"Widely known as the 'annual budget dance,' every year the city’s fiscal budget presents huge budget cuts to libraries that are eventually mostly restored. Though the majority of the cuts are typically restored by the City Council, according to testimony given by all three library presidents, libraries today are $57 million below 2008 funding levels." Read the full story from Epoch Times.
“Free public libraries are more critical to the fabric of our democratic society than ever before. We are a digital bridge, a community hub, a center of lifelong learning and the place where new opportunities are realized every single day," Queens Library President and CEO Thomas W. Galante told TimesNewsweekly.com.
“We’re a place that everyone needs,” Queens Library President and CEO Thomas Galante told the Epoch Times. With 43 libraries in Queens already closed on the weekends, NYC's proposal to slash even more funding from the library's budget would end library service as we know it.