With $8-Million Gift, N.Y. Library Revises Makeover Plan

The New York Public Library has revised a renovation proposal for its flagship central location that drew fire from scholars, artists, and others because it called for moving a large part of the library’s book collection to a different location, The New York Times says.

An $8-million gift from the lawyer and library trustee Abby S. Milstein and her husband, banker Howard P. Milstein, will pay for construction of 30,000 square feet of space to keep an additional 1.5 million volumes in place, part of a new plan approved Wednesday by the library’s board.

The $300-million Central Library Plan envisions opening a circulating library and other public amenities at the 5th Avenue flagship location, now used strictly as a reference center.

Critics of the proposal had maintained that moving the books would create significant delays in accessing information and diminish the library’s role as a research hub. Library President Anthony W. Marx convened an advisory panel to review the controversial aspects of the plan.

“I’m very pleased both by the outcome but also by the process,” said panel member Anthony T. Grafton, a Princeton University history professor. “It seems to me we saw a great public institution and its leader actually listening to the response of its public.”