Getting to Know NYPL Resources for Educators: About the Center for Educators & Schools

This is the start of a blog series intended to introduce educators to all that The New York Public Library has to offer—from publicly available resources to educator-exclusive materials. Founded in 1895, NYPL is the nation’s largest public library system, featuring 92 locations across the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, including our research centers at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. (And boy, do we know how easy it is to get lost in all the services and resources here.)

Never fear—the School Support and Outreach team at NYPL’s Center for Educators and Schools (CES) is here to serve as your guide. By the end of this blog series, you’ll know everything there is to know about the Library as an educator, including services, collections, resources, and everything in between.

We know that being a teacher can be both challenging and rewarding. At the Library, we have resources that can support you as an educator and benefit your students, their families, and the entire school community. NYPL’s Center for Educators and Schools (CES) is devoted to making all of the Library’s resources accessible and useful for educators. You’ll find programs and services tailored for the educator community, such as book lists, credit-bearing workshops, special access to exhibitions, tips on teaching with primary source materials from our vast research collections, and much more. Our mission statement is simple: we use The New York Public Library's resources and collections to ignite curiosity, joy, and a passion for learning within educators, students, and school communities.

Find all our resources, programs, and offerings online: nypl.org/ces. You can attend in-person and virtual educator workshops—some of which offer CTLE credit. We also have created curricular materials inspired by our archival collections that can easily integrate into your teaching. For the past three summers, CES has hosted one-week Summer Residencies, where educators have an opportunity to handle objects of study from the Library’s archives and pose questions to visiting faculty during lectures, artifact demonstrations, and cohort discussions. 

Join our CES Educator Challenge by completing this task. Complete all tasks in this blog series to join us at an exclusive event for educators in May 2025!

Challenge 1: 

Sign up for our monthly Educators at NYPL newsletter to get updates on workshops, curriculum, books, visits, and other resources for educators of all grades and subjects. While you're at it, check out our upcoming workshops. Email us at schoolvisits@nypl.org with the subject: CES Educator Challenge 1 to let us know you’ve completed this task.