Updated

The New York Public Library's majestic Rose Main Reading Room will be closed for the next six months while its ceiling is inspected and repaired.

The Wall Street Journal (http://on.wsj.com/1skPAf5 ) reports that a plaster rosette fell from the reading room's 52-foot-tall ceiling at the end of May.

The ceiling is adorned with murals of billowing clouds and decorations molded in plaster.

The reading room, roughly the length of two city blocks, features long oak tables lit by bronze lamps. It attracts 2.3 million visitors a year.

The reading room and the adjoining Blass Public catalog Room will be closed for a full-scale inspection of both ceilings.

Services previously located in the reading room, such as book requests, will be handled on the second floor's central corridor.

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Information from: The Wall Street Journal, http://www.wsj.com