Patience and Fortitude

Posted on 03 September 2017 by Scott Sherman

A riveting investigation of a beloved library caught in the crosshairs of real estate, power, and the people s interests by the reporter who broke the story In a series of cover stories for The Nation magazine, journalist Scott Sherman uncovered the ways in which Wall Street logic almost took down one of New York City s most beloved and iconic institutions the New York Public Library In the years preceding the 2008 financial crisis, the library s leaders forged an audacious plan to sell off multiple branch libraries, mutilate a historic building, and send millions of books to a storage facility in New Jersey Scholars, researchers, and readers would be out of luck, but real estate developers and New York s Mayor Bloomberg would get what they wanted But when the story broke, the people fought back, as famous writers, professors, and citizens groups came together to defend a national treasure Rich with revealing interviews with key figures, Patience and Fortitude is at once a hugely readable history of the library s secret plans, and a stirring account of a rare triumph against the forces of money and power. Best Read [ Patience and Fortitude ] by [ Scott Sherman ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr A bittersweet story an ill conceived plan to restructure NYPL library service is finally brought into the light and stalled, but not before the historic stacks of the 42nd St NYPL building were emptied of their 3 million books, some of which seem to be missing and the rest requiring days to return from offsite storage to the library for viewing This book gave me a lot to think about concerning issues of print vs digital why can t we treasure both , what goes into scholarly research, the e A bittersweet story an ill conceived plan to restructure NYPL library service is finally brought into the light and stalled, but not before the historic stacks of the 42nd St NYPL building were emptied of their 3 million books, some of which seem to be missing and the rest requiring days to return from offsite storage to the library for viewing This book gave me a lot to think about concerning issues of print vs digital why can t we treasure both , what goes into scholarly research, the ethics of selling land and treasures that were given to an institution, and .I am fortunate to be working in a Central Library building that first opened in 1898 and remains functional today I will now be looking up many articles and blog posts cited in the book for further inspiration and information and the Internet has made that possible for me to do that from home But I also treasure printed materials which retain a sen...A compelling account of a grand plan gone bad The author writes well, but the book suffers from the one sidedness of the telling The merits of the library renovation plan are never elaborated in fact, the critics of the plan are cited and their critiques are presented in great detail while the supporters of the plan are invoked but never given voice I rarely say this, but the book would have been ...Scott Sherman s passionate interview on Fresh Air compelled me to pick up this book for that reason alone, I encourage readers to listen to the interview as a companion piece I ve been interested in the history of both libraries and books for years, so the history of the New York Public Library currently the fourth largest library in the world and the recent rollercoaster ride to change the main branch on 42nd street were not a tough sell As the CFO of one of the smallest colleges in the U Scott Sherman s passionate interview on Fresh Air compelled me to pick up this book for that reason alone, I encourage readers to listen to the interview as a companion piece I ve been interested in the history of both libraries and books for years, so the history of the New York Public Library currently the fourth largest library in the world and the recent rollercoaster ride to chan...Originally published at Reading RealityThe iconic lions that welcome readers to the entrance of the New York Public Library s Central Library are named Patience and Fortitude This made me wonder about the names of the two equally iconic lions that guard the entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago Those two don t have official names, but their unofficial titles are stands in an attitude of defiance and on the prowl The difference in names may describe the difference between New York a Originally published at Reading RealityThe iconic lions that welcome readers to the entrance of the New York Public Library s Central Library are named Patience and Fortitude This made me wonder about the names of the two equally iconic lions that guard the entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago Those two don t have official names, but their unofficial titles are stands in an attitude of defiance and on the prowl The difference in names may describe the difference between New York and Chicago, right there.But the patience and fortitude in this book about the New York Public Library and its most recent step into controversy may be better attributed to those who campaigned against what looks remarkably like a real estate boondoggle, at least from the outside looking in.There s plenty of story here It begins with the very origins of NYPL, and its rather strange and certainly unique financing In spite of the name, NYPL was never a public library in the way...Patience and Fortitude are the names for the marble lions that stand guard at the entrance of the New York Public Library s main branch These qualities are needed to demonstrate to the powers that be that the trustees plan to gut its iconic main branch would cost New York Citythan just 150 million There are many heroes in this story, but my favorite is 91 year old Ada Louise Huxtable, the first full time ...Succinct timeline of an expensive proposal to remodel the NYPL on 42ndshortsighted plans, lack of public or any other inputmoney talked, but academia was not allowed to do the samevarious people headed up protests, wrote art...As someone who worked for NYPL in the 90s, I cannot begin to describe how painfully depressing it is to read this superbly reported account of the abominable leadership that has denigrated this great institution It is heartening at least to rea...Unnuanced, good guys bad guys account of the movement to prevent the redevelopment of the interior of the New York Public Library.There are few aspects of American life that are truly and inarguably democratic The ability to cast a ballot and directly elect representatives an act held up as the embodiment of democratic ideals, often by those very same representatives is available only to a select portion of the population based on age, citizenship, criminal record and, in states that have adopted voter ID laws, the ability to pay for and receive a wholly unnecessary form of identification Similarly, the ability of anyo There are fe...This was interesting and well written I read it for school I can t imagine the scenario where you d voluntarily read it unless you were writing a report on the New York Public Library.

03 September 2017

Scott Sherman