>> here's a look at books being published this week. >> on a recent trip to new york

city, booktv visited the new york public library where we thought what the library's president and ceo, it anthony marx about the history of the institution as well as its current operations and future. >> host: tony marx, let's start with some numbers. how big is the new york public library? how many employees, budget, et cetera? >> guest: the new york public library circulates the largest in america. 88 branches in every neighborhood diversely serve as well as for important research libraries, this one being the crown jewel at the center of the system, but also the schaumburg center in harlem, library for performing arts at lincoln center and science industry and is this library. we have about 2100 employees. we have a budget of about

$280 million a year operating about half comes from the city of new york, largely to pay for the circulating library system in all the neighborhoods. the other half comes from return on the billion dollars endowment of the private foundation that employs me, the lenox aster until contrasts. and then, weaver is somewhere between 80 and $100 million a year. also somewhere in the vicinity of 40 or $50 million a year of capital improvements come again mostly comes from the city, but can also come from private sources. it is an amazing system. almost unique in the world and combining a great research library system like the library of congress and the public library neighborhood system. in washington d.c. come the library of congress and the washington public library have nothing to do with each other organizationally. here we are all within the new

york public library system. we've close to 18, 19 million physical visits a year. we have 59 million items. it is really one of the great treasures of new york in the world. people come from all over to use the system. >> when he sent items, is that books? >> books is for the vicinity of 20 million then it is archives, print, maps, manuscripts. this building, for instance, for instance, in the sister of the research library, schaumburg library for performing arts in sipowicz as well have unique items. we have the archives, manuscripts of great authors. walt whitman and charles dickens and recently added tom wolf. you can walk in to this building, going to one of the special collections, show no

documentation, need to have no fancy job, ask to see anything and we will make it available to you rather quickly. >> host: everybody can see that? >> guest: anybody. >> host: how many 20 million books are available to check out and take home? >> guest: so, the majority of the book on the something in the vicinity of 14 million books circulate and then mary thickens 6 million or 7 million books that are the core of the research collection fear they will of course will of course added to that of his other material material. we have one of the world's math collections here, genealogy collection. it doesn't stop. we have been collecting for over 100 years. >> host: with the new york public library system mean to an average new yorker? >> guest: so, i think some in like one third of new yorkers depend on the library to be able

to feed because they can't or don't afford books. 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 a five for a job in the same age without that access. so there's a core folks, especially in the poor neighborhoods of absolutely depend on us to feed, to go online or to have a quiet please to say, to read, sing, write, create. so that is very powerful stuff. it is also true in the better off neighborhoods of new york that every seat is filled. the new york public library has never seen more traffic, meaning people coming and, more books circulating, where computer use, more educational programs geared in our 100 year history, we are at our peak. that is incredible because of

budget cuts, financial difficulties since 2008 obviously and city finances. we haven't cut our branches. in fact more branches than ever because every neighborhood wants one. we haven't cut our hours and we have more use we have or use another. that is the way it is experienced for most new yorkers. i grew up using my local neighborhood library in a part of new york called and wanted. 20 to 30,000 kids come under bridges after school every day. it is safe. they do homework. they use the computer. we have now launched for the first time in our history afterschool programs. we aim to become the largest afterschool program possibly in the nation because we have kids coming in and because everybody needs more help on education. all of that is part of the experience of the library. people don't know this. we are the leading free provider new york of english-language

instruction. new york is having a program. we teach citizenship. we're the leading free provider new york of basic computer skills training. we will be up 150,000 people enjoying those programs. we are also now starting to teach coding so that kids in the south bronx or harlem would want to get jobs in the information-technology industry can can come to the library. we are the leading nonuniversity part or with kucera, the online education university program so people who come into the libraries and have group sessions and will find instructors for them so they are trying to learn only online. we do the same thing with: academy. educational programs, quiet places, opportunities to read, take out books and to use computers.

i is just in the circulating library, which is the majority of where people come into winners the research libraries where people come from all over the world who are writing books, doing research to use our archives, material, but also incredible spaces. you go to the rosemead rating him as one of the most beautiful pieces in new york and you'll find every seat is filled. >> host: tony marx, whitey think the new york outlook library is as you say at its apex now? just a bunch of reasons. after the economy had its difficulties in 2008, more people had to come in particularly egregious because they couldn't afford an extra room were quiet at home or air conditioning or computers or books. so there's hardly an economic driver. i think that is not all that is going on. i does 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 for the screen. we want to be inspired by beautiful spaces and by seeing other people working and if we do our job right, we whitey to find the other people were working on the same thing. you may not even know they are 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 this one, which happens to be the capital of the information age. >> host: usurp all of new york city? >> guest: so, this system is three boroughs. i didn't even know this when i took this job. so this is manhattan, staten island in the bronx. brooklyn and queens which were once separate cities have

separate public library systems. but we cooperate very closely with that in coordinate and trying to things together as it should be. so for instance, we became recently in effect the circulating library system for the public school system of new york. so for 100 years we lived side by side, they didn't actually really cooperate and 4100 years, the public schools depended for their libraries in every messiahs with maybe 10,000 books increasingly out of date and a card catalog. a sweet idea, while i grew up with other than the 21st century that can possibly work. now we are at about 600 schools. we aim to be at all of them with computers in the library and a teacher or student can order up to 100 books at a time from our

17 million books. the three systems together and we will deliver right to the school. so you get the efficiencies of huge systems spreading around the city and that is an example of how ultimately 1.2 million schoolkids will be used in the library and a daily basis. teachers who assign a paper will be able to construct their own great library on that topic in the classroom for the month to pay for his work on and then send it back to another classroom doing a paper topic later. so we are increasingly serving on new yorkers and doing it across all five boroughs in cooperation with our peers and friends in queens. >> host: what is the history of the new york public library? >> guest: is a great history. in your public library ptm in 1895 as a coming together of three private libraries created

by wealthy new yorkers, astor, lenox and tilden. either libraries. he said let's make it available to the public. they came together and ultimately construct this building to house the research libraries that were their libraries coming together. fast forward about 15 years and along comes the richest man in the world at that time, andrew carnegie. andrew carnegie had grown up poor and had grown up depending on the library as fiscal as so many around the school and new yorkers have. they said let's create a great public circulating mind very in new york. it was about $5 million or thereabouts to create the beginning of the public library

system. it was and remains the largest single gift in the history of philanthropy in today's dollars, billions. because of the generosity, he made a deal where he said look, i will build you libraries. the city needs to be the branch libraries at kerr-mcgee will ask the library for nevada city to do so. in our case it means literally half of our budget comes from the city or have comes from private sources. but i think it actually serves the public well. it creates interesting checks and balances and says that

history was started all the city were at 205 branches >> what is the history of this building with iran? >> guest: this building is 103 years old. with the support of the citizens of new york as private dollars. it was built to be the new york public library. it is fair to say the most heinous library building in the world. it was built on the side of the original westergaard new york city. so before the library was built, a little over 100 years ago, there was on this whole area by the library and brian parked behind it off the area in midtown was the reservoir built

here because it was the highest point in midtown. so as you can imagine, that helps is gravity sending water down to wherever it needs to go from the reservoir. they took the reservoir down. they built the library and about 25 years ago under bryant park 37 feet down at the reservoir and built their the largest basement in atlanta is manhattan which we as tasso for 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 at the reservoir was here that created that basement and the foresight of the trustees of the library to create that space. imagine being able to find storage to 3 million more books

of 42nd street and fifth avenue probably the place of the most expensive and demanded real estate in the world. libraries are always looking for more space and we have it because of that amazing history of not reservoir. >> host: walking through this library, there's many friends in areas named after people. >> guest: sure. well, as i said, we are very grateful to our private donors. last year we raised about $100 million just in that year of coming in. that makes the library work. it pays in large part for the research side of the library and are also going to add educational programs in the branches, which is great. but we are happy to recognize the generosity of our donors. as the college president before this. we certainly did it at amherst and most colleges and

universities i know. not only is it a way to say thank you, it is also a ways to encourage other people to think about becoming more serious. interestingly, mr. carnegie is one of the names you don't find, even though historically he was our largest benefactor. that was just a wee lass. >> host: who was on the board of directors of the foundation and is there a separate board of directors for the library? >> guest: the library board is the lenox tilden foundation known as the trustees of the public library. the chairman is joe rubinstein who is president of harvard, provost of princeton before that. obviously major educator. vice chairman include kevin chesler who is the chairman of crevasse, one of the great law firms in new york. abby milstein is the other vice chair from the great new york family. we've got tony moore said and

david remnick, editor of "the new yorker" instigates from harper and people who come from all different industries and academic. george stephanopoulos and anthony apply previously of princeton, major scholar covering and why do with most recent additions to the board. the investment world. it is a great next, which is what you would want it to be. let's put it this way. what makes new york amazing? sputnik's america amazing is the mix of people come in the mix of backgrounds, talents, experiences. the library is a place where that mix of people comes together with all the information and ideas of the world. it has always been the most explosive of combinations.

it is where creativity cons from. the library is the foundation of that. it is where everyone can do that and dusty back. any archives and elsewhere in the country and the trustees similarly are this great next of experience and bring their ideas to provide stewardship and leadership of the institution. >> host: president tony marx come he talked about apex for use on a saturday. when was it not? what was said at its lowest? >> guest: we had some very rough days. one of our predecessors came here in 1981. much of this building was closed. beautiful rooms now open to the public used as back offices and storage. rampart was best known as a drug to end. it was not a safe place to be. under his 12 year presidency,

brooke astor, major society figure joined within. ceo of time i, which of course was the dominant corporation in the media world. they together lived incredible charismatic leadership really turns the place around about both infospace's backup, found more resources for this building, all the other buildings. did the renovation of bryant park and turned it into what is now per square inch the most incredible urban park in the world on a sunny day and now in the summer it is just like the library. so those were dark days and we turned it around. i'm sure there have been other dark days, that that is the one i remember because i lived through it. i remember one branch libraries were closed too many days of the week.

we still had some rough times. this library system, libraries of new york is in a 17% reduction in city funding. we are just coming out of that. working with the mayor, city council to see if we can restore a more for new yorkers and again for people who come from all over the world. i'll give you an example of something we hope to do. so this building, this collection has some of the most amazing things in the world in my opinion. we had the original declaration of independence with the slave trade paragraph crossed out. we have one of the original copies george washington had drawn up of the bill of rights to get it ratified. we have the only copy of the world that the original -- the oldest copy of the letter from

christopher columbus to king ferdinand in 1492 saying i think i found something. we have winnie the pooh. we have the book, but we actually had to bear. most of this stuff has been kept safely in lock and key for the occasional scholar or researcher and very rarely shown to the public. we want to put all of our treasures out on public display in the main exhibition gallery that i fifth avenue you walk up between the line in through the door, pay nothing because we do not charge for anything and see some of the most amazing material you will ever see and use that to introduce people to the library. to say you think this columbus letter is interesting? let us tell you how you can read more. let us tell you about other programs. the shoyu computer apps, have scholars talking about it. we want to use their material to

drive more people. we want to send their material out into the world. again for a hundred years you had to come into this building to see our special collections. now we can put it all online. that columbus letter, every school. in america should be reading not fair. it's only four pages long. it's an amazing library. because what would be more interesting than actually hearing: this is words for himself at the time rather than reading a textbook? we can do that. we can do that for every school, classroom in america. >> host: how far lot are you in that transition? escrow well, we're increasingly working with teachers in getting material online and creating curricular units. they'll help with, kohler and will help with the various

efforts great teachers across the country are engaged in. the treasures exhibit will take another year or two to have up and running. we have to plan it. we have to get it right and will be the most visited in new york, but we have to get it right. we are going to open 50% more of the building to the public in the years ahead. we are going to bring business library back in. we will create for the first time a space for students and teachers to use the research library. we are going to double the exhibition space. this is the people's palace. we want the people to foley, the way they use their local libraries. we are a big institution. everything takes time. when i am five, we decided it was time to take 3 million books stored in this building and barcode them. you think would've done that before, but no, it was all done for hundreds of years with slips

of paper. just that took us a year because it is 3 million books. it actually turned out to be 2.5 million. we didn't even know how many bugs are back there. so when you are working on a scale, arguably this is by some measures the largest we like to think the greatest i'm a public library in the world. appropriately enough -- i'm a new yorker, so appropriately enough for new york. it is not a small operation by any means. as i say commit millions of people rely on it. >> host: has there been controversy about changing the mission? >> guest: people love the library. we are all scared about change. we see change all the time. we have controversy about renovations in this building because we are republicans are too shy and we engage with the public. we've heard with them.

we are interested in meeting the public's needs. so we are going to do things differently than my past seven years ago. the world is changed. for instance, will take the largest circulating library in our system across the street from here and renovated completely in outdoor education space and computer space. all of that came out of the commentary we heard as well as our analysis in the leadership of the board of trustees. i think everyone is uncertain about the future when it comes to the end when it comes therefore to libraries. i remember my 16-year-old son when i told him we were coming to do this next after having been president of amherst college. his first comment was dad, did you get the memo that libraries are going out of business? nobody actually believes that.

the numbers are the authors say. never been used from a moorpark, more educational programs. but the world is changing. we have to get more material online. as more material comes online, we don't want people swamp with information, so we have to help people navigate it. we need to cure rate for people. libraries have always done this, but now i scale. we also remain committed to our physical collection. the historic unique material as well as circulating material and to our great spaces. this building being one of them because people love it. so there's some concern and fear built on love and add duration and need for this institution. i think that's true in every library across america.

whenever there is a debate about should we add books, replace computers, add computers, ativan, buy more books instead? beaux-arts should be in a democracy usually heavily debated. this is new york so we love to argue and that is again as it should be an appropriate particularly because at least in my view, this institution is the bedrock of civil society in this city as libraries are, in every town, village and city in america. it is the only place where people can come from kids, immigrants, homeless, students, teachers, pulitzer prize, pulitzer prize winner is commendable laureates. they are all the building as we speak i'm sure. the complete cross-section of america and increasingly at the

world and this is where they come to do the life of the mind, which is not only not dead, but never been stronger based on the numbers we are seeing. that is a great thing, but of course that means people are heavily invested. that is to be celebrated. it helps us plan and get it right. >> host: how do you get your books? was books? what is your relationship with publishers? >> guest: we buy books there a gin. we are the largest library purchaser of books in america certainly impossibly in the world. >> host: every book i've published every year? >> guest: we are not the library of congress which receives those. so there are probably books published are often self publish now that we do not have in our collection. those people ask for, we will buy it, right? and if five people are waiting for a book, we will buy another

copy. so we have expert librarians who are talking to patriots, watch in demand and request and are making great choices about what to buy. partly those differ by neighborhood. we have neighborhoods in new york for most of the books are in chinese or spanish or russian because that is where people are living who want to read in those languages. the research library is a different operation in the sense that we speak to have the amazing collections of materials and books as complete as possible and we are also by an electronically. the new york public library because were the largest circulating library headquartered for the publishing industry is, in fact with the intent locks. we were able to negotiate two years ago for the first time that all the commercial publishers would be willing to sell you a tonic copies of books to libraries to lend for free. so you can now read a book from

the new york public library by downloading it onto your device anytime anywhere. that is 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 helped 500 years ago. but actually, the electronic eyes abilities could make the gutenberg revolution like tv by comparison. the day will come. can't you exactly when, when anyone in the world will be able to read anything, any time, potentially for free though obviously we want authors and publishers to be compensated in some way so people continue to

create and are paid for their work. that has to happen. that's what we do overtures in terms of e-book. but there is now a possibility of an access, an explosion and access to the world of ideas and information, the likes of which are never seen before. 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 so that it shouldn't just be a few people who have access to that kind of material and could contribute to it with their own books. the world is open to creativity that is fabulous. we could use more problems to solve. again, library needs to be in the forefront. >> host: tony marx, that is all available everywhere. does that spell an end to circulating libraries? >> guest: i don't think so.

i think actually people are continuing to require on demand many physical books that are electronic you i don't think that's going away anytime real soon. if people were to read electronically, god loves. they will still need us to help make that possible, especially people at the bottom of the economy who can't afford it otherwise and depend on us and have for a hundred years. and they will continue even more to depend on our physical spaces and places to come for educational programs. english language, computer skills, afterschool, coding, citizenship, 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 navigate it. it's no longer the library looking in the card catalog saying no, these hundred books this one. now we need to do that i scale and we can.

so actually the future of the library couldn't be brighter and that makes me quite optimistic about the future of our civil society because you can't have an informed workforce, which is the carnegie was after. you can't have an informed citizenry for an effective democracy. unless you have the work that happens in america script libraries. >> host: how did you get your? >> guest: , so i grew up in new york part of the life of growing. my dad didn't go to college. my library like so many new yorkers is the lifeblood of saving place in terms of access to ideas and books. we had this at home. we were fortunate in that way. i ended up just becoming more of

an academic than i expected. i ended up at a professor at columbia writing books. there are probably some of my books in the library building somewhere. and much to my surprise became the president of amherst college, one of america's great liberal arts colleges without really any of the background or experience i should've had for that job. it was an amazing eight years, a great college. take great pains. and then it was time to think about the next thing. of course coming back to new york with fabulous possibility. new york has always been my home. i hadn't really thought about it as something that might be a place for me. i'm not a librarian by training. but the more i thought about it have to they came to see if i was interested in talking to

them, the more i thought while, free and public access to ideas at the largest possible scale. what could be more powerful in this moment of history when our turn for information. drowning in it. but could be more powerful tiamat than the very fact the world of information is changing means that libraries have to change. we have to preserve what we've always done and people will lie in that spirit our collections are quiet. our expertise. but we can't sit still. for someone in my line of work, that makes it really interesting, exciting and worthwhile job. does that make it easy, but you need cz? >> host: what is your phd in? >> guest: i have a phd in political science. my first work with on south

african politics. as in south africa in the middle of the civil war in an 1880s. it's an educational work there but i still very proud of. set up a college that fence about a thousand black students on to university at time of apartheid made but almost impossible. for me, those life-changing not only because it set me into an academic career of writing about it in teaching about related products, but for me was powerful as i suffer those students that just one year of quality education could reverse 12 years of purposefully bad education because that's what apartheid was providing lakh students. that has to mean 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. that is why i decided to become an educator and that's why i'm proud to be still a part of the educational community. >> host: is president of the new york public library, how much is your job is administrative? how much is fund-raising? how much is schmoozing? homages managerial? homages librarian? >> guest: likely not so much as a librarian. with great librarians who are well-trained and not. i am blessed to work with a great staff. obviously the senior staff i work with most closely, but also working together with 2000 employees. its report of trustees, donors on the board and also not on the board. an important part of what i

spend my time on. a board is governing authority, donors make it impossible to do what we do. i also spend a fair amount of time at the city administration, mayor, city council. half of our funding comes from there. they are interested in the future of the library system because they understand how foundational it is with jobs in democracy in a civil life in new york. i also get to do some fun things. we have amazing authors coming to this building to read or discuss their works and i get to listen to that, sometimes meet them. there are parties sometimes in the building. i know that's shocking that the library. we have beautiful spaces here. what is amazing about my job is it will take me on any one day from talking to a student in the

south bronx. i remember one would really asking her what she was doing and she told me her name was miracle. i was like zero 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 new york who want to be supportive of everything the library stands for. it means i get to live the diversity of experience that i think is the secret sauce of america's success, that we are all in this together. that's one of the great privileges of my life to be out of service staff. >> host: 10 years from now, whether we going to have? in the library? >> guest: at the will have every seat filled. i bet we will have many more educational programs for free to meet the needs in the neighborhood.