WAKE-UP!
Time is running out and the coming budget cuts will destroys years of hard work, mitigate years of branch improvements and prohibit the people of Queens from access to a free, best in the nation circulating public library system.
On Friday morning, June 4, the chief executive officer of the Queens Library, Thomas W. Galante went up the mountain!
Galante told a crucial gathering at the City Council about the impact the proposed $20.4 million in new cuts contained in the Executive Budget would have on the system.
Those enormous cuts coupled with additional losses of nearly $3 million in state aid and earlier budget reductions of nearly $8 million this year, paints a very grim picture.
Queens Library would be forced to:
? Close community libraries for the first time ever – 14 of 62 to be exact.
? 14 libraries are closed on weekends – 33 more will be forced to close on Saturdays this summer.
? Only Central Library in Jamaica will be open on Sunday.
? 34 branches would be closed four or five days a week.
? Just 12 out of 62 would be open five days a week.
? Only one library would be open six days a week.
? Service hours would shrink from the current 42 hours to 20 hours.
The real impact of these cuts is outrageous!
Literacy classes would be closed more than open. Thousands of students would have nowhere to go for help with their homework and a safe place after school. Tens of thousands of people would find their libraries closed. Only half as many books would be circulated to the people. Online access and Internet service would only be available half the time.
The Library would have to lay off many of its current staff – 412 more on top of the 70 positions eliminated since the hiring freeze in 2008. They have already cut the executive staff by more than a third and ceased purchasing over 200,000 books and other circulating materials.
Action has to be taken. Mayor Bloomberg, City Councilmembers, Albany legislators – You all must get going and make sure that the proposed cuts to the Queens Library’s budget do not happen. Only you can stop the dismantling of freedom.
