PLEASE TELL THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL NOW – NO CUTS TO LIBRARIES!

As you and so many other residents of Queens are aware, this past November the City enacted a $23.6 million mid-year cut to Queens Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library and The New York Public Library, forcing the three systems to end seven-day service late last year, and to reduce our collections, programs, services, and building maintenance and repairs.

Although libraries were spared from additional budget cuts for the current fiscal year, we are now facing a potential loss of $58.3 million for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2024.

Our staffing and resources are already strained, and a loss of this magnitude would undoubtedly result in significantly deeper service cuts. Unless City funding is fully restored, QPL will need to close our locations on Saturdays – eliminating a level of access to libraries that New Yorkers like you fought hard for in 2015. The loss of weekend service would be devastating to our communities. Last year alone, QPL locations had more than 880,000 visits on Saturdays and Sundays.

In addition, QPL would have to further scale back spending on reading materials, technology, programs, and building repairs and maintenance, and as a result of staffing shortages, to postpone the reopening of several branches that are nearing the completion of construction.

We are working hard with our City leaders to protect our funding for next year, but we need your support. We know from experience that your voices make a difference.

Please complete the form below to send an email urging the Mayor and the City Council to preserve $58.3 million in funding (it only takes a minute!). Your letter will remind our elected leaders of the indispensable role of New York City’s public libraries.

Thank you for standing with us.

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Dear Mayor Eric Adams, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Council Majority Leader Amanda Farías, Council Finance Chair Justin Brannan, Committee on Libraries Chair Carlina Rivera, and Council Member,

As you consider the City's spending priorities for Fiscal Year 2025, I respectfully ask that you work to restore funding to New York City's libraries, which were already forced to take a significant mid-year cut this past November.

This reduction has had devastating consequences for New Yorkers. It forced libraries to end seven-day service citywide and to decrease spending on books and other materials, programs, services, and building repairs and maintenance. At Queens Public Library, the end of Sunday service at Flushing and Central libraries has been an enormous loss for the communities they serve and beyond. Both locations offered wonderful activities and events for families, teens, children and older adults on Sundays. They also provided safe and inviting spaces where many people could go on a day of the week when they typically are off from work and school.

If the proposed cuts are implemented, QPL, along with Brooklyn and New York public libraries, would need to enact additional measures – including ending universal six-day service, further reducing spending on programs and collections, and delaying the reopening of renovated libraries – that would be deeply painful to our communities at a time we are counting on libraries more than ever.

You have demonstrated your commitment to adequately funding libraries and your understanding of the vital role they play in our neighborhoods and in our lives. I know you are facing tough decisions as the budget process unfolds, but I hope you continue to invest in libraries once again and fully restore their funding.

Thank you for your consideration.