Happy 100th Birthday, New York Public Library!

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The New York Public Library is now 100 years old. It looks so good! The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 42nd and Fifth Avenue -- you know, the main building, with the lions -- opened exactly 100 years ago today for borrowing. It's gone from having 1 million items to 65 million "and counting." There's a party today to celebrate at the Belmont Library and Enrico Fermi Cultural Center at East 186th Street, or you could just swing by and say hey to the lions (their names, given by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia in the 1930s, are Patience and Fortitude) at the main branch. The library is actually closed to the public today. Get your cocktail party banter about the NYPL here (books were originally delivered by horse-drawn carts! Jack Kerouac's crutches are in the collections!), and check out photos here.

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