The Hunts Point Library in the South Bronx uses only two of the three floors in its Italian Renaissance building, which was built in 1929 with money from the industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The quarters are so cramped that adult classes in English and computer skills spill over into the children’s area.

The top floor — built as a custodian’s living quarters — stays empty because there is no money to repurpose it into what the library needs now: a career and education center.

So library patrons like Norma Delgado have to make do with less. “I would love it if the library got more space, because I would take classes Monday to Friday,” said Ms. Delgado, 57, an unemployed home health aide from Ecuador who takes English classes twice a week to improve her chances of finding a job.