The New York Public Library’s (NYPL) Library Services Center has a new home, and that’s right in Long Island City.
The 145,000 square foot, four-level facility, which is located at 31-11 Thomson Avenue, brings together four different library departments and will allow the organization to increase its efficiency in collecting and distributing materials.
“Having a world class institute like the New York Public Library chose Long Island City for a significant base of operations is another sign that Long Island City is the place the to do business in western Queens,” said City Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer, who represents Long Island City and is the Chair of the Cultural Affairs and Libraries Committee in the Council.
The new facility, which will be the home of departments that acquire, prepare, preserve and distribute library materials, is also equipped with the world’s largest automated sorter of library materials. The machine sorts 7,500 items an hour, doubling the capacity of materials the library can process.
Salvatore Magaddino, the NYPL’s Assistant Director of Logistics and Distribution, said that the 238-foot machine, which has 132 chutes and sorting locations, will be able to help sort the 31,000 items that come into this location everyday and are then sent out to 96 different NYPL branches.
“To do this by hand was ridiculous; it was very difficult to do and not enough hours or people to do it,” Magaddino said. “We can sort materials a whole lot faster now.”
Van Bramer believes that the increased efficiencies will not only benefit the NYPL, but ultimately the citizens that use it.
“I think finding new and more efficient ways to get the books and materials that people need and rely on is really important and this facility and obviously this incredible sorter will do that,” Van Bramer said.
The new facility cost the NYPL roughly $50 million, which included a combination of public funding from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City Council and private funding. The NYPL has branches in the Bronx, Staten Island and Manhattan.
