By Michelle Han
Queensborough Public Library, the nation's largest library system, will need more than $250 million to upgrade old, cramped buildings and to build more libraries to meet a rapidly growing book-borrowing population, a survey by the state Education Department showed.
The report, released Feb. 7, estimated that nearly $800 million worth of construction would be needed for the state's 15 public library systems. The Queensborough Public Library led the pack with an estimated $252 million needed to upgrade wiring and Internet technology, expand book collections, and make buildings handicapped accessible, officials said.
But on the local level, Mayor Giuliani last month proposed cutting $12 million in city funding from the Queens Library's allocation.
In previous years, the City Council has restored funding to many of the programs cut by the mayor and Queens representatives have said they would do the same this year.
A number of expansion and renovation projects are planned for libraries throughout the borough, including expansions at branches in Corona and Jackson Heights.
A new Long Island City branch is being designed that will consolidate the Ravenswood and Queensbridge branches, requiring an additional total of $3.2 million for construction and library materials in the fiscal year 2001, Robert Waters, director of capital program management told the Borough Board at a hearing earlier this month.
The Glen Oaks library, built in 1958, will need more than $5 million in fiscal year 2001 for the construction of a new building, Waters said, and the Cambria Heights branch needs an additional $1 million next year to move forward on a new building.
And the Ridgewood branch needs $750,000 next year to fund a major renovation project bringing the building in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Waters said.
As the most heavily used public library system in the nation, some 50,000 people visit the system's 63 sites every day, checking out 53,000 items, said Patricia Flynn, a Queens Public Library trustee.
She said at least $600,000 is needed each year just to maintain the library's collection and to cover the costs of inflation alone.
According to the Education Department, 73 percent of New York City's households use the public library, higher than the national average of 65 percent.
