The Munsey, February 1906

# Munsey's Magazine Catalog Note

This February 1906 issue of Munsey's Magazine (Vol. XXXIV, No. V) features a substantial article by Clifford Smyth documenting the New York Public Library's new building, nearly completed at Bryant Park. Smyth compares the institution's innovative "circulating library" model—centered on a main repository with fifty branch locations across the city—favorably against Europe's major libraries: the British Museum, Bibliothèque Nationale, Imperial Library of St. Petersburg, and others. The New York library's efficiency is demonstrated through circulation statistics: 4.3 million volumes borrowed annually versus 1.6 million at the British Museum.

The article details the building's architectural features, designed by Carrere and Hastings in the classical renaissance style, including its central steel book-stack containing ninety-seven thousand shelves capable of holding 3.5 million volumes—the world's largest bookcase. Coverage includes the library's origins from the 1895 consolidation of the Astor, Lenox, and Tilden collections, and Andrew Carnegie's 1901 five-million-dollar donation enabling branch expansion.