I'll confess right now that I get the warm fuzzies just walking past a library, so the opening of a brand-new branch of the New York Public Library in itself is enough to thrill me. What's even more exciting about NYPL's new Battery Park City library is that, like several other buildings in this quiet development at Manhattan's southwestern tip, it's green.

I took my kids to visit on opening day, and even on that overcast Monday morning the library felt naturally bright and airy. Huge windows line the building's two-story facade, and light pours in from across the wide, open street. The low-energy lighting system uses linear and compact fluorescent bulbs as well as super-efficient LED lights. Fixtures near the windows dim or brighten according to the amount and level of daylight streaming in. The project's architect, Tim Furzer of 1100 Architect, told me that his team would have preferred even more than the 15 percent energy savings they achieved on lighting, but the library mandated a minimum light level throughout the space.

My kids made a beeline for the cushioned nook under the sweeping cement staircase, flopping down onto the orange 100-percent-recycled-polyester cushions with relish. Orange ottomans, stuffed with recyclable polystyrene beads, dotted the children's section like giant gumdrops.

The library's wooden floors are made from window frame scraps, the carpeting comes from truck tires, and the woodwork is made from recycled cardboard composite. The library will use at least 30 percent less water than other facilities of its size and type and is expected to earn LEED-Gold certification. The NYPL's first green library, the Bronx Library Center, completed in 2006, is LEED-Silver certified.

On Monday, a few kinks were still being worked out. An enthusiastic toddler -- not mine, I swear -- managed to pull down an entire bookshelf (made from recycled steel and framed with a solid-surface material created out of post-industrial plastic waste). A touch-screen monitor that displays real-time water and energy use didn't seem to be working yet, despite the best efforts of my team of expert screen-touchers.

I was also surprised to notice a distinct "new carpet" smell upstairs in the reading area, where a solitary woman with a magazine glared at my romping, crowing toddler. ("There's a children's room downstairs," she hissed at me. I was so preoccupied by the smell that I failed to respond.) All carpeting, paints and solvents in the library are low-VOC, meaning they release low amounts of smelly and potentially harmful chemicals into the air. Furzer says the smell I noticed was due in part to the carpet being made from truck tires -- it did, in fact, smell faintly rubbery -- and that the odor will dissipate quickly. I trust everything will be ready for the grand opening on Thursday.

My kids were most appreciative of the new things in the library, namely, the spine-crackling new books and an unblemished copy of Dora's First Trip on DVD. I did feel a twinge of regret that our green library visit culminated in bringing home brand new swag. But then I reminded myself that libraries are the ultimate recyclers. We'll bring the books and videos back next week to be reused, again and again and again.

Photo: Children's area of the NYPL Battery Park City branch, courtesy Tim Furzer