Should New York City's three library systems become one?

June 20, 2009 - 5:21pm — Anonymous Patron (not verified)

WNYC, a talk radio station in New York City, had a story wondering if it would be beneficial to combine the operation of New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, and Queens Library into one library system in order to save money.

Full audio clip of report can be found here.

Full transcript of the report can be found here.

Comments

June 22, 2009 - 1:37am — Anonymous

why I oppose combining the 3 systems

I'm not the one who posted "hell no" but having grown up in Queens I would say:

Citywide jurisdictions don't work well because of the size of NYC and its population, and wildly different conditions of the 5 boroughs.
It's blindingly obvious to me that the city's government is very Manhattan-centric. I doubt that Brooklyn and Queens libraries would get the same treatment as those in Manhattan. I can easily imagine the showcase libraries in Manhattan being kept afloat during a fiscal crisis while the outer borough libraries wither away.
Queens is the most diverse county in the U.S., so the ethnic communities would likely be shortchanged if libraries are managed in cookie-cutter fashion, as would be likely in a citywide system.

That said, the 3 systems should act more as a consortium for negotiating with suppliers, collection management, etc.

June 22, 2009 - 9:11am — birdie