THE ASSEMBLY

STATE OF NEW
YORK
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MICAH Z. KELLNER

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 17, 2014

Contact: 212-860-4906

Statement of Assembly Member Micah Kellner

on the New York Public Librarys Deceptive Appeal for its
Controversial 42nd Street Library Plan
I am profoundly disturbed that the leadership of the New York Public Library (NYPL) is using
misleading and deceptive language in an attempt to trick New Yorkers into supporting its
controversial Central Library Plan for the main 42nd Street Branch.
While purporting to expand public access to the 42nd Street Library, the Central Library Plan is
instead a half-baked real estate deal that will result in the selling off of the largest and most used
lending library in New York City, the Mid-Manhattan branch at East 40th Street, and the gutting
of the fabled stacks at the NYPLs Main Branch, which house the world-class collections of
books and research materials that make the world's leading free research library truly unique.
Millions of volumes currently available on-site in the stacks will be warehoused in New Jersey,
lessening public access to a public resource unparalleled anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.
By issuing a mass appeal yesterday urging New Yorkers to Support the daily work of
NYPL's network of 88 branches (and) a renovated central branch library that provides longer
hours, additional public space, and more resources for children, teens, teachers, and job seekers,
the NYPL is claiming that selling off its largest circulating branch and eviscerating the Main
Librarys fabled stacks, at an estimated cost to City taxpayers of $150 million, is improving the
NYPL for everyday New Yorkers, when the exact opposite is the case. This is truly an example
of Orwellian double-speak. The NYPLs leadership must harbor serious doubts about the merits
and practicality of its Central Library plan to employ such a willfully deceptive appeal.
In his campaign, Mayor Bill de Blasio proclaimed from the steps of the NYPL, These plans
seemed to have been made without any forethought to the buildings historical and cultural
integrity. We need to ensure that a detailed financial audit and review is conducted, so that these
renovations wont exceed the $300 million proposed. Before NYPL goes about demolishing
stacks and consolidating libraries, they need to ensure that the people they serve arent being
shortchanged and being disregarded for the bottom line.
I know that Mayor de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito are dedicated to
keeping the New York Public Library an invaluable cultural and educational public resource. I
urge them and all New Yorkers not to be fooled by the deceptive and misleading claims being
promoted by the New York Public Library, and to fight for this invaluable cultural treasure that
helps make New York unique.
As the former Chair of the New York State Assembly Committee on Libraries and Education
Technology, Assembly Member Kellner last year convened the first public hearing ever held on

the NYPLs Central Library Plan, at which dozens of prominent New Yorkers including Pulitzer
Prize-winning historian Edmund Morris expressed their opposition to the Plan.
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ALBANY OFFICE: Room 654, Legislative Office Building, Albany, New York 12248 518-455-5676, FAX: 518-455-5282
DISTRICT OFFICE: 1365 First Avenue, New York, New York 10021 212-860-4906, FAX: 917-432-2983
EMAIL: kellnerm@assembly.state.ny.us