New York State has three of the world's largest libraries, and New York City has several of the world's most famous museums. The New York State Library in Albany coordinates 23 public library systems covering every county in the state in 2000, with book holdings of 71,776,093 volumes and a combined circulation of 122,147,000 volumes. The public libraries received $834,402,000 during that year (the most of any state), of which $6,675,216 came from the federal government, $50,064,120 from the state government, and the rest from local sources. Per capita spending was $42.54, the 2nd-highest rate in the country.
The leading public library systems and their operating statistics as of 1999 were the New York Public Library, 17,762,034 volumes in 127 branches; Brooklyn Public Library, 6,800,000 volumes and 10,077,559 circulation; Queens Borough Public Library, 8,668,948 volumes and 14,829,837 circulation; and Buffalo and Erie County system, 5,240,965 volumes and 8,734,854 circulation.
Chartered in 1895, the New York Public Library (NYPL) is the most complete municipal library system in the world. The library's main branch, at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, is one of the city's best-known landmarks; serving the needs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island. The NYPL is a repository for every book published in the US. The NYPL also operates the Library and Museum of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the Science, Industry, and Business Library that opened in May 1996.
Two private university libraries—at Columbia University (7,018,408 volumes in 1999) and Cornell University (6,617,242)—rank among the world's major libraries. Other major university libraries in the state, with their 1999 book holdings, are Syracuse University, 2,650,995; New York University, 2,987,062; the State University of New York at Buffalo, 2,534,500; and the University of Rochester, 2,446,729.
There are about 671 museums in New York State; about 150 are major museums, of which perhaps 80% are in New York City. In addition, some 579 sites of historic importance are maintained by local historical societies. Major art museums in New York City include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with more than one million art objects and paintings from virtually every period and culture; the Cloisters, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum devoted entirely to medieval art and architecture; the Frick collection; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Brooklyn Museum; and two large modern collections, the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (the latter designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in a distinctive spiral pattern). The Jewish Museum, the Museum of the American Indian, and the museum and reference library of the Hispanic Society of America specialize in cultural history.
The sciences are represented by the American Museum of Natural History, famed for its dioramas of humans and animals in natural settings and for its massive dinosaur skeletons; the Hayden Planetarium; the New York Botanical Garden and New York Zoological Society Park (Bronx Zoo), both in the Bronx. Also of interest are the Museum of the City of New York, the Museum of the New-York Historical Society, the South Street Seaport Museum, and the New York Aquarium.
The New York State Museum in Albany contains natural history collections and historical artifacts. Buffalo has several museums of note, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (for contemporary art), the Buffalo Museum of Science, and the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society museum.
Among the state's many other fine museums, the Everson Museum of Art (Syracuse), the Rochester Museum and Science Center, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (Cooperstown), and the Corning Museum of Glass deserve special mention. Buffalo, New Rochelle, Rochester, Syracuse, and Utica have zoos.