NYPL’s Iconic Public Library Now Has a $2.6 Million Book Train (video)

When the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building opened in 1911, it had a state-of-the-art elevator and pneumatic tube system which carried books from the seven underground floors of bookshelves to the readers in the above-ground reading rooms.

That system was replaced in 1991 with a conveyor system during a renovation and expansion, and now it is being supplanted again by a new book train installation.

NYPL's Iconic Public Library Now Has a $2.6 Million Book Train (video) Libraries

Boing Boing, Lauphing SquidDNA Info, and other sites report that the New York Public Library has completed the installation of a book train system consisting of 24 individual cars, each of which is capable of carrying 30 pounds.

You can see the book train in operation in a video at the end of this post.

The new system:

  • Runs on 950-feet of vertical and horizontal track
  • Includes 24 cars that can each carry 30 pounds of material
  • Moves 75 feet per minute.
  • Are tracked using electronic sensors installed on the rails
  • Moves materials through 11 levels of the library, totaling 375 feet.
  • Is electric, and the cars run on 24VDC
  • Takes approximately five minutes to go from the Milstein Stacks to the Rose Main Reading Room (it takes longer for requested materials to be delivered, as the request needs to be received, the materials pulled by staff, and then placed on the system).

I grew up on the campus of the University of Kansas (my mother was a student), and frequented the Watson Library. I don't know how it was equipped when it opened in 1924, but when I saw it in the 1980s (just after it was remodeled) I can't recall that it had any type of automated delivery system.

Instead it had stacks which college students could access and get the books themselves. Libraries used standard library carts to reshelve titles, and accessed the nine floors of stacks via elevators.

That is probably for the best; if the library had had a conveyor system then the college students would have tried  to ride it, and broken it.

About Nate Hoffelder (9925 Articles)
Nate Hoffelder is the founder and editor of The Digital Reader:"I've been into reading ebooks since forever, but I only got my first ereader in July 2007. Everything quickly spiraled out of control from there. Before I started this blog in January 2010 I covered ebooks, ebook readers, and digital publishing for about 2 years as a part of MobileRead Forums. It's a great community, and being a member is a joy. But I thought I could make something out of how I covered the news for MobileRead, so I started this blog."

2 Comments on NYPL’s Iconic Public Library Now Has a $2.6 Million Book Train (video)

  1. Nice. But I still prefer the trains in Dr Seuss. (And I see that the Cat in the Hat is running for President).

  2. I’m sure the people who installed it played (sorry, meant tested) before delivering

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