Culture Chronicle

Public Libraries Besieged by Budget Cuts
Crain's New York Business - June 4, 2010
By Miriam Kreinin Souccar

The heads of three systems today begged the City Council to restore funding.

The heads of the three major library systems in New York City testified in front of the City Council today to try to stave off the biggest city budget cuts in their history.

The proposed cuts in Mayor Bloomberg's executive budget total nearly $75 million for the three systems, with the Queens Library facing a $17 million reduction, the Brooklyn Public Library facing a $20 million cut, and the New York Public Library facing a nearly $38 million decrease, 25% of its city funding.

"The proposed cuts are two and a half times the percentage reduction we got during the fiscal crisis when the city was bankrupt," said Paul LeClerc, chief executive of the New York Public Library. "We are looking at going back to 1975, when libraries were hardly open at all."

Already the Brooklyn and Queens libraries have made plans to lay off staffers. More than 300 employees in Queens were told last month that they may be laid off in August. Earlier this week, the Brooklyn Library followed suit, filing a warn notice with the State Department of Labor that it planned to lay off 344 staffers. For the full article, click here