Donnell Library Closes This Week, So a Hotel Can Be Built.

After 52 years as one of the most heavily used branches of the New York Public Library system, the Donnell Library Center, on West 53rd Street, will all but close at the end of this week. A small circulating collection will remain open, in the basement, through the end of August. Then the building will be razed to make way for an 11-story hotel. When the $220 million hotel opens, sometime in 2011, a new Donnell library will occupy part of the first floor and an underground area, coexisting with hotel guests paying $750 to $2,000 per night for a room. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]