Can you go inside the New York Public Library?

Yes. The New York Public Library's main branch on Fifth Avenue is completely free to enter and explore, with no ticket or membership required. Visitors can see Astor Hall, the Rose Main Reading Room, the Map Division, and the rotating exhibitions. Free guided tours run daily, and the Polonsky Exhibition of treasures, including a Gutenberg Bible, is free as well.

When can you visit the Rose Main Reading Room?

The Rose Main Reading Room is on the third floor of the Schwarzman Building and is open to visitors during library hours, typically 10am to 6pm on most days and until 8pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. You can walk through quietly and sit at the tables; photography without flash is allowed. Check the library's website for current hours and occasional closures for events.

Where is the New York Public Library?

The library is on Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown, with Bryant Park directly behind it. Take the 7 train to Fifth Avenue, which exits at the library's side, or the B, D, F, or M to 42nd Street–Bryant Park, a three-minute walk through the park. Grand Central and Times Square are each a five-minute walk along 42nd Street.

New York Public Library

Landmark

Midtown

Manhattan

Free Entry

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About

The New York Public Library's main branch, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, is the Beaux-Arts landmark on Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets, guarded by the two marble lions, Patience and Fortitude, that have become symbols of the city. Opened in 1911 after 16 years of construction, it was the largest marble building in the United States at the time, and it remains one of the great research libraries of the world, holding more than 15 million items in its stacks beneath Bryant Park.

The building is free to enter, and it's as much a monument as a library. Astor Hall, the white marble lobby, leads to grand staircases and the Rose Main Reading Room on the third floor, a hall nearly two city blocks long under a 52-foot ceiling painted with clouds, lit by brass lamps at long oak tables where anyone can sit and read. The DeWitt Wallace Periodical Room, the Map Division, and the rotating exhibitions in the Gottesman Hall are all open to the public, and the library holds treasures including a Gutenberg Bible, Thomas Jefferson's handwritten Declaration of Independence, and the original stuffed animals that inspired Winnie-the-Pooh.

The library is also one of the most filmed buildings in the city, appearing in Ghostbusters, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Sex and the City, and Spider-Man, and its steps facing Fifth Avenue are a Midtown meeting point in every season.

Insider Tip

Take the free guided tour, which leaves from Astor Hall at 11am and 2pm on most days and gets you into rooms and stories you'd walk past alone. Go up to the Rose Main Reading Room and sit at a table for ten minutes; it's the quietest place in Midtown and the ceiling mural repays a long look. Then find the Winnie-the-Pooh toys in the Children's Center on the ground floor, where the original Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, and Tigger have lived since 1987. Most visitors never know they're there.

History & Facts

The New York Public Library's main branch has anchored Fifth Avenue since 1911. Here are the key facts every visitor should know:

Is the New York Public Library free to visit? Yes. The Schwarzman Building is free and open to the public, including the Rose Main Reading Room, the exhibitions, and free guided tours.
What are the lions' names? Patience and Fortitude, named by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia in the 1930s for the qualities New Yorkers needed to survive the Depression.
The Rose Main Reading Room is 297 feet long, 78 feet wide, and 52 feet high, with a ceiling mural of clouds and sky, and it was restored in 2016.
The library's stacks extend beneath Bryant Park, where a 1991 expansion added 84 miles of shelving underground.
The library holds a Gutenberg Bible, one of about 50 surviving copies, and the original Winnie-the-Pooh toys owned by Christopher Robin Milne.
The opening scene of Ghostbusters was filmed in the Rose Main Reading Room and the lobby in 1984.

When to visit

The library is open six days a week, with shorter hours on Sunday, and it's closed on major holidays.

Weekday mornings right at the 10am opening are the best time to see the Rose Main Reading Room with the fewest people; by early afternoon it fills with researchers and visitors, and weekend afternoons are the busiest. The free guided tours at 11am and 2pm are the most efficient way to see the building, and the 11am tour is usually smaller.

Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, when the library stays open until 8pm, are quiet and atmospheric, with the reading room's brass lamps lit against the dark windows. Sunday afternoons are calm but short, with the building open only from 1pm to 5pm.

The exterior is worth seeing at any hour: the lions and the Fifth Avenue steps are lit at night, and in December the lions wear holiday wreaths. Because the library sits between Bryant Park and Grand Central, it fits naturally into a Midtown morning or a rainy afternoon, when it's the best free indoor destination in the neighborhood.

Getting there

The New York Public Library's main branch is at 476 Fifth Avenue, between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan, with its main entrance and the lions facing Fifth Avenue. Take the 7 train to Fifth Avenue, which exits at the library's northern side, or the B, D, F, or M to 42nd Street–Bryant Park and walk east through the park, about three minutes.

Grand Central Terminal is a five-minute walk east along 42nd Street, and Times Square is five minutes west, with the 1, 2, 3, N, Q, R, W, and S trains there. The Empire State Building is a ten-minute walk south on Fifth Avenue. The 42nd Street entrance is wheelchair accessible.

Use our interactive NYC subway guide to plan your exact route from any hotel or neighborhood before you arrive.