the wall bears the following inscription:

NORTH WING

THE NEW YORK
FREE CIRCULATING LIBRARY FOR THE BLIND
WAS FOUNDED BY RICHARD RANDALL FERRY


THROUGH THE EXERTIONS OF CLARA A. WILLIAMS
THIS LIBRARY WAS PERMANENTLY ESTABLISHED

INCORPORATED, JUNE 3, 1895
TRANSFERRED TO THE N. Y. PUBLIC LIBRARY, FEB. 21, 1903

TRUSTEES

WILLIAM B. WAIT
CLARA A. WILLIAMS
CLARK B. FERRY
RICHARD RANDALL FERRY
CHARLES W. WESTON

The trustees named on the tablet are, of course, those of the former organization: the "New York Free Circulating Library for the Blind."

SECOND FLOOR

On the second floor a corridor runs along the front of the building, turning into short corridors at the north and south, and also into a central corridor. From these corridors open studies, offices and special reading rooms. In the central corridor, four studies open on the right, while the fifth room on this side is devoted to the:

Oriental Division (No. 219), with a collection of about 20,000 books and pamphlets in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, and other eastern languages. Open 9 a. m. to 6 p. m. week days.

Jewish Division (No. 217). Opposite the Oriental Division, on the south side of this central corridor, is the reading room devoted to the Jewish Division. There are about 24,000 books in the collection.

Slavonic Division. The room devoted to the Slavonic Division (No. 216) is also on the south side of the central corridor. The resources of this Division,