History of the 42nd Street Library: Library Staff

Sometimes called "Report" or "Report of the Director", the Library started issuing an annual report as soon as it formed a system in 1896, thereby anyone researching its history will find a contemporary record of its goals, accomplishments, and aspirations. These typically include reports from the Board of Trustees as well as public service statistics depending on when they were created. Reports can be found in bound volumes in the Library's print collection in the Research Catalog, in digital copies of Bulletin on HathiTrust , and on the New York Public Library's website .

Published in July 1911, this weekly organ of the Library offers a continuing record of the Library's personnel activities, programs, regulations, and internal functions. A smattering of early issues are available on Hathitrust (see the links in the catalog for a complete list).

A library school was opened at The New York Public Library in October of 1911 and was designed primarily to provide trained assistants for the staff of The Library. It closed in 1926 but researchers can find a record of its activities in the Library School's Annual Report.

Our collection contains the entirety of The Library Lions, the Staff Association's newsletter, published monthly ("during the winter season") from October 1935 to June 1942. It provides lively illustrations of the Association's inner workings, as well as social life at the Library. It chronicles the Athletic Committee's fruitless efforts to get women working at the branches to join a co-ed bowling night and the Theater Committee's hunt for an original script to perform at the annual staff holiday party.

The first edition of this periodical starts with the ringing proclamation, "We are the librarians, pages, and service workers in the New York Public Library system who are members of the Communist Party and the Young Communist League." This newsletter dedicated itself to fight against "the intolerable working conditions, low salaries, and vicious system of spying," which it said characterized and defined life at the Library.

NYPL holds the complete run of The Library Worker, a monthly newsletter that ran from January 1935 to June 1936. The organ of the Library Workers Union (LWU), this publication presented itself in opposition to the Staff Association’s perceived coziness with the Library administration. During its run of a year and a half, The Library Worker frequently reported on issues affecting NYPL’s rank and file, including wages, sick leave, cuts and furloughs, and other working conditions. One prominent issue was the ventilation in the stacks, which The Library Worker claimed was inadequate and led to cases of tuberculosis among staff. Though it frequently criticized the other organization, the LWU’s last issue was an open letter announcing that it would be dissolved and urging its members to join the Staff Association instead.

The New York Public Library Guild/Local 1930 was officially born on May 1, 1968. It represents the unionized staff members from the New York Public Library's Branch and Research Libraries. This newsletter includes a record of the Library union's goals, milestones, and activities as well as organizing updates from District Council 37. See The Staff Association Records in the New York Public Library Archives and our guide to Researching Labor Unions at NYPL for more on staff organizing and labor history at the Library.

The Local Line is an internal news bulletin published on the mimeograph in the Local 1930 headquarters. It contains updates on Library union meetings, announcements from the union leaders, and other records of the daily work of Local 1930. See The Staff Association Records in the New York Public Library Archives and our guide to Researching Labor Unions at NYPL for more on staff organizing and labor history at the Library.

Local 1930 News continues the the Local Line and the Local 1930 Newsletter. See The Staff Association Records in the New York Public Library Archives and our guide to Researching Labor Unions at NYPL for more on staff organizing and labor history at the Library.

This quarterly, newsletter - edited by Anne Skillion - was devoted to the staff at the Research Libraries. The newsletter focuses on new programs and services, past and present staff, and highlights in the collections. It is continued by Research Libraries notes after 1990.

This staff publication continues "Public Services News" and focuses on sharing information by staff for staff among the Research Libraries.

A more contemporary Local 1930 publication that covered the union in the first years of the 21st century. See The Staff Association Records in the New York Public Library Archives and our guide to Researching Labor Unions at NYPL for more on staff organizing and labor history at the Library.