These sustained increases in the use of our resources present an ongoing challenge to the City to continue and enhance the financial support needed to provide and expand the service levels so heavily in demand. In addition, two Adult Learning Centers would be closed and 81,000 books would not be purchased. Reductions in the Connecting Libraries and Schools Project, aimed at meeting our goal of increased literacy among our children and youth, would occur and forty thousand children would be turned away from our latchkey program as a result of reduced hours of service. Further reductions in our facilities budget to maintain facilities and keep them clean would result in less safe and clean libraries. With the help of the Queens delegation to the City Council and Borough President Shulman, the Queens Library is strong and poised to continue to deliver quality library service to the people of our borough well into the 21 st century.
New funding is needed to hire additional staff to meet current customer demand.
The necessary funding would simply provide for the same ratio of staff to customer visits for FY01 as was provided in FY94. Otherwise, the quality of service provided to each of our 17 million visitors this year will deteriorate. More visitors serviced by the same number of staff means less time to assist customers and longer lines to obtain service. The new Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center opened in December of 1999. The new facility is 15,000 square feet, doubling the former 8,000-square foot facility.