QUEENS LIBRARY SERVICE HOURS AND STAFF SAVED FROM BUDGET AX

Mayor and City Council Stand Up for Libraries

JAMAICA, NY, June 29, 2011 - Queens Library CEO Thomas W. Galante announced today that $23 million of the proposed $25 million New York City budget cut has been restored. This is the largest funding restoration at budget adoption in history. It will ensure a minimum five-day-a-week service schedule in every community by averting a massive layoff of library staff. The proposed budget threatened nearly
500 jobs and would have closed more than a dozen libraries altogether
and reduced services to two or three days a week in most communities.

"Mayor Bloomberg, Speaker Quinn and the City Council demonstrated their tremendous commitment to quality library service. They kept public libraries a top priority during a most difficult budget. Every layoff has been averted so library doors can remain open to enrich the lives of New Yorkers," said Thomas W. Galante. "Without the support of these library champions, including City Council Member Domenic M. Recchia, Jr., Chairman of the Finance Committee; Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, Chairman of the Cultural Affairs & Libraries Committee; Queens Delegation Leader Leroy Comrie; Council Member Vincent Gentile, Chairman of the Select Committee on Libraries; and the entire City Council, this would not have been possible."

Activism and advocacy by the public let City Hall know how much quality public library services are valued by the community. In mid-June, hundreds of thousands of signatures on petitions and postcards protesting budget cuts were delivered to City Hall. Some 95,000 came from Queens.

Galante said, "We are turning our attention toward the opening of the new Children's Library Discovery Center, launching new and improved online services, piloting an e-reader project, installing easy-to-use self-service circulation technology, continuing the largest library renovation and expansion program in our 100+ year history, and providing all the programs and services that people rely on every day."