Open Libraries Every Weekend

The Queens Library is celebrating its 100th anniversary this month and we extend our best wishes for a hundred more years of serving the needs of all of our borough residents - adults, children, immigrants and the elderly.
We are proud of our libraries and the tremendous job they do with more than 6.8 million items in its collection - circulating 20 million items in 2006 - and recording attendance of nearly 14 million visitors. Now more than ever, “Libraries are about much more than just books,” according to George Stamatiades, a Queens Library board member.
In order for Queens Library to become one of the highest circulating systems in the world, officials believe more branches must be open on the weekends. We agree and we want to see all 63 branches open on Saturdays and Sundays.
In 1994, the system increased its hours and staffing, putting most of the borough’s branches on a five-day schedule with some open six days a week. Currently just six libraries are open on Sundays and only 16 on Saturdays.
That is not good enough now or for the future when the borough is expected see a significant population increase over the next decade. The system must expand its hours to better serve the needs of the new residents and their families.
All it will take to achieve this worthy goal of seven-day libraries across the system is money - just $11.3 million to be exact.
The City Council provides 80 percent of the library’s funding costs - $80 million in 2006 - with the New York State legislature allocating more than $7 million to Queens Library.
The State of New York recently announced a $1.5 billion budget surplus. We say to Governor Eliot Spitzer, send some of those surplus dollars to the Queens Library and open all of our libraries on weekends.
“If we had the funding, three to four months from now, we could start adding hours,” Tom Galante, Queens Library Executive Director said. “It would take six to nine months to implement the whole thing . . . And within a year, we’d have it all sorted out,” Galante added.
Currently the system has had to opt to stay open late on weekdays to best service the students with after-school hours rather than weekends for working adults. With the additional funding, they would not have to choose one type of patron over another.
We implore not only the City Council and State legislature to dig a little deeper to make this attainable dream a reality but we call upon the private sector and even private citizens to make donations toward this worthy cause. Donated dollars add up fast and can make dreams come true.
Help your neighbors, friends, families and co-workers who want to grow and want to learn. Let us all work to make this our present to the Queens Library on this, its 100th birthday.