N.Y. Library to Dust Off Crumbling Tomes
After 76 years of slovenly housekeeping, the New York Public Library announced Tuesday that it will spend $1 million to take vacuum cleaners and dust cloths to its 3.5 million books, thousands of which are crumbling from neglect.
A team of about half a dozen Soviet and Polish emigres will devote the next five years to dusting the library’s 88 miles of bookshelves--the distance between New York and Philadelphia.
“The difference, of course, is that you wouldn’t see as many interesting things on your way to Philadelphia,” said Hamish Maxwell, chairman of the board of Philip Morris, which is paying for the job.
The cleanup is part of a larger, $3.1-million project to begin to reclaim the library’s eight floors of stacks from decades of neglect. The library intends to take an inventory of all its books.
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