NYC ended 7-day New York Public Library service. So what has the impact been?
NEW YORK -- There is no longer 7-day New York Public Library service offered in New York City.
The move that saves the city $23.6 million-- but that number only amounts to 0.021% of the city's $110 billion 2024 fiscal year budget.
Every city agency received a 5% cut to their 2024 budget, including the library. Mayor Eric Adams announced the budget cuts in late 2023.
Librarians, patrons, city councilmen, and citizens are coming together to speak out against the citywide Sunday closures.
Queens Public Library patron Maggie Yaya told CBS New York that she learned to speak and read English through the resources offered at the library.
"I'm still working on the process for my English and I know I still have an accent. But at least I can communicate," said Yaya. "The library is a place you can find somebody, and just talk, listen, or not listen. But just somebody can look at you, say hi to you, make you to feel like a human being."
"You know, the libraries are one of the largest providers of adult education, of literacy, of afterschool programming of any entity in New York. And they do a phenomenal job with very limited resources and, unfortunately, these cuts are going to have devastating consequences," said Brooklyn City Councilman Lincoln Restler.
"To close [on Sunday], you're taking away community connection. People's connections with their neighbors, people's connections with other cultures, their connections with literature, the written word," said Urban Librarians Unite Director Lauren Comito.
"I need the services here because I'm poor. And I don't have my computer at home. So access to the equipment here is essential for me. I have the experience of homelessness," said Queens Public Library patron Philip Malebranche. "To me, the defunding of the libraries is an exacerbation of my own situation, for instance, and on people who are homeless or jobless."
"The library has something to give to everybody. And what the public needs to be doing right now, if they value that, is to be talking to their elected representatives and also to be an active library user," said Maryland Public Librarian Rachel Finston. "What we need is statistics proving that people use the library. If you go out and get a library card right now, you want a checkmark that tells people this library is valued. If you go out and check out a book, you are to add another hash mark that says 'Somebody is using this.'"
"The revenue for the city's budget is actually up right now. There's no need to make mid-year cuts that harm our communities," Restler said.
Many also worry for those most vulnerable in their communities when libraries shutter their doors on Sundays.
Adams announced on January 14th that public libraries would be spared a second round of cuts which would have forced libraries to shutter on Saturdays as well, but this is cold comfort for the patrons who feel they have already lost so much by cutting Sunday service.
"Where are we going to go?" said Yaya. "I hope the mayor can think twice. For us."
