The New York Times
June 4, 1995
Computer Preview (Advert Slip-in), p. 10.
A Virtual Tour of the NYPL's New Science, Industry and
Business Library
The Research Reading Room will combine the comfort and
serenity of a 'traditional' library with the dynamic
electronic capabilities of a twenty-first-century
information center.
The images on these pages are an ink-on-paper rendition of
a Internet World Wide Web tour through the major areas of
the New York Public Library's Science, Industry and
Business Library. The 160,000-square-foot, high-tech SIBL,
which will open this fall in the former B. Altman & Co.
building in Manhattan, will be the world's largest public
information center devoted solely to science and business.
To get to the Web page, point to
http://gopher.nypl.org/research/sibl/index.html.
To get to the library itself, hop on the nearest subway or
bus this autumn and get off at the stop closest to 34th St.
and Madison Ave. The renderings are provided courtesy of
The New York Public Library and Gwathmey Siegal [sic] &
Associates, and all rights are reserved.
[Web-page renderings (distorted!) omitted]
Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Circulating Library and
Reading Room. The Circulating Library will be on the ground
floor, just inside the main entrance on Madison Avenue.
Here, users will browse through current popular business
and science periodicals and a 60,000-volume open-shelf
collection, accomplish quick reference searches, choose
materials for borrowing, and plug into the Library's
networked resources with their laptop computers.
Online Catalog Center and Delivery Desk. With 42 terminals,
the Online Catalog Center will be the electronic gateway to
the vast collections of The New York Public Library. Users
will search CAT-NYP, the computerized public catalog of the
Library's four research centers, as well as the catalog of
The Branch Libraries and many other bibliographic indexes
and abstracts. At the adjacent Delivery Desk, users will
pick up books and periodicals that have been transported by
automated book lifts from the miles of closed stacks on
SIBL's upper floors. As they enter the lower level, users
may stop here for guidance.
Electronic Information Center. The Electronic Information
Center will be SIBL's electronic library. It will include
100 workstations and offer access to hundreds of electronic
data files and worldwide sources of information over local-
and wide-area networks and the Internet.
Information Services Center. At the Information Services
Center, subject specialists will provide users with
personalized research assistance and customer-tailored
information services. Among these will be the Small
Business Information Network, International Trade Resource
Center, and Premium Services. Networked workstations will
give librarians access to SIBL's electronic catalogs, as
well as to on-site and off-site information resources, to
help users find the answers to their questions.
Research Reading Room. The Research Reading Room will
combine the comfort and serenity of a 'traditional' library
with the dynamic electronic capabilities of a
twenty-first-century information center. Here readers will
be able to work at tables wired for laptop computers,
consult a large open-shelf collection of directories,
handbooks, reference books, and journals, and use nearby
self-service copying and fax facilities.
Renderings: Elizabeth Skowronek, Gwathmey Siegal [sic] &
Associates