Current building

Over time, the influx of more books and an increasing population necessitated the construction of a new building at 5 Washington Street, the current location of the main branch of the Newark Public Library. An architectural marvel, the new building, designed by Rankin and Kellogg, was influenced by the 15th century Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy.^[11] The library also served as a museum, lecture hall, and a gallery.^[11]

In 1902, John Cotton Dana succeeded Frank Pierce Hill to become the director of the library. John Cotton Dana greatly promoted the educational value of the library. For example, he established foreign language collections for immigrants and even developed a special collection for the business community.^[12] This "Business Branch" was the first of its kind in the nation.^[12] John Cotton Dana was employed at the Newark Public Library in Newark, New Jersey, until his death in 1929.^[12] John Cotton Dana also founded the Newark Museum in 1909, inside the library, directing it until his death.^[12]

After the death of Dana in 1929, Beatrice Winser took over as director of the library and Newark Museum until 1942.^[13] In 1930, the library had a book truck which brought books to children throughout Newark.^[14] In 1929, the library's New Jersey Collection was founded, which later became The Charles F. Cummings New Jersey Information Center. The CFCNJIC became a separate Library department in 1951.^[7]

Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, the library continued to grow under the leadership of John Boyleton Kaiser (1943-1958^[7]), James E. “Ned” Bryan (1958-1972^[7]), J. Bernard Schein (1972-1977^[7]), William Urban (1977-1979^[7]), Thomas J. Alrutz (1979-1988^[7]), Alex Boyd (1988-2004^[7]), Wilma Grey (2005-2015^[15]), Jeffrey Trzeciak (2017-2019), Joslyn Bowling Dixon (2020–present) and others.^[16] In 1963 the library became a Federal Regional Depository.^[17]

The Newark Public Library claims to have negotiated its first international interlibrary loan in 1955 with the German government.^[18] According to researchers on the subject of international interlibrary loans, this is not exactly on the cutting edge of international interlibrary loan history, due to the fact that international interlibrary loans have been occurring in different forms throughout the ages. However, "The United States... was slow to resume international lending [after World War II]. Although some individual U.S. libraries reluctantly began to loan materials to Europe after the war, it was not until 1959… that the majority of U.S. libraries willingly resumed lending their materials across the Atlantic". Newark Public Library was a part of the vanguard to reactivate international interlibrary loans after the events of World War II, reconnecting the library systems of North America to the rest of the world. ^[19]

According to the Newark Public Library, the library itself was threatened with closure 2 times officially within a decade, one of these people responsible for the potential closure being the mayor of the city, Hugh Joseph Addonizio between 1964 and 1969. This was also taking place during the general time frame of the 1967 Newark riots, or rebellion as many would call it. The library was able to remain open through the help of federal aid funding. When the library was threatened with closure for the second time in 1969, a social movement of concerned citizens were able to put enough political pressure on the government in order to secure more funding. ^[20]

In 1989, the library opened what is now the James Brown African American Room to "generate and maintain an appreciation of African American history and culture".^[21] Also in 1989, La Sala was established with the "largest collection of Spanish–language library resources in New Jersey.^[22]

In 2002, The Newark Public Library partnered with a Latino community group, the Friends the Hispanic Research Information Center (HRIC), to create the New Jersey Hispanic Research and Information Center (NJHRIC).^[22]

In 2018, the library launched a digital collection at http://digital.npl.org.^[23]

Philip Roth Personal Library

Novelist Philip Roth bequeathed $2 million and a large portion of his estate to the library upon his death in 2018.^[24] The collection includes Roth's personal correspondence, photographs, scrapbooks, furniture, travel itineraries, typewriters, and over 7,000 books by various authors, many of which include notations in Roth's handwriting.^[25][26] Roth cited a "longstanding sense of gratitude to the city where I was born" as motivation for his bequest.^[24] The Philip Roth Personal Library opened to the public in 2021.^[24]

Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers

After being selected by the Association of American College & Universities (AAC&U) to partake in the implementation of a Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) campus centers, Rutgers University-Newark partnered with the Newark Public Library to aid in the development of the program. The AAC&U selected 10 universities to implement these programs and provided each a grant of $30,000.^[36] The goal is to bring to light the issues regarding racial inequality in diverse cities like Newark. Though selected in August 2017, the programs began on January 17, 2017, at the Newark Public Library and include events that addressed DACA and the Charlottesville Riots and used spoken word poetry and art as mediums.

Philip Roth Lectures

Since 2016, the Newark Library has hosted an annual Philip Roth Lecture.^[37] Speakers have included Zadie Smith, Robert Caro, Salman Rushdie, Sean Wilentz, Tracy K. Smith, Ayad Akhtar, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and Jelani Cobb.^[37][38]