Butler Library at Columbia University’s Morningside campus is second only to NYPL in terms of majesty and breadth, with more than 2 million books in its labyrinthine stacks. As a monument alone, Butler is impressive; the names of writers and philosophers, such as Homer, Herodotus, Shakespeare, and Dante, are inscribed on the façade. For book lovers, it is paradise.

This is the big one! With some 53 million items, NYPL is famous worldwide and is a destination for scholars of every persuasion. With 209 branches and private and public funding, it is among the greatest accomplishments of library science. But forget all that for a moment; NYPL is perhaps the city’s most gorgeous triumph of architecture, and it is the permanent home of the original Winnie the Pooh stuffed bear along with his companions from the Hundred Acre Wood.

Walking through the American Museum of Natural History’s wondrous collection of taxidermy dioramas and dinosaur fossils, you might chance upon the Research Library and reading room. Inside, you’ll find records and materials just as astonishing as in the rest of the museum—rich, retrospective artifacts and books covering genomics, astronomy, ecology, oceanography, and more.

Located at Lincoln Center, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts grabs attention with its glamorous foyer and rotating displays of artifacts from New York City’s rich performance history, including costumes, videos, and posters. But the real treasure is the collection itself, in which you can examine hundreds of recordings, playbills, and more arcana from every aspect of ballet, opera, vaudeville, music, and Broadway theater.