Each of these branches would be forced to cut one day of service each week, a major erosion of access and service. To upgrade the breadth and quality of our collections. Last year, your funding support for six-day service had a positive impact for the borough's residents, who continue to flock to our libraries. Being open six days a week enabled 8 million people to visit the Queens Library last year. We anticipate another record-breaking year.
Children continue to participate in our unique after-school programs in large numbers.
If any number of branches of the Queens Library were forced to close for even one additional day a week, these children would have no place else to go. In Fiscal Year 1996 we withstood a funding reduction and subsequent reduction in OTPS without having to reduce six-day service. Prior to that, other funding reductions in OTPS were never restored by the City, meaning that all new funds were targeted strictly for staffing so that we could maintain six-day service. Furthermore, the City has not provided any OTPS inflators in many years. What this all adds up to is that over the last few years we've had to use all our available resources just to maintain six-day service in all branches of the Queens Library.