A Summer Rubik’s Cube

This summer the American Library will be rectifying a longstanding peculiarity in the way its book collections are physically arranged.

For years, even decades, the Library’s biography, mystery, art, and fiction collections each have been divided – partly on the mezzanine and partly on the ground floor, under no useful organizing principle.

This summer’s collection consolidation will gather all of our fiction, biography, and art titles on the ground floor, and all of our mysteries on the mezzanine. English-language literature criticism and much of the social sciences will also migrate to the mezzanine. Present basement collections will be virtually unchanged, and travel and cookbooks will remain where they are.

Executing this dramatic shift of tens of thousands of books — a librarian’s Rubik’s cube — will require the use of a portion of the reading room as a work space during the summer months. Books temporarily unavailable in open stacks can be retrieved by staff and volunteers.

We apologize for the temporary inconvenience, and wish you a safe and pleasant summer.

Charles Trueheart