This article aims to sort out the New York Public Library’s Central Library Plan and explore its implications for responsible innovation in libraries. The paper adopts the method of network investigation and historical research to collect and analyze the archives, reports and other primary materials of the New York Public Library’s central library plan, and sort out the background, main content and implementation process of the central library plan. The author found from the case study of the central library plan that to promote library innovation in the context of high-quality development, we must pay attention to: build a communication bridge to break the opacity of information; implement comprehensive considerations to predict positive and negative impacts; continuously adjust plans and learn from existing experience; stick to the organization's own duties and do not innovate for the sake of innovation.