I don’t know about you, but I’m obsessed
with my local library. I mean, if you think about it, the idea of a
public library—where anyone in the community is trusted to borrow books,
often for long stretches of time, for free, ad infinitum—is fairly
magical. Where else do you get something for nothing? Which is not even
to mention the many programs, study space, use of computers, and other
perks that most public libraries offer. Basically, what I’m saying is:
libraries should be even more popular than they are—but some of them are
pretty popular already.
Despite the definitive headline, the below list is admittedly
inexact—as, I suppose, all lists tracking the movements of large numbers
of people in and out of foreign and domestic institutions must be. Not
all of the libraries I researched had up-to-date public information
about the number of visitors, or any information at all (so these I had
to exclude), and there were a few cases where I found competing figures,
or press releases in foreign languages. Plus, I admit that I did not
research every single library in the world, but only the ones that
seemed likely to rank. Now, with all those caveats in place, please
enjoy the below popularity contest, and if you’re so moved, nominate
your own favorites in the comment section.
New York Public Library, New York, NY, USA: 18 million visitors per year
In their annual report,
the New York Public Library reported that they had hosted 18 million
visitors and circulated 23 million items over their 92 locations in
2016. (92! That is impressive enough on its own.) Recent individual
building or branch numbers were slightly more difficult to come by, but
according to a NYPL press release,
in 2012, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (what you probably think of
as the Main Branch) received 2.3 million visitors, and the
Mid-Manhattan branch, which is now closed for renovations, received 1.4
million (though a more recent estimate puts it at 1.7 million, so you may want to mentally adjust both numbers accordingly.) ... [mehr] https://lithub.com/the-12-most-popular-libraries-in-the-world/
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