A Hotel Deal Gone, Patrons Want a Library Reopened.

A group of library users and residents of Midtown Manhattan are fuming over what they are calling the inept and heartless handling of the Donnell Library, which was known for its rich holdings of movies, music, foreign language materials and children's books until it closed last year. The New York Public Library shut the Donnell branch, which opened in October 1955, last August, as part of a deal announced in November 2007 to sell the building to Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. for $59 million. The five-story building, at 20 West 53rd Street, was to be razed to make way for an 11-story hotel, but a new library branch would occupy space on the first floor and in the basement. The deal fell apart in March, however, with the hotel company backing out, citing the financial and credit crises. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]