Touring: The New York Public Library

I recently stopped by the New York Public Library to take a walk around the inside. Thinking back I don’t know if I have ever even been inside the NYPL before.

First, as I was walking up the iconic steps up to the library, a woman walking just ahead of me fell. Scared the crap out of me. Surprisingly, this woman wasn’t me, but she tripped over some misplaced construction equipment (safety fail by the way). Several of us went right over to her to make sure she was okay. Human kindness at its finest as there were quite a few of us checking on her.

Second, I was surprised at how many people were inside on a weekday. The place was packed. Packed! And not just with tourists checking the place out.

People were working on the libraries’ desktops, personal laptops, netbooks and blackberries. Seats in the various reading rooms were hard to come by for sure.

Because I am nosy, er, curious, I wanted to see what people were doing in the library. I snuck a few glances around. People were writing papers, doing research, playing on Facebook, perusing Google and <gasp> reading.

There were a vast amount of people, and all ages, ethnicities and gender. Who are these people? Are they students? Writers? Researchers? My curiosity was piqued.

I did log on as well to check out any must do’s or sees at the New York Public Library. Thanks to one site, I found out there was a Map Room. Imagine that. Right up my alley. I immediately packed my bag up and set off to find this Map Room.

Inside, there were globes, maps and so many people just as in awe as I was. I could have spent hours checking out old globes and maps and just releasing my inner explorer.

The library had beautiful architecture and an amazing collection of books. In fact, I stumbled upon an entire wall of World Book Encyclopedias. Remember those?

Have you ever been to the New York Public Library? What were you looking for? Did you find it?