Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) — Attraction in New York

I have not visited every library in New York City yet, but this is definitely my favorite so far. It has an excellent selection of books, and other media, on many subjects/topics that include a wide variety of perspectives. They have an excellent selection of newspapers and magazines (periodicals) as well.

Their hours are fantastic, and I so appreciate that they open early and stay open until 2100 most nights. It allows for workers and students who don't work "Bankers hours" or "traditional factory hours" to utilize this amazing public facility.

It's very spacious and has many levels. There are lots of outlets to use and charge laptops and phones, and lots of different areas and spaces for people to work and study. There is free public wi-fi available, courtesy of the NYPL, and there's public washrooms available on all levels—including wheelchair accessible ones and "gender-neutral" or non-shared washrooms facilities for those who may want more privacy while they do their business, such as while they deal with their children's dirty diapers.

This is a nice, spacious environment that is well-lit and has lots of windows. They do have a lot of security guards, and I actually find it to be quite the overkill of guards walking around. It's a public library, not a maximum security prison, eh? And to be totally honest, it makes it feel less of a safe and welcoming environment when there's so many of them around, slowly pacing the floors. They also tend to pick at dumb things like how you have to sit while reading your book and how you can't sit on the floor in the corner and how you can't eat some friggin' pre-cut pineapple with a plastic fork quietly while you read.

Anyhow, all that said, I have a suggestion for you Americans🫶

The libraries where I was born (Victoria, BC, Canada), and the surrounding areas I have traveled in within BC, allow you to eat and drink while you read. (We are allowed to eat and drink on public transit too, btw) How long do you expect students and adults to be able to study and focus without eating and drinking? As long as people are respectful and don't leave big gross messes, what's the big deal? Most people are pretty considerate about this in public libraries, from my experience (and I have spent a lot of my life hanging out at libraries). Even the library I went to as a child/teen didn't have an issue with me or others eating/drinking. We are humans, not robots, remember?

Also, they do have security guards at the facilities in Canads too, but way less than there are at the ones I have visited so far in NYC. (also, Canada has much less violent crime, weird eh?). Also, the security guards in the libraries there tend to n9t wander around picking at nonsense and acting all "intimidating" to people who are just sitting down and reading. Last time I checked, reading was not a crime so what's the big idea, eh? Are we prepping the citizens for the communist...

This would be one of the nicest public libraries in NYC, but the positives are mostly drowned out by the absolutely horrible staff.

This library has a huge selection of genres for just about anybody, and is centrally located in Midtown right across from Bryant Park. It is comfortably heated and cooled depending on the season, and has ample area on 6 different floors to find a spot to read or study.

But where it loses ALL it’s points for me is the security that simultaneously roams the floors staring down every INNOCENT person in the room as if we’re in a prison system, while also completely ignoring the constant outbursts from the NON-innocent people that seem to always be looking for trouble.

For one specific example of many, there is one likely homeless man that is in this branch on a regular basis, and every time I’ve seen him, he would start cussing and making threats under his breath, gradually getting louder until finally erupting and practically shouting, seemingly at nothing/himself. The security will often come over and ask if he’s ok, and then walk away to ignore him further. The most I’ve seen them do is walk him out when he doesn’t stop, but he’s always allowed to come back the next day and do it again. Why he isn’t banned at this point makes no sense to me.

That is just one example of many, but it’s a regular occurrence for people to just abruptly start fights and arguments with each other and security essentially does nothing about it every single time, while still glaring down those of us that are just here to read and study, as if WE are the guilty ones.

I’ve had one of them follow me into the bathroom and literally stand outside the stall and wait for me to come back out before, for what reason I’ll never understand.

Then there’s the issue of the 7th floor being closed off for private events. That’s understandable, but what isn’t is them closing off an elevator just for those patrons going to the events, and YELLING at anyone that tries to get on said elevator. That’s not ok, but I see it happen on a very regular basis, as this branch has private events almost weekly it seems.

Even if they wanted to close off the elevator and tell people POLITELY, that would make total sense, but instead they scream and snap at - again, totally innocent - people, for no other reason than the security here all seems to have a major power trip issue.

Again, this has the potential to be one of the best libraries in the city, but it is dragged down significantly by the horrible staff, at least on the 2nd and 4th floors, and for those reasons, I would recommend if someone were visiting to come and check out the library, but don’t plan to spend much time here, as it’s not a pleasant experience.

We’ll also see if this review remains up, because the last time I tried to leave a less than stellar review for this library, someone in their staff/management had it taken...

By far the worst library in the city. Anyone that says otherwise is likely a tourist that popped in once and didn’t experience what we do as locals.

The literal army of security guards do nothing but walk around all day harassing people for the stupidest reasons - I’ve seen then argue with people for “sleeping” when they merely closed their eyes for a few seconds - but they don’t do anything when there are unruly people running around the building screaming and cussing people out, which happens surprisingly often in this branch for some reason.

I’ve seen then stand back and watch while some likely homeless person paced around threatening to slice people with a knife (I don’t know if they had one or not, but isn’t the mere threat alone enough for security to step in and do their job?).

I’ve been in the restroom before and had them pounding on the stall doors and SCREAMING to hurry up and get out or else they would call the police, when no one in the restroom was doing anything wrong, and hadn’t even been in there more than a few moments.

On top of all that, the staff is just rude as they can be, and act like your mere existence is a problem for them. I once got an emergency call and had to leave quickly and forgot a backpack, and went back as soon as the library opened the next morning. I went to the front desk and asked if they had it in their lost and found, which they did, but someone who I’m assuming was a manager gave me the worst attitude ever and snapped, “what kind of fool forgets their backpack?” And acted like I was inconveniencing her so much just to even ask for it back.

And don’t get me started on the rooftop balcony that everyone - tourists - praise. I don’t know how they manage to get to see it, because every time I have tried, it’s closed down for “private events”, and once again, there was security to throw out anyone that wasn’t part of the “inner circle” - aka giving the library a ton of money probably.

And when they do these private events, which is all the time it seems, they close off half the elevators so only “private guests” can use them, which causes the remaining elevators to get even more congested and bottlenecked than they already are. But screw the regular patrons that use the library all the time I guess, right?

I can’t say enough bad things about this awful place. The main branch across the street is LIGHT YEARS better in every single way, the only reason anyone even comes to this worthless branch is because it has longer operating hours. If the main branch stayed open later, there would be zero reason to set foot...