Donnell Library Gone But Not Forgotten

I just heard about the closing and demolition of the Donnell Library in New York (via BoingBoing). Blogger Igor of drivenbyboredom was working in the library as part of the Internet Archive project, digitizing materials, and took a set of amazing pictures in the final weeks before the building was vacated.

The Donnell is a library that wasn't as famous as the city's main library with its lions and reading room, but had an irreplaceable collection of juvenile fiction that didn't circulate, so you could always find what you were looking for on the shelf. I visited it in 2004 and again in 2005 with my daughter. Perusing the shelves was like stepping back in time to the libraries of my youth (combined with more recent titles) -- all those books that other public libraries sold long ago because their covers no longer appealed to "kids today" were still on the shelves.


Plus, the Donnell was home to some famous occupants: the real Winnie the Pooh bear and all his friends , donated by A.A. Milne, plus a collection of Mary Poppins memorabilia from P.L. Travers. Here are my not so great photos of the collections from my 2004 trip.


From left to right, Tigger, Kanga, Pooh, Eyore and Piglet. (You can click on this for a larger version.)


Like others commenting on the drivenbyboredom site, I wondered what's happened to the collection. DBB mentioned book sales (see hangfire's blog with a report from the book sale) -- did they sell the juvenile collection, move it to another library, or is it in storage waiting for the reopening of the library? (Yes, they are planning to reopen a much smaller Donnell in 2011 in the basement of the luxury hotel that's being built on the site...)

The Donnell was on the same block as the Museum of Modern Art, just a few doors off 5th Avenue, and its prime location finally condemned it -- it was just too valuable to remain a public space. The library actually closed back in May, according to the New York Times but about six months were spent clearing it out and cataloging.

Where is Jane Jacobs when you need her?

P.S. The NYPL website says the childen's collection (which I assume includes the juvenile collection) is now located at the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue in the Rose Main Reading Room. Hangfire's blog clarified that the book sale was to weed out duplicates.