After eight bookless years, 53rd Street has its library back — if that’s the right word for a sleek but shrunken pit fitted out with bleachers, bar stools, and a megascreen, plus a smattering of circulating volumes. Call it a community center, a public hangout, a computer café, or the library of the future. Whatever the term, library officials would like you to stop thinking of the 53rd Street branch of the New York Public Library as a replacement for the lamented Donnell Library. As the newest of the system’s 89 branches, it looks to the future instead of attempting to repair the past.
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