then lynne cheney's book on the life of james madison. and, again, you can't go wrong with some light reading as well. to that's what i'm reading this summer. >> what are you reading this summer? tell us what's on your summer reading list. tweet us, @booktv, post it to our facebook page or send us an e-mail be, booktv@cspan.org. all week watch booktv in prime time. monday at 8:30 p.m. eastern and tuesday through friday at 8, booktv features a wide range of topics including foreign policy, law and legal issues, iran, coverage of book fairs and festivals from across the country and bestsellers from this year. and let us know what you think about the programs you're watching. call us at 202-626-3400, or you can e-mail us at comments@c-span.org. join the c-span conversation. like us on facebook, follow be us on twitter. ..

the about 2100 employees the. a budget of about $280 million a year operating. about half comes from the city of new york.

the largest system. the other half comes from the return on of billion dollars endowment of the private foundation that employes me. and then we raise somewhere between 80 and $100 million a year. also somewhere in the vicinity of where your $50 million a year on capital improvements. again, most comes from the city, but it can also come from private sources. it is an amazing system. almost unique in the world. combining a great research library system like the library of congress and the public library neighborhood system in washington d.c. the library of congress and the washington public library had nothing to do with each other organizationally here we are all within the new york public library system. close to 8,919,000,000 physical visits a year.

55 million items. it is really one of the great treasures of new york end of the world. is our cars, prince, maps, manuscripts, the research library of schaumburg, library for performing arts. unique items. we have the archives, the manuscripts to my great authors, walt whitman, charles dickens. just recently added tom wolfe. no documentation, no fancy jobs. we will make it available to you

rather quickly. >> everybody can see that. >> anybody. >> how many of those 20 million books to people to cut and take home? >> the majority of the books are in the vicinity of 14 million circulate. and then six or 7 million books in, the core of the research collection. of course adding to that is all of us of the material. one of the world's great map elections here. we have a genealogy collection. you know, it does not stop. we have been collecting for over 100 years. >> the new york public library system mean to an average in order? >> so i think something like one-third of new yorkers depend on will library to be able to read because they can't or don't afford books to read something like a third of new yorkers depend on the new york public

library for having computer access because they don't have broadband or computers at home. you can even apply in for a job in the stage without that kind of access. there are a core of folks, especially in the poorer neighborhoods, and absolutely depend on us to read, go online, or have a quiet place to sit to read, to think, to write, to create. that is powerful stuff, and it is also true in the better off neighborhoods of new york mets every seat is filled. the new york public library system has never seen more traffic, meaning people coming in, more blood circulating, more computer used a more educational programs in our hundred year history. we are at our peak. and that is incredible. budget cuts because of financial difficulties since 2008 obviously. city finances. we have to cut our branches.

more branches than we have ever had because every neighborhood once one. we had to cut our hours. more use than ever. at is the experience for most new yorkers. i grew up using my local neighborhood library. part of new york. twenty to 30,000 kids come into our branches after school every day and. it is safe. they do homework. they use a computer. actually, we have now lost for the first time in our history after-school programs and to become the largest after-school program possibly in the nation because we have kids coming in and because everybody needs more of our education. all of that is part of the experience. people don't know this. we have -- we are the leading free provider in new york of the english language instruction. we teach citizenship. we are the leading free provider

in new york a basic computer skills training. we will be at 150,000 people enjoying the programs. we are also now starting to teach coating so that kids in the south bronx or harlem who want to get jobs in the information technology industry can come to the library. we are the leading non university partner with, sarah, the on-line education university program so that people can come into the libraries and have group sessions. find instructors for them so that they are not trying to learn only on line. during the same thing with the academy. so educational programs, quiet places, opportunities to read, to take out books, and to use computers. and that is just in the circulating library, which is the majority of where people are coming into. then there are the research libraries where people come from all over the world, writing

books, doing research, use our archives to material, but also our incredible spaces. if you go to the reading room it is one of the most beautiful spaces in new york. you will find that every seat is filled. >> why do you think that the new york public library is at its apex right now? >> i think there are a bunch of reasons. i think after the economy had its difficulty in 2008 more people had to come, particularly into the branches because they cannot afford an extra room or quiet at home or air-conditioning or computers and books. so it is partly an economic driver. i think that is not all that is going on. i think as it is increasingly possible to do more of the work of the mind alone in front of the screen the more people actually want to come in and be with each other. we are human beings.

we don't want to just sit in a cave by ourselves. even a cave with the screen. we want to actually be inspired by beautiful spaces and by seeing other people who are working and if we do our job right we want you to find the other people who are in the room working on the same thing. you may not even know they're there. community is still a powerful part of human nature, and the library is the centerpiece, the foundation of that in the world of ideas and information in any city or town and certainly in this one which happens to be the capital of the information age. >> do you serve all of new york city? >> service system as -- i did not even know this when i took this job. this is manhattan, staten island, the bronx. brooklyn and queens which were once separate cities have separate public library systems. we cooperate very closely with them and coordinate and try to

do things together, as it should be. for instance, we became recently and -- in effect the circulating library system for the public schools of new york. for 100 years we lived side-by-side but did not actually really cooperate. for a hundred years the public schools depended on our room the size of maybe 10,000 books increasingly out of date. the card catalog, a sweet idea, one that i grew up with him the 21st century, that cannot possibly work. now we are about 600 schools. we aim to be at all of them with computers in libraries and a teacher or student in order up to 100 books at the time from our 17 million books, the three systems together. we will deliver to the store.

we will get the efficiencies of huge system spreading around the city. that is an example of how ultimately over 1 million school kids will be using the library on a daily basis. teachers to assign a paper will be able to construct their own great library on that topic in the classroom for the month that the paper is being worked on and then send it back to another classroom. so we are increasingly serving all new yorkers and doing it across all five boroughs in cooperation with our peers. >> so the public library began in 1895. a coming together of three private libraries by wealthy new yorkers.

they said let's make it available to the public. they came together. ultimately they constructed this building to house the research library so along comes the richest man in the world at the time, andrew carnegie. andrew carnegie had grown up poor and had grown up depending on the library as really is school. so many people all around the world and certainly new yorkers gave a gift for the free library at think it was about $5 million or thereabout to create 60. it was and remains the largest single gift in the history of philanthropy in today's dollars,

billions. so because of carnegie's generosity he made a deal with the city where he said, look, i will build you a library. the city needs to pay to operate them as a public service, the branch library. and i will ask the new york public library and brooklyn and queens to operate them as private agencies funded by the city to do so but with some independence. it is a complicated public-private partnership. in our case it means lazuli half of our budget comes from the city thought and have comes from private sources. but what i think is it actually serves the public well creating interesting checks and balances from makes my life more complicated, but that is a good thing. and that -- says that history was started with 60 branch libraries in the city of new york with three systems together

now, a 205 branches plus the for research libraries. >> what is the history of this building? >> this building is 103 years old. was constructed with the support of citizens of new york as well as private dollars. was bill to be the new york public library. i think it is fair to say that it is the most famous library building in the world. lions out front that everyone knows. it was built interestingly on the side of the original reservoir of new york city. so before the library was built all little over a hundred years ago there was on this whole area where a library and bryant park behind it is, so all of that area was the reservoir. it was built here because it was the highest point in midtown. as you can imagine, that helps

with gravity senator warner around to wherever it needs to go from their is a warm. they took their reservoir down. they built the library and built the park. then actually about 25 years ago we excavated under bryant park down to the foundation of the reservoir and build their the largest placement in the island of manhattan was we have used half of the last 25 years, and our plans are in the coming months to put 3 million more books under that space. it is a sort of amazing gift of history. the reservoir was here that created the basin and the foresight of the trustees of the library to create the space. imagine being able to find storage for 3 million more bucks forty-second street and sixth avenue. the most expensive and demanded

real estate and the world. libraries are always looking. that amazing history and that reservoir. walking through this library, many of the rooms and areas are named after people. >> as i said, we are very grateful to our private donors. last year raised under million dollars have come in. that makes the library work and pays a large part for the research satellite iran increasingly private dollars i going to add educational programs which is great. as we are happy to recognize the generosity of our donors. i was a college president before this. we certainly did it at amherst. most colleges and universities that i know. not only a way to say thank you but no way to encourage other

people to think about becoming more serious philanthropists. interestingly mr. carnegie is one of the names. even though historic the he was our largest benefactor. genesis two he was. >> who is on the board of directors of the foundation and is there a separate board of directors for the library? >> the library board, the trustees of the new york public library. the chairman of the board currently come president of harvard. provost of princeton before that. a major advocate to of educators to be vice chairman. one of a great law firms in new york. the other vice chairman from the great new york family. we have tony morrison, an editor of the new yorker. from harvard.

you know, people will come from all different industries and academics. george stephanopoulos and anthony apply and, previously a princeton, major scholar. the most recent additions to the board. the investment world. it is a great makes, which is what you would wanted to be. let's put it this way. what makes new york amazing? what makes america amazing? it is the mix of people, the mix of background, talents, experience. the library is the place where that makes the people comes together with all the animation. it has always been the most explosive of combinations. it is where creativity comes from. the library is the foundation of that. it is where everyone can do that

and as to that. in new york as and elsewhere in the country. and the trustees similarly but this great mix of experience. they bring their ideas to provide the stewardship and. >> he talked about the apex for use, etc. when is it not? at its lowest. >> we had some very rough days. so one of my predecessors came here as president in 1981. much of this building was close. beautiful rooms that are now open to the public used as back offices and storage. bryant park was best known as a drug den. not a safe place to be. under his 12 year presidency broadcaster, major society figure, joined with him. a high-school chairman of the

board, ceo of time live which, of course to was the dominant corporation in the world. they, together, incredible charismatic turned the place around. open the space is back up. found more resources for this building, all the other buildings, the renovation and turned it into what is now a i think per square inch the most incredible urban park in the world on a sunny day and now in the summer. just like the library. so there were dark days. we turned around. i am sure there have been other dark days. that is the one that i remember. i remember when my branch libraries were close to many days of the week. we still had some rough times. a library of york. a 17% reduction in city funding

or the last six years. we're just coming out of that. working with the mayor, the city council to see if we can restore more of the city funding serve as we can do more. for people who come from all over the world, i give you an example of something that we hope to do. this building, this collection has some of the most amazing things in the world in my opinion. we have the original declaration of independence in jefferson's hand with the slave trade paragraph. we have one of the original copies. george washington wrote the bill of rights to get it ratified. the only copy in the world, the oldest copy of a letter from christopher columbus to king ferdinand. 1492 saying a thing guy found something. we have the book.

and most of his stuff has been kept safely under lock and key for the case of all studies of occasions dollar. very rarely is it shown to the public. we want to put all of our treasures out on public display in the main exhibition gallery right on fifth avenue. you walk up between the alliance, and through the door, pay nothing because we do not charge for anything. see some of the most amazing material you will ever see. and use that to introduce people to the library. oh, you think this letter was interesting, let us tell you how you can read more. let me tell you about other programs. let me show you some computer ramps. have scholars talking about it. i mean, we want to use our material to draw and more people we want to us in our material out into the world.

again, for 100 years you have to come into this building to see our special collections. now we can put it all on-line. every school kid in america should be reading that letter. it is only four pages long. partly because what would be more interesting than actually hearing columbus's words at the time rather than just reading a textbook. we can do that for every school classroom in america. >> how far you along in that transition? >> well, we are increasingly working with teachers getting our material on-line. creating curricular units that will help with a common core. it will up the various efforts across the country. the exhibit will give up and

running we have to planet, get it right we have to get it right we are going to open 50 percent more of this building to the public in the years ahead. we are going to bring business library back into mccray for the first time the space for students and teachers to use the research library. we are going to double the exhibition space. we want the people to fully use it the way they use their local library. we are a big institution. when i arrive we decided it was time to take the 3 million books that were stored in this building and barco them. you would think we would have done that before, but it does been done with little slips of paper. just that took us a year because and it is 3 million bucks. actually turned out to be two

and a half million. we did not know how many books were back there. so when you are working a scale arguably this is by some measures the largest. we would like to think the greatest public library in the world. so, you know, it is not a small operation by any means. >> controversy about changing the mission. >> people of the library. we are all scared about change. we see change around us all the time and really have some controversy of late about the renovations and this building. because we are a public institution we engage with the public. we have heard from them. we provide plans. i think that is appropriate.

we will do things a little differently than we thought seven years ago. the world has changed. for instance, we are going to take the largest circulating library and a system across the street and renovate its completely and add more education space, computer space. all of that came out of the commentary that we have heard as well of our own analysis and the of the board of trustees. i think everyone is uncertain about the future when it comes to books. when it comes therefore to library. remember even my 16 year old sun and i told him that we were coming to do this after having been president of amherst college. that caught didn't you pick the memo? the numbers suggest the opposite

but the world is changing. we have to give more material on line. as more material comes on line we don't want people swamped with information. we need to curent and. now has scaled. we also remain committed to our physical collections. the historic unique id serial tell us circulating material. and to our great space in this building because people love it. so there is some concern. built on love and admiration and need for this institution. that is true in every library. you know, whenever there is a debate about sylvia books, plays computers, and the wing, buy

more books. this is new york. that is, as it should be, an appropriate thing because in my view this institution is the bedrock of civil society. in this city, and every town and village and city in america. it is the only place where people can come from kids, emigrants, thomas, students, teachers, a pulitzer prize winners, nobel laureates, the complete cross-section of america. increasingly of the world. and this is where they come to the life of the mine.

of course that means people are heavily invested. >> skidded threat. >> what is your relationship? >> we by bucks through agents. we were the largest library purchaser books in america, possibly the world. >> every book is published. >> we are not the library of congress which receives those. there are probably books that are published. ainge five people are waiting for a book. so we have expert libertarians who were talking to our patrons. watching demand. making great choices about what

to buy. parlay those differ by neighborhood spirit we have neighborhoods in new york from most of the books aren't chinese and spanish to russian. that is where people are living who want to read in those languages. the research library with a different operation in the sense that we see to continued have amazing collections. and we are also up electronically. the new york public library because of the largest circulating library and because air accord with the publishing industry headquarters, we were able to negotiate for the first time libraries to lend. so you can now read a book. the new york public library. anytime anywhere.

now, that's a great thing. the change of the world in terms of information technology is not a threat to the library. it is the most incredible opportunity in our history because we are in the business of providing access, free access to all the world's information. gutenberg held 500 years ago. but actually, the electronic possibilities could make their gutenberg revolution look puny by comparison. the day will come -- i cannot tell you exactly when -- when anyone in the world will be able to read anything anytime potentially for free, though obviously we wanted some publishers to be compensated in some way so that people can continue to create and they're paid for their work. that has to happen. that is so rare german publishers. but there is now a possibility

of and access, an explosion in access to the world of ideas and information the likes of which we have never seen before. and what is so powerful about that is it means everyone should be able to read and to learn and we hope to contribute to the world, to create. it should not just be a few people who have access to that kind of material and can contribute to it with there own books. the world is open to creativity. that is fabulous. god knows we can use more creativity. again, the library needs to be in the forefront of it. >> that is all available everywhere require and demand

and a sonic. real sense. could people want to read electronically there will still believe this. especially before the bottom of the economy can't afford otherwise. educational programs, and this language, computer skills, coding, citizenship and what have you. and they will continue to rely on the expertise of librarians because, in fact, more information means you need more help to navigated. no wonder the librarian of the card catalog. so i think the library's could not be brighter which makes me

quite optimistic about the future of our civil society because you can't have an informed workforce which is what carnegie was after. you can't have an informed citizenry are an effective democracy unless you have the kind of foundational work that happens america's free library. >> some i grew up in new york using a public library. and it didn't come from offensive family. my dad did not go to college. for someone in new yorkers, the library was the lifeblood, the saving grace in terms of access to ideas and bucks. we have those at home are fortunate in that way. i ended up to my guess, becoming more of an academic than i

expected. i ended up as a professor of columbia writing books. and then much in my surprise became president of amherst college. without any of the background or experience-a-half for that job. in amazing eight years coming back to new york with fabulous possibilities. i have not really thought about the library. had not really thought about it. never thought about it. while.

free and public access to ideas. at the largest possible skill. more powerful and this moment driven by information. drowning and driven by it. what could be more powerful. in the very fact that the world of information is changing means that libraries have to change. we have to preserve a we have always done perry people rely on us. our collections, expertise, but we can't sit still. for someone in my line of work, really interesting, exciting and worthwhile. does not make easy, but he needs easy. >> what is your ph.d. in? >> i have a phd in political science. my first work was on politics. i lived in south africa and the middle of the civil war in the 1980's. did some education work there

that i am still very proud of. set up a college the said about a thousand students on to university. for me that was life changing, not only because it set me off into an academic career of writing about it in teaching about it, but for me was powerful about that was i saw for those students in south africa that just one year of quality education could reverse drove years of purposefully past education. and that says to me that the power of the mind to repair the damage that can be inflicted, to open possibilities, to make it possible for talent to be used for the individuals benefit and for society's benefit is really

much more robust than anything else i can think of i am glad to be solo part of the educational community. >> how much of your job is administrative, how much is fund raising, how much is schmoozing, how much is managing? >> well, luckily not so much as a librarian. well-trained. i am blessed to work with great staff. and obviously the senior staff to work with closely, also working together with 2,000 police. a great border of trustees. the donors on the board and also not on the board. an important part of what i spend my time on. the board has governing authority. the dollar is making it possible for us to will we do.

i spend a fair amount of time with the city administration. very interested in the future of the library system because they understand how foundational this . and i also -- we have amazing authors coming to this building to read or discuss their work. i get to listen to them, sometimes with them. we have some parties sometimes. i know that a shocking. we have some beautiful spaces here. what is amazing about my job is it will take me on any one day talking to a student in the south bronx, literally asking

her what she was doing. she told me her name was miracle and, my god. you know, students in the south bronx in a place of great need. and then some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in york who want to be supportive of everything that the library sense for. and that is just, you know, it means i get to live the diversity of experience that i think is the secret sauce of american success. we are all in this together. it is one of the great privileges of my life to be able to surf. >> ten years from now what are we going to have? >> and the library? >> i bet we will have many more educational pro grams for free to meet the needs of the neighborhood. i think we live more of the -- people will be still in this building. schaumburg and oliver for performing arts in the business

library. much more of the research material will be sent out into the world. at some point we will also reach what i call all the grill, which is everything being available online to anyone and navigable and linked. imagine a world, i imagine -- but don't think this will be ten years from now. a partnership with the tapir and a cool and digital public library but imagine a world in which you could start looking up something your interest and. you know, you're reading about tables. in you're interested in the word where it comes from and the history of slavery or this person. and simply be able to chart your own course of creativity through all the world's knowledge.

that would be amazing. but to do with the touch of the screen, even easier, even better . the library will always be in the centerpiece of the world. and the educational needs, the curator needs of the public of large. and my guess is it will always be the place where the full array of new yorkers and people from are on the world, all different economic, racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds come together. it does not happen very much in our society at this point which is said and worrisome. even more incredible if they come together to think, to read, to write, to create. sometimes we think those days are gone.

>> we found out and contribute now we really don't like it. we called it obamacare, became lineup because the american people were clamoring for the letter or governments, please take over our healthcare. one party had 60 votes. the democrats, the worst things that have been passed in american history of because of some fluke. watergate, john mccain. they end up with an inordinately large majority. republicans, george bush. the first six years of his presidency. what did we get done?

obamacare passed with one party sneering. the history of liberalism, passing things that sound good on paper. americans could sing we have to replace our health care. the department of motor vehicles . the incredibly long, long lines. imagine you're standing in one of those lines wiring a paper hospital gown open in the back. that's obamacare. thank you, liberals. the democrats on the defense to this monstrosity, and you hear it all the time.

well, republicans don't have a plan. some me what your plan is. i have a plan. something had been working on. free-market capitalism. my idea is health insurance on the free-market. bear with me. the history of the world, everything divided on the free-market is better and cheaper government give us those office, school the public school system is still with this. apparently going to kick up quite a fuss