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New York Public Library Supporter Spreads Word About His Cause in Innovative Way

The Atlantic – Svati Kirsten Narula: “On Saturday, he spent five hours handing out flyers on the street and talking to people about the library—specifically, the NYPL’s plan to renovate the main branch and sell two other branches, which Zadrozny thinks will be “a disaster.” He was recruiting participants for the “work-in” protests he’s started organizing on behalf of the grassroots Committee to Save the New York Public Library…I’d rather write about why Matthew Zadrozny, the computer programmer, is determined to stop the Central Library Plan from happening. He alludes to his concerns on his personal website with a list of questions ranging from how logistically feasible the plan is to the political and financial interests that may be involved. He worries that eliminating the Mid-Manhattan and SIB branches will mean less public space for research and learning, and especially for kids to safely study: “Please do not call this a ‘renovation,’ as [the NYPL has] rebranded it,” he says. “It is not. They intend to close two branch libraries in the process, and squeeze the public into a space 1/3 of these.” But what emerges during a conversation with Zadrozny is that he is a man who, like so many of us living in the digital age, is fundamentally concerned with the death of print. He believes in reading on paper.

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