Boston Public Library
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| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Type | Public |
| Established | 1852 |
| Location | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Coordinates | 42°20′57.55″N 71°4′41.78″W / 42.3493194°N 71.0782722°WCoordinates: 42°20′57.55″N 71°4′41.78″W / 42.3493194°N 71.0782722°W |
| Branches | 24 |
| Collection | |
| Size | 24,079,520 |
| Access and use | |
| Circulation | 3.69 million (FY 2013) |
| Population served | 6,547,629 |
| Other information | |
| Budget | $31.2 million, plus $8.2 million from trust fund (2013) |
| Director | David Leonard, President Robert E. Gallery, Chairman of the Board |
| Website | bpl |
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly library of last recourse) of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; all adult residents of the commonwealth are entitled to borrowing and research privileges, and the library receives state funding. The Boston Public Library contains approximately 23 million items encompassing all formats including books, DVDs, CDs, maps, music scores, microfilm, manuscripts, prints and other visual materials, and electronic resources, making it the third-largest public library in the United States behind only the Library of Congress (with 160 million items) and the New York Public Library (with 53 million items), according to the American Library Association. In fiscal year 2014, the library held over 10,000 programs, all free to the public, and lent 3.7 million materials.
According to its website, the Boston Public Library has a collection of over 23.7 million items, which makes it one of the largest municipal public library systems in the United States. The vast majority of the collection – over 22.7 million volumes — is held in the Central Branch research stacks. Between July 2012 and June 2013, the annual circulation of the BPL was 3.69 million. Because of the strength and importance of its research collection, the Boston Public Library is a member of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), a not-for-profit organization comprising the research libraries of North America. The New York Public Library is the only other public library that is a member of the ARL. The library has established collections of distinction, based on the collection's depth and breadth, including subjects such as Boston history, the Civil War, Irish History, etc. In addition, the library is both a federal and state depository of government documents.
Included in the BPL's research collection are more than 1.7 million rare books and manuscripts. It possesses wide-ranging and important holdings, including medieval manuscripts and incunabula, early editions of William Shakespeare (among which are a number of Shakespeare quartos and the First Folio), the George Ticknor collection of Spanish literature, a major collection of Daniel Defoe, records of colonial Boston, the 3,800 volume personal library of John Adams, the mathematical and astronomical library of Nathaniel Bowditch, important manuscript archives on abolitionism, including the papers of William Lloyd Garrison, and a major collection of materials on the Sacco and Vanzetti case. There are large collections of prints, photographs, postcards, and maps. The library, for example, holds one of the major collections of watercolors and drawings by Thomas Rowlandson. The library has a special strength in music, and holds the archives of the Handel and Haydn Society, scores from the estate of Serge Koussevitzky, and the papers of and grand piano belonging to the important American composer Walter Piston.
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