Executives at New York City’s public libraries said on Thursday that a potential “breaking point” may still be on the horizon — possibly ending Sunday operations and six-day service at several locations — despite a recent about-face from the Adams administration on another round of cuts.
Libraries across the five boroughs still face a budget shortfall of more than $36 million for the upcoming fiscal year based on Mayor Eric Adams’ budget proposal, which would force the three systems — Brooklyn, Queens and New York Public Libraries — to pull back on filling vacancies for critical positions.
Library leaders said this would hamper weekend operations and eliminate Sunday service altogether, as well as threaten other operations, including mobile libraries and services for newly arrived migrants.
“This cut may be the breaking point,” Linda Johnson, president of the Brooklyn Public Library, said at a City Council hearing on Thursday.
Johnson said the cuts to Brooklyn libraries alone would force “permanent reductions in staffing that lead to reduced hours and days of service,” as vacancies would go unfilled in the interest of long-term survival. Johnson said the approach was “not sustainable.”
The Queens Public Library system and the New York Public Library — which covers Staten Island, the Bronx and Manhattan — would make similar efforts to rein in staffing, imperiling operations and spreading workers thin in ways that could have lingering effects for communities.
“If we have to cut the Saturday service, then that means that the mobile library won't be going out on Saturday to the community,” said Dennis Walcott, president of the Queens Public Library. Resources aimed at assisting migrants would be among those in peril. “It's not just the buildings. Those types of services will not be available to the public at large.”
Adams in early April floated an additional round of cuts that piled onto the anxieties of library leaders, who had already fired warning shots months earlier over a multimillion-dollar budget reduction across the three systems.
In the wake of the new round of cuts, which directed all agencies to slash their budgets by an additional 4%, library leaders said they would be forced to end six-day service and Sunday operations at branches offering it.
The development was first reported by Gothamist. Adams backed off the cuts soon after.
A statement from the mayor at the time of the reversal said that city officials had found a way to work around the cuts “without taking a single penny from our library systems.” But library officials clarified that the funding restoration only spared them of the latest round and they would still struggle with a deficit of several million dollars.
Amaris Cockfield, a spokesperson for the mayor, cited the ongoing arrival of migrants to the city as a reason for the cuts.
"It’s easy to pretend the city has unlimited resources, but irresponsible spending puts New Yorkers at even greater risk," Cockfield said. "This administration has made critical investments in the city’s three library systems and recognizes the vital role they play in our communities. We will continue to work with our libraries throughout the budget process to evaluate their needs, but, to be clear, the libraries were exempted from the January and April savings programs, and were asked to achieve savings without layoffs or services cuts in previous rounds.”
Anthony Marx, head of the New York Public Library, said libraries are expected to do a lot more than lend books.
“The mayor calls us the Swiss Army knife because we serve so many needs — a small piece of the budget, so many needs met through this incredible set of institutions,” Marx said on Thursday, noting libraries’ role throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and with helping newly arrived migrants. “And we are proud to do so, but we can only do so if we have the funding and the staffing to be open.”
