‘Unsustainable’: QPL head warns that cuts could bring further woes to Queens’ libraries

Queens Public Library President and CEO Dennis Walcott testified before the City Council on Tuesday as he and other library systems face budget cuts. Photo by Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit

By Ryan Schwach

Double the wait times to check out books, over 100,000 potential Sunday visits lost and dozens of early closures or delayed openings – Queens' public libraries are in dire straits after struggling through several months of budget cuts, officials said on Tuesday during a City Council budget hearing.

And it’s only going to get worse, library officials warned, as the city’s three library systems face further cuts.

Officials from the city’s three public library systems including Queens Public Library testified before the City Council’s Finance Committee on Tuesday that the cuts to their systems have greatly diminished their ability to serve their communities. Together, the libraries face nearly $60 million in cuts in the mayor’s executive budget, which was unveiled in April.

Dennis Walcott, the CEO and president of the Queens Public Library system and lifelong Queens resident, stressed the struggles QPL has dealt with for months as the system continues to look down a barrel of cuts.

Walcott said that the cuts have forced the libraries to cut Sunday hours, lose visitors, cut the amount of books they have and institute a full hiring freeze.

Under the mayor’s executive budget, the Fiscal Year 2025 budget for the Queens Public Library system would be $121.5 million, a full $8 million cut from the actual Fiscal Year 2024 budget, which in itself saw a $4.9 million cut from the previous year.

In total, Queens Public Library is facing $12.9 million in cuts going back two years, which is around 9.6 percent of its 2023 budget.

The initial cuts from 2023 to 2024 led to the ending of Sunday service in most libraries across the city, which Walcott called a “travesty” on Tuesday.

“New York City, the greatest city…in the world, has no library that is open seven days a week,” he said.

Walcott said that QPL missed out on around 120,000 visits just on Sundays alone.

“That's not all,” he added. “The three systems also had to slash budgets for books, programs, building repairs and maintenance.”

Following the cuts, QPL calculated that they reduced their book collections by around 25,000 books and 5,000 ebooks, while wait times for the latter more than doubled.

On top of that, budget cuts have led to what Walcott called a “very soft” hiring freeze where QPL “basically have stopped hiring,” which has caused staffing shortages.

Those shortages, Walcott said, has led to early closures or delayed openings on 27 different occasions.

“We really have to deal with moving staff from point, to point, to point, to point to cover that and then you have people who are retiring, as well as people who just decide to leave,” said Walcott. “Those are all the vacancies that we have to manage.”

“This is unsustainable,” he added.

On top of the cuts, Queens libraries have also seen increased costs, Walcott said.

“The [library systems] are facing these losses while also confronting uncovered increased costs stemming from minimum wage and contractual increases, rising health insurance costs and more,” he said.

Walcott detailed the worries and struggles QPL faced amid that $4.9 million cut, even before the additional $8 million in cuts in the mayor’s budget were proposed.

“Unfortunately, and sadly, this is only the beginning,” he said.

Should the additional cuts hit, projects will have to be delayed and libraries could have to head to a five-day week.

While the cuts have so far not caused any branch closures, it could halt the re-opening of a few branches, including the Broadway, Bay Terrace and Hillcrest branches.

“We're going to have to stop a number of them, and again, it's the uncertainty of knowing what amount of money we'll have available to us,” he said. “That's part of the challenge as far as the status of the capital funding at this point.”

But some library projects will be unaffected by the cuts, the library leader said. The restoration of the Corona and Laurelton branches, and construction of the new Far Rockaway branch are currently on track.

Should the cuts go through, however, those libraries and the rest in the borough besides the central library in Jamaica and the Flushing branch may have to close on Saturdays, as well as Sundays.

“Closing on Saturdays means we will be unable to offer…events, and many other indispensable programs on Saturdays like ESL classes, storytimes, job skill training and other crucial resources,” Walcott said.

While Walcott’s testimonies and that of his counterparts at the Brooklyn and New York Public libraries, articulated the troubles the systems are facing, they already had the support of the councilmembers questioning them.

“I think you could tell you're preaching to the choir, but it's important that the city understands what's at stake here,” Finance Committee Chair Justin Brannan said.

In their budget response earlier this year, the council called for the reversal of all the cuts the libraries got in last year’s budget and could get in the upcoming one.

Public library heads stressed to the City Council on Tuesday that budget cuts could lead to more staffing and resource shortages that, in turn, could lead to less library availability for the public. Photo by Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit

“Cultural institutions and libraries are pillars of our city’s neighborhoods that the City Council has been a steadfast champion for supporting in the city budget,” said Council Speaker and Queens member Adrienne Adams in a Tuesday statement.

“The cultural and creative economy generates $110 billion in economic activity for our city,” she added. “Libraries are among our most precious public resources, serving as community information hubs that provide programs and services for New Yorkers of all ages. The only way to remain the cultural capital of the world and to restore adequate library service to neighborhoods is for the City to invest in these beloved institutions.”

Prior to the library leaders’ testimonies, advocates and other councilmembers rallied outside of City Hall, calling for the restoring of the systems’ budgets.

“Libraries are the beloved pillars of our communities, providing not just education and youth services, but forming the community foundations for public health and safety,” Queens Councilmember Tiffany Cabán said. “The mayor’s decision to gut libraries is shameful; Mayor Adams is playing politics with our community’s well-being.”

Despite the heavy push back, Mayor Adams has not caved yet on the cuts to libraries. At the very end of his administration’s media availability on Tuesday, Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer said budget negotiations regarding the libraries continue with the Council.

“The administration has been 100 percent committed to libraries,” Torres-Springer said. “Of course, we're going to continue to work with the City Council through the adopted budget to make sure we build on those successes and get to the right place to continue to support libraries.

“It's an ongoing conversation, but we want to make sure we are doing the right thing, both in terms of fiscal stewardship and supporting our amazing libraries,” she added.