The Library Hotel is a 60-room boutique hotel

Boutique hotel

Boutique hotel is a term popularized in North America and the United Kingdom to describe intimate, usually luxurious or unique hotel environments. Boutique hotels differentiate themselves from larger chain/branded hotels and motels by providing personalized accommodation and services / facilities...

 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, located at 299 Madison Avenue (at 41st Street), near the New York Public Library

New York Public Library

The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...

, Bryant Park

Bryant Park

Bryant Park is a 9.603 acre privately managed public park located in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan...

, and Grand Central Terminal

Grand Central Terminal

Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...

. The Hotel was designed by architect Stephen B. Jacobs.

The hotel boasts a unique organizing principle: each of its ten guest floors has a theme, designated after a major category of the Dewey Decimal Classification

Dewey Decimal Classification

Dewey Decimal Classification, is a proprietary system of library classification developed by Melvil Dewey in 1876.It has been greatly modified and expanded through 23 major revisions, the most recent in 2011...

 (the 5th floor, for example, is the 500s, the Sciences), with each room as a subcategory or genre, such as Mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 (Room 500.001) or Botany

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

 (Room 500.004). (Dewey categories 000, 100, and 200 are placed on the 10th, 11th, and 12th floors, respectively.) Other room themes include Erotic Literature

Erotic literature

Erotic literature comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts of human sexual relationships which have the power to or are intended to arouse the reader sexually. Such erotica takes the form of novels, short stories, poetry, true-life memoirs, and sex manuals...

 (Room 800.001), Poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

 (Room 800.003), and Music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 (Room 700.005). All rooms have a small complement of books and decorations that accompany the theme, with 6000 books overall throughout the hotel.

Because of this classification scheme, the hotel owners were sued in 2003 by the OCLC (owners of the Dewey Decimal Classification system). OCLC reached an agreement with the hotel enabling the hotel to continue using the Dewey system.

Hotel Denouement from Lemony Snicket's The Penultimate Peril

The Penultimate Peril

The Penultimate Peril is the twelfth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot:The book starts off where The Grim Grotto left off...

was modeled after the Library Hotel.

Room menu

Third Floor: Social Sciences

Social sciences

Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...

• 300.006 Law
• 300.005 Money
• 300.004 World Culture
• 300.003 Economics
• 300.002 Political Science
• 300.001 Communication

Fourth Floor: Language

Language

Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...

• 400.006 Ancient Language
• 400.005 Middle Eastern Language
• 400.004 Asian Language
• 400.003 Germanic Language
• 400.002 Romance Language
• 400.001 Slavic Language

Fifth Floor: Math and Science

• 500.006 Astronomy
• 500.005 Dinosaurs
• 500.004 Botany
• 500.003 Zoology
• 500.002 Geology
• 500.001 Mathematics

Sixth Floor: Technology

• 600.006 Health & Beauty
• 600.005 Computers
• 600.004 Medicine
• 600.003 Management
• 600.002 Manufacturing
• 600.001 Advertising

Seventh Floor: The Arts

• 700.006 Fashion Design
• 700.005 Music
• 700.004 Photography
• 700.003 Performing Arts
• 700.002 Paintings
• 700.001 Architecture

Eighth Floor: Literature

• 800.006 Mystery
• 800.005 Fairy Tales
• 800.004 Dramatic Literature
• 800.003 Poetry
• 800.002 Classic Fiction
• 800.001 Erotic Literature

Ninth Floor: History

• 900.006 Biography
• 900.005 Geography & Travel
• 900.004 Asian History
• 900.003 Oceanography
• 900.002 Ancient History
• 900.001 20th Century History

Tenth Floor: General Knowledge

• 1000.006 New Media
• 1000.005 Journalism
• 1000.004 Museums
• 1000.003 Encyclopedic Works
• 1000.002 Almanacs
• 1000.001 Libraries

Eleventh Floor: Philosophy

• 1100.006 Love
• 1100.005 Paranormal
• 1100.004 Psychology
• 1100.003 Philosophy
• 1100.002 Ethics
• 1100.001 Logic

Twelfth Floor: Religion

• 1200.006 Ancient Religion (Mythology)
• 1200.005 Native American Religion
• 1200.004 Germanic Religion
• 1200.003 New Age
• 1200.002 African Religion
• 1200.001 Eastern Religion