By Sewell Chan...
The Queens Library had 14.5 million users in 2006, far more than the city’s two other public library systems, the New York Public Library and the Brooklyn Public Library. As a result, although the three library systems receive city money in proportion to their populations, the city financing per library visit is considerably lower in Queens than for the other two systems, according to an intriguing new report from the city’s Independent Budget Office.
The six-page report [pdf], “Library Funding: Subsidies Rebound, Disparities Remain,” finds that operating subsidies for the city’s three library systems fell by 8.4 percent between 2000 and 2007, after rising fairly gradually since 1981. For the fiscal year that started this month, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, reached an agreement that allows branch libraries throughout the city to open on Saturday or expand their Saturday hours.
City money accounts for about 85 percent of the library systems’ budgets, so the libraries are particularly sensitive to fluctuations in the municipal budget.
This year, the New York Public Library, which serves Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx, received $106.6 million, or roughly 40 percent of the city’s subsidies for libraries. The remaining money is split fairly evenly, $78.9 million for Brooklyn and $76.9 million for Queens. All told, the distribution of city money among the library systems “generally reflects the share of the city’s population served by each of the systems,” the report found.
However, the reported noted, “The share of the city funding received by each of the three library systems is not closely aligned to their usage levels. Average city funding per library visit was considerably lower in Queens than for the other library systems. In 2006 Queens received $5.09 per visit by library patrons—roughly two-thirds the funding per visit received by Brooklyn and New York.”
The report suggests that the allocation of library money might need to be realigned to reflect the exceptionally heavy usage within the Queens system: “The comparatively heavier usage and the lower subsidy per user in Queens suggest that a closer look may be in order to see whether resources are sufficient to meet the needs of library visitors during periods of peak demand.”
Just why the Queens Library is so heavily used is unclear. Queens, the second-most-populous borough, has some of the heaviest concentrations of immigrants in the city; the library system is known for having exceptional foreign-language offerings, and many of its programs for young readers tend to draw children from immigrant households. Last month, the Queens Library opened a new branch, its 63rd, in Long Island City.
