The
New York Public Library (
NYPL) is a
public library system in
New York City. With nearly 53 million items, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (and
third largest in the world), behind only the
Library of Congress. It is an independently managed, nonprofit corporation operating with both private and public financing. The library has branches in the boroughs of
Manhattan,
The Bronx, and
Staten Island, and affiliations with academic and professional libraries in the metropolitan area of
New York State. The City of New York's other two boroughs,
Brooklyn and
Queens, are served by the
Brooklyn Public Library and the
Queens Borough Public Library, respectively. The branch libraries are open to the general public and consist of
research libraries and
circulating libraries.
The library was developed in the 19th century, founded from an amalgamation of grass-roots libraries, and social libraries of bibliophiles and the wealthy, aided by the philanthropy of the wealthiest Americans of their age.