An Update on the Donnell Library

Last July 22 I wrote about the then-imminent closure of the Donnell branch of the New York Public Library, on west 53rd Street across from the Museum of Modern Art. I was saddened because the Donnell was one of my favorite branches where I'd spent quite a bit of time using the Internet way back in the day, checking out movies and books in Spanish, and especially hanging out in the children's room, including seeing a puppet show around this time last year on National Puppetry Day. The best part of the children's room was the original Winnie-the-Pooh dolls from the A. A. Milne estate. 

The library was scheduled to close for the development of a marquis hotel, a change that I still suppose was meant to capitalize on the wake of the MOMA's recent major renovation. All the branch's holdings were to be moved to other locations--and the children's material, including Pooh, has indeed gone back to its original location at the 42nd Street building, where it was housed in Anne Carroll Moore's day. Still, there are quite a few New Yorkers who were upset at the loss of the building itself and the centrality of having all those collections together.

Well, the Times today ran an update. It seems that the library closed on schedule (I walked over to look at it during the KidScreen summit half a block away) and then along came the recession. Long story short the hotel's pulled out and midtown is left without both a hotel and a library. So the people who were upset before are livid now. Here's the story, by Sewell Chan. It seems Donnell has become just another victim as municipal governments strive to figure out how to keep libraries open across the country. I wrote a brief post about that just over a month ago.