Vampire Weekend at the NYPL

There is so much going on at the NYPL as it celebrates the centennial of its landmark Fifth Avenue building -- exhibits, stack tours, and perhaps the most interesting, today it launched a book, Know The Past, Find The Future (published by Penguin), that contains photographs of over one hundred New York and US notables, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, actor Stephen Colbert, The Rockettes, John Lithgow, Vampire Weekend, Philip Roth, Jonathan Franzen, and more. (Vampire Weekend?!) Many of the images are accompanied by an essay by that person discussing what manuscript or object they looked at. The book is being distributed FREE on the streets of NYC -- in subway stations, on park benches, at all ninety branch locations. Said Angela Montefinise, the public relations director at the library, "The goal is for the books to be passed on -- someone picks it up, looks at it, leaves it somewhere for someone else to look at it. Sort of a traveling library book." Attempting to get my hands on a copy, dear reader, and then I can tell you more. In the meantime, check out this hourlong slide-show video of NYPL's featured digital collections.