The Queens Library along with the Brooklyn Public Library and the New York Public Library are facing budget cuts by the city. Faced with hard times, the Queens Library is forced to close branches on weekends and reduce programming, library officials said. Effective July 1st, the city will reduce fundings to Queens Library by $13.9 million.
Like many Astoria residents, Elisia Greiner and her children use to browse through the Broadway library nearly every weekend. But since it’s been under construction for the past year, reading to her children there has become less frequent. “With all these budget cuts, that library will never be finished,” Greiner said. And then adds, “If they aren’t open on weekends, there’s really no place for people to go.”
The library system serves 2.2 million people a year at over 60 locations, plus seven adult learning centers. “With more than 450,000 people attending free programs offered by libraries, this is the worst time to cut the library budget because the people are using the libraries more than ever,” testified James Van Bramer at the Fiscal 2010 Preliminary Budget Hearing, Queens Library’s chief external affairs officer.
The cuts from the city funds about 80 percent of the library’s budget. “We’re taking this $13.9 million cut very seriously, unlike in other years,” Van Bramer testified.
This library budget cut will just devastate the Queens community.
For more information on what was said at the Fiscal 2010 Preliminary Budget Hearing on March 13, 2009, please visit:
http://www.queenslibrary.org/index.aspx?page_nm=From+The+Library+Director