Hats Off to Dr. Seuss! This morning, Jeff Gordon helped us set the Guinness World Record for “Most People Wearing Cat in the Hat Hats” at The New York Public Library!
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Enamored with 1920s typography. Pictured: One of the 5,000 maps we have in our Archives, covering the years 1639 to the present.
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The public library was a vital part of my childhood. Each weekend, it was the temple I attended.
— Author Diana M. Raab shares her memories of libraries, including those of Queens Library at Fresh Meadows (via queenslibrary)
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More people than ever using New York’s public libraries » MobyLives
- Of the ten branches in the city with the highest circulation, six are in neighborhoods in which immigrants make up a disproportionate share of the population: Flushing, Queens Central (in Jamaica), Kings Highway, Elmhurst, McKinley Park and Fresh Meadows.
- 37 percent of the city’s population is foreign born, around 60 percent of residents are either immigrants or children of immigrants and nearly a quarter of the population is less than totally fluent in English.
- 2.9 million city residents don’t have broadband Internet access at home.
- Since 2002, the city’s three library systems have increased their total number of public access computers by 89 percent, with number of users rising just as fast or even faster. In the last five years alone, the number of computer sessions logged at public computers in the city’s libraries has grown by 62 percent, going from 5.8 million sessions in 2007 to over 9.3 million in 2011. At NYPL alone, attendance at technology programs nearly doubled from 2003 to 2012, going from 30,000 to 58,541.
- At least 250 small businesses have been launched by clients that were advised at the Science and Business Library by mentors from SCORE(Service Corps of Retired Executives).
- The intensive literacy and pre-GED courses that the libraries offer—along with the many informal educational opportunities they provide—are critical in a city where nearly 30 percent of the working age population, or 1.6 million people, currently lack a high school diploma and which has one of the lowest GED attainment rates in the country.
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…in the new realities of today’s knowledge economy…it is difficult to achieve economic success or enjoy a decent quality of life without a range of basic literacy, language and technological skills. A distressingly large segment of the city’s population lacks these basic building blocks, but the public library has stepped in, becoming the second chance human capital institution. No other institution, public or private, does a better job of reaching people who have been left behind in today’s economy, have failed to reach their potential in the city’s public school system or who simply need help navigating an increasingly complex world.
— Center for an Urban Future, “Branches of Opportunity” (via queenslibrary)
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New York City’s libraries are open an average of 43 hours a week, about the same as a decade ago and down from a high of 47 hours. “Even the Detroit public library system stays open longer;” the report noted. Columbus’s libraries are open an average of 72 hours a week. Despite the relatively short hours, the study found, New York City’s libraries “have experienced a 40 percent spike in the number of people attending programs and a 59 percent increase in circulation over the past decade.” San Francisco’s government contributed $101 per capita to the city’s libraries, the highest of any city in the study, while New York’s library systems all received between $30 and $40 per capita, below Seattle, Boston, Detroit and others.
— As Use of Libraries Grows, Government Support Has Eroded - NYTimes.com (via infoneer-pulse)
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The contemporary library is about more than just digitizing documents and lending e-books to patrons on their Kindles and iPads.
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WNYC (via queenslibrary)
Well yes.
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Hurricane Sandy’s Austerity Lessons →
“While surely unintentional, this natural disaster has afforded those affected by it a small taste of how countless others around the rest of the world live – and many not just during a crisis, but on a regular basis.”My friend Lucine wrote a powerful essay on the importance of “altruism, charity, and solidarity in the face of adversity to guide and inspire us if and when disaster comes along.” A Thanksgiving must-read.
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“Interior view of the Pratt Institute Library, showing students browsing in the stacks. The Pratt Institute Library was built as a public as well as a college library, and was the first free Library in New York City. It was built by architect William B. Tubby in Victorian Renaissance revival style, with interiors by the Tiffany Decorating Company; the Romanesque-style Children’s Portico was added to the children’s entrance in 1912; the north porch was added in 1936 by John Mead Howells.”
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Happy Election Day!
(Photo from the Archives at Queens Library)
Remember to vote today!
Don’t know where your polling place is? Find out.
Feel like your vote is being suppressed? Report it to Mother Jones or call the FBI’s hotline at 1-800-253-3931.
Just a reminder to New Yorkers: because of the hurricane, you can vote at any polling place in New York state. If you are a resident of New York City or Westchester, Long Island or Rockland County, you can vote anywhere in the state of New York.
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NILDA, as a pioneering novel, captures the unique cultural experiences of New York’s Puerto Ricans in the 1940’s and therefore secures a solid place in the history of our literature as such. It still resonates decades later because its cultural depictions of family, love, individual pride, and resilience in the face of hardship still matter. (via LATINOPIA BOOK REVIEW NICHOLASA MOHR “NILDA” | latinopia.com)
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“I’m a librarian.”
“What’s your favorite part about being a librarian?”
“…the books.”Cool attitude.
And socks.
Hero among men, librarians.
(Source: humansofnewyork)
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A view of Space Shuttle Enterprise from the LJ offices.
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LIVE poetry event featuring Poet Laureate Philip Levine, 2012 Pulitzer Prize Winner Tracy K. Smith, and two fantastic poets from the Tumblr community: Saeed Jones and Karolina Manko.
This Monday, April 23, 7 pm, at Housing Works Bookstore in NYC. Open bar. Amazing poetry. Poet Laureate. Pulitzer Prize Winner. Poets from the Tumblr community. Put it on your calendar and come out to celebrate poetry with us!
Calendar marked.
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amiwithani on Bad Dollar, who sell short stories of a length to match the time of your commute.
