The New York Public Library is planning on spending $250–350 million dollars on a colossal renovation of its main branch on 42nd Street. Seven levels of stacks of 3 million books will be moved to a storage space in Princeton, New Jersey, and a modern computer library will be built in the space.

The Nation‘s Scott Sherman talked on WNYC recently about this renovation and his article on this issue that appears in the December 19 issue of The Nation magazine. He raises the question of whether this planned makeover is necessary and hopes that his article will open up public discussion about this issue.

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—Jin Zhao