The Queens Public Library (QPL), also known as the Queens Borough Public Library and Queens Library (QL), is the
public library for the
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle A ...
of
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
, and one of three public library systems serving
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. It is one of the largest library systems in the world by circulation, having loaned 13.5 million items in the 2015 fiscal year, and one of the largest in the country in terms of the size of its collection. According to its website, the library holds about 7.5 million items, of which 1.4 million are at its central library in
Jamaica, Queens. It was named "2009 Library of the Year" by ''
Library Journal.''
Although it was organized in 1858 on a subscription basis, the original Central Library on Parsons Boulevard in Jamaica was opened in 1930 and later expanded with a four-story Renaissance Revival themed architecture. Dating back to the foundation of the first Queens library in
Flushing
Flushing may refer to:
Places
* Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom
* Flushing, Queens, New York City
** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens
** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens
** Flushin ...
in 1858, Queens Public Library has become one of the largest public library systems in the United States, comprising 62 branches throughout the borough. Queens Public Library serves Queens' population of almost 2.3 million, including one of the largest immigrant populations in the country. Consequently, a large percentage of the library's collections are in languages other than
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, particularly
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
,
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
,
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
and
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
. Queens Public Library is separate from both the
New York Public Library, which serves
the Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
,
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, and
Staten Island, and the
Brooklyn Public Library, which serves only
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
.
History
The first library in Queens was founded in 1858 in
Flushing
Flushing may refer to:
Places
* Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom
* Flushing, Queens, New York City
** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens
** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens
** Flushin ...
as a subscription service. It became a free circulation library in 1869.
In the late 19th century, several local libraries were founded in western Queens. The libraries in
Astoria,
Long Island City and
Steinway
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a ...
formed the Long Island City Public Library in 1896, becoming Queens' first multi-branch library. In 1901, shortly after the consolidation of Queens into
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, the city government proposed a new charter joining all libraries in Queens into the Queens Borough Public Library. All of the public libraries signed on, except for Flushing, which remained independent until 1903.
The Queens Borough Public Library was officially incorporated in 1907.
Due to the wide variation in population density in Queens, in 1906, the Queens Borough Public Library established small branches in store-fronts and shopping areas under the Traveling Library program. With these branches, Queens Library grew swiftly, eventually opening major branches in almost every Queens neighborhood.
The original Central Library on
Parsons Boulevard
Parsons Boulevard is a road in Queens, New York. Its northern end is at Malba Drive in the Malba neighborhood and its southern end is at Archer Avenue in downtown Jamaica.
Route
The road stretches for nearly six miles, divided into four segmen ...
in
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
was opened in 1930 and expanded with
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
funds in 1941. It was a splendid four-story Renaissance Revival building. In spite of its elegance, it was too small for the demand and was replaced by a new, more spacious facility in 1966, through the persistent efforts of the Library Director, Harold W. Tucker.
$240,000 donated by
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
was used for the construction of seven new
Carnegie libraries between 1904 and 1924 in the most heavily-populated areas of the borough. Four of these buildings (Astoria, Poppenhusen, Richmond Hill and Woodhaven) are still in use. They are characterized by their stately solidity and expensive decorative details. The Carnegie-era Flushing Branch was demolished for a more modern building in the 1950s, and the Far Rockaway Branch was destroyed by fire in 1962.
Library branches were added slowly as the borough's population expanded. By 1946, Queens Borough Public Library had 44 branches plus the Central Library and a very active
bookmobile.
Many additional branches had been approved to be built between 1954–1965, but were not completed due to a
New York City fiscal crisis. Additional funds were given to the library system by the federal
Library Services and Construction Act
The Library Services and Construction Act, enacted in 1964 by the U.S. Congress, provides federal assistance to libraries in the United States for the purpose of improving or implementing library services or undertaking construction projects.
The ...
to finish the Central Library, Flushing and Far Rockaway branches. In the 1990s interest in completing the proposed branches was revived. In 1998, the new Queens Borough Public Library at Flushing was opened, and 4 other branches were opened between 1999–2007. The Queens Library was allocated more than $269 million in capital funds between fiscal years 2005–2013.
The Queens Borough Public Library was renamed the Queens Library sometime in the past. In April 2019, it was renamed again to Queens Public Library, with the new tagline "We speak your language".
Administration
Queens Public Library is governed by a 19-member Board of Trustees, which are appointed by the
Mayor of New York City and the
Borough President of Queens. The Mayor, Speaker of the City Council, Borough President, the
New York City Comptroller
The Office of Comptroller of New York City, a position established in 1801, is the chief financial officer and chief auditor of the city agencies and their performance and spending. The comptroller also reviews all city contracts, handles the s ...
and the
New York Public Advocate
The office of New York City Public Advocate (President of the City Council) is a citywide elected position in New York City, which is first in line to succeed the Mayor of New York City, mayor. The office serves as a direct link between the wiktio ...
sit on the board as ''
ex officio'' members. The library is funded by the city, through
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
and federal grants, and through private
philanthropy.
Dennis Walcott was appointed President and CEO in March 2016.
Branches
Queens Public Library has 62 locations, seven Adult Learning Centers, two Family Literacy Centers, and a Mobile Library.
Central Library
Central Library was the first major branch of an urban library to place all public services on one floor. The library cost $5.7 million and contained of floor space. The library was renovated and expanded in 1989. Additional renovation and expansion was expected to be completed in 2013. A new
Children's Library Discovery Center, adjacent to the main library, was designed by
1100 Architect and opened in 2011.
Central Library includes resources that support education and research through the college level. A local history collection (The Archives at Queens Library) houses thousands of photographs, books and ephemera having to do with the history of Queens and the four counties of Long Island. Other special collections include job search/readiness information and training and consumer health information.
International Resource Center
Queens Library at Flushing is home to the International Resource Center (IRC). It contains books, magazines, CDs and DVDs that represent cultures from all over the world. Queens Library at Flushing has collections in many non-English languages, including
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
,
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
,
French,
Gujarati
Gujarati may refer to:
* something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India
* Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat
* Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them
* Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...
,
Hindi
Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
,
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
,
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
,
Punjabi,
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
,
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
, and
.
Black Heritage Reference Center
The
Langston Hughes Library in
Corona
Corona (from the Latin for 'crown') most commonly refers to:
* Stellar corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun or another star
* Corona (beer), a Mexican beer
* Corona, informal term for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 di ...
is home to the Black Heritage Reference Center, which contains materials "written by, about, for, with and related to Black Culture." It is the largest collection of materials dedicated solely to Black culture in New York State.
Archives at Queens Library
The Archives at Queens Library, formerly known as the Long Island Division, is a special collection in the Central Library building that focuses on the history of Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk counties. The Archives was first founded in 1912. It consists of books, publications, current and historical newspapers, family manuscripts and genealogical material, historical maps and atlases including Belcher Hyde and Sanborn Company maps, late 19th- and early 20th-century photographs, as well as other archival material.
![Woodhaven Library 20190208154630244](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Woodhaven_Library_20190208154630244.jpg)
The
Queens Memory Project, a digital archive which aims to record and preserve contemporary history across the borough of Queens, is a collaborative effort between Queens College and Queens Public Library that includes digitized materials from the Archives.
Programs and services
![QBPL Chess players cafe 20180426 200027](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/QBPL_Chess_players_cafe_20180426_200027.jpg)
Queens Public Library has long had a variety of services to aid children and teens.
STACKS
18 Queens Public Library branches participate in the STACKS program, a core-curriculum based after school enrichment program. The program aims to provide homework materials, homework tutors, and monitors. Every Queens Public Library branch also provides an assortment of enriching activities and clubs for children and teens daily.
Services for new immigrants
Queens Public Library has long been a leader in using library services to help new Americans acculturate. Popular reading and multimedia collections are available in all major immigrant languages in Queens. Coping skills programs and cultural arts programs are conducted in the immigrant languages to attract newcomers. Thousands of people attend free formal classes to learn English and attend informal conversation groups to improve their fluency. Family literacy programs take an inter-generational approach to learning English and include practical information about living in NYC. Programs in civics education, Pathways to Citizenship, programs to help foreign-born professionals gain U.S. certifications, and many other educational, informational and cultural programs make Queens Public Library a model for libraries worldwide.
Services to job seekers
![Main desk 20180426 200032](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Main_desk_20180426_200032.jpg)
Queens Public Library offers intensive assistance for those who wish to find employment and/or upgrade their job skills. Free services include in-person and online job skills assessments, workshops on dozens of topics that improve computer literacy skills, online learning that leads to professional job skills certifications, resume review, interview preparation, job search assistance. Through a partnership with Workforce 1, job placement assistance is available at the Flushing branch, and near the Central Library in Jamaica.
Consumer health
Queens Public Library offers consumer health information at all library locations. Through Queens Library HealthLink and Queens Library ConnectCare, library users will receive assistance in finding free or low cost health screenings and/or appointments with primary healthcare providers, regardless of insurance.
See also
*
List of New York Public Library branches
The New York Public Library system includes libraries in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island. This page is organized by borough, and alphabetically. The boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens are supported by their own separate library systems.
Res ...
*
List of Brooklyn Public Library branches
The Brooklyn Public Library consists of a Central Library, a Business & Career Library, and 58 neighborhood branches in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Eighteen libraries are historic Carnegie libraries. The Brooklyn Public Library also h ...
Notes
External links
Queens Public LibraryQueens Public Library ArchivesQueens Library Fact Sheet updated Mar. 2016
{{Authority control
1896 establishments in New York City
Libraries established in 1896
Libraries in Queens, New York
County library systems in New York (state)
Education in Queens, New York
Federal depository libraries
Public libraries in New York City
Tourist attractions in Queens, New York