Executives at New York City’s public libraries said on Thursday that a potential “breaking point” may still be on the horizon — possibly ending Sunday operations and six-day service at several locations — despite a recent about-face from the Adams administration on another round of cuts.
Libraries across the five boroughs still face a budget shortfall of more than $36 million for the upcoming fiscal year based on Mayor Eric Adams’ budget proposal, which would force the three systems — Brooklyn, Queens and New York Public Libraries — to pull back on filling vacancies for critical positions.
Library leaders said this would hamper weekend operations and eliminate Sunday service altogether, as well as threaten other operations, including mobile libraries and services for newly arrived migrants.
“This cut may be the breaking point,” Linda Johnson, president of the Brooklyn Public Library, said at a City Council hearing on Thursday.
Johnson said the cuts to Brooklyn libraries alone would force “permanent reductions in staffing that lead to reduced hours and days of service,” as vacancies would go unfilled in the interest of long-term survival. Johnson said the approach was “not sustainable.”
The Queens Public Library system and the New York Public Library — which covers Staten Island, the Bronx and Manhattan — would make similar efforts to rein in staffing, imperiling operations and spreading workers thin in ways that could have lingering effects for communities.
“If we have to cut the Saturday service, then that means that the mobile library won’t be going out on Saturday to the community,” said Dennis Walcott, president of the Queens Public Library. Resources aimed at assisting migrants would be among those in peril. “It’s not just the buildings. Those types of services will not be available to the public at large.”
Adams in early April floated an additional round of cuts that piled onto the anxieties of library leaders, who had…
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