''I think people will be enchanted by a reading room in the park,'' said Mary K. Conwell, director of branch libraries for the public library, which is providing its expertise. She said that in a time of budget-cutting, it is useful to remind the citizenry of the importance of libraries, ''for traditionally, libraries are used more in tough times, because people don't have as much money to buy books and do other things.''

The outdoor library, with books donated by publishers, will be set up in mid-June in a tranquil oasis to the east of the entrance at 42nd Street and the Avenue of the Americas. It will be under a stand of maple trees near the statue of the industrialist William Earle Dodge.

The original reading room opened in August 1935, and was a collaboration between the public library and the Parks Department. It was staffed by five paid librarians employed by the Works Progress Administration, under the supervision of the library. By its second summer, it had attracted 64,624 patrons.

''There were few rules and regulations,'' Ms. Conwell said. ''People signed a card in each book, left it with the librarians, then put the card back when they returned the book.''

The original lending library was something of a Midtown institution, called the ''book beneath the bough'' program. ''Photographs show people dressed for business,'' Ms. Conwell said. ''Maybe some of them were office workers, but others could have been among the newly unemployed. We'll never know how many of them were too embarrassed to tell their families -- the ones who would dress for business in the morning, then come to the park and read.''