퀸즈도서관 시스템-2009 올해의 도서관

 

미국의 도서관잡지인 '라이브러리 저널'이 선정하는 '올해의 도서관상'. 2009년 올해의 도서관은 뉴욕의 퀸즈도서관 시스템으로 결정되었다고 '라이브러리 저널'이 밝히고 있다.

 

흥미로운 점, 그리고 주목할 점. 첫번째는 뉴욕의 공공도서관 시스템 속에서 이 퀸즈도서관 시스템은 3개의 독립적인 도서관 시스템(independent public library systems) 가운데 하나라는 점이다. 두번째는 이 도서관이 지역사회에 어떤 기여를 하고 있는가, 바로 그 점이 올해의 도서관상을 받게 된 이유라는 것이다. 세번째는 퀸즈도서관 시스템이 제공하고 있는 프로그램의 내용이다. "퀸즈도서관은 가족(문화)을 풍요롭게 한다"는 동영상을 보라. 동영상에 등장하는 어린이는 말한다. "나는 도서관이 참 좋아요!!!"

 

*사진 출처: http://www.queenslibrary.org/ 이 누리집에 들어가면 한국어로도 서비스가 제공된다.

 

기사에 따르면, 퀸즈도서관 시스템은 독립적이고, 비영리법인으로 다른 도서관과 특별한 연관을 맺고 있는 도서관이 아니다. 퀸즈도서관은 인구 220만 명을 위한 서비스를 제공하고 있는데, 이들은 미국에서도 가장 다양한 민족으로 구성되어 있는 사람들이다. 2008 회계년도의 도서대출 실적은 228만 점을 기록하고 있다. 이는 미국의 공공도서관 시스템 중에서도 가장 높은 수준일 뿐만 아니라 세계적으로 가장 높은 수준이다.

 

관련 동영상과 기사를 옮겨놓는다.

 

 

Queens Library Enriches Families

 

 

 

LIBRARY JOURNAL NAMES QUEENS LIBRARY
AS 2009 LIBRARY OF THE YEAR
Announcement at City Hall Shares News with All of NYC

JAMAICA, NY, June 12, 2009 -- Library Journal named Queens Library its 2009 Library of the Year. The announcement was made on the steps of New York’s City Hall by Francine Fialkoff, Library Journal's Editor-in-Chief and John N. Berry III, Editor-at-Large. It is the cover story of the publication’s June 15, 2009 issue. They were joined on the podium by leaders of City government. “Library of the Year” is an annual awards program of Library Journal, sponsored by Gale, part of Cengage Learning. Queens Library is one of New York City's three independent public library systems.

According to John N. Berry III in the article appearing in Library Journal, the recognition was given for the “abililty of the managers and staff to provide an incredibly diverse set of services and continue the constant modernization of the 62 libraries. Their sustained commitment to library service that truly improves the lives of everyone in the borough is what makes the Queens Library so strong.”

Queens Library CEO Thomas W. Galante said, “For homework help, for assistance in finding a job, to prepare to take a professional licensing exam or the citizenhip test, to learn English or to find a healthcare provider that will give a free mammogram and who also speaks Russian – that’s why the community relies on Queens Library. I hope that we will be able to continue providing innovative, award-winning library services and that the doors to Queens Library will remain open for service a minimum of six days a week.”

View a video detailing some of Queens Library’s award-winning programs at http://tinyurl.com/mbn4pd

Patrick C. Sommers, president of Gale said, “Gale is proud to support libraries through the Library Journal/Gale Library of the Year Award. Each year we are impressed by the important work libraries are doing in their communities, and this year is no exception. I have had the pleasure of working closely with Queens Library for many years and they have always been innovative and creative in their outreach to their community with efforts such as the New Americans Program and the Teen Empowerment Initiative. We applaud the Queens Library for their hard work and commitment to their community, providing the tools, programs and support to get the most out of their library experience.”

Special mentions for Library of the Year were also given to Columbus Metropolitan Library, OH; Hoover Public Library, AL and River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester, NY because they “feature the service philosophy and dedication to community that signify a Library of the Year.” The award will be given formally at a reception in Chicago in July, during the annual conference of the American Library Association.

Library Journal is the oldest and most respected publication covering the library field. Considered to be the “bible” of the library world, Library Journal is read by over 100,000 library directors, administrators, and staff in public, academic, and special libraries. It is the single-most comprehensive publication for librarians, with groundbreaking features and analytical news reports covering technology, management, policy, and other professional concerns. Its hefty review sections evaluate nearly 7000 books annually, along with hundreds of audiobooks, videos, databases, web sites, and systems that libraries buy. For more information, visit www.libraryjournal.com.

Queens Library is an independent, not-for-profit corporation and is not affiliated with any other library. The Queens Library serves a population of 2.2 million in the most ethnically diverse county in the U.S. With a record 22.8 million items in circulation for FY 2008, the Library has the highest circulation of any public library system in the U.S. and one of the highest circulations in the world. For more information about programs, services, locations, events and news, visit the Queens Library Web site at www.queenslibrary.org or phone 718-990-0700. Queens Library. Enrich Your Life ??.

Cengage Learning delivers highly customized learning solutions for colleges, universities, professors, students, libraries, government agencies, corporations and professionals around the world. Gale, part of Cengage Learning, serves the world's information and education needs through its vast and dynamic content pools, which are used by students and consumers in their libraries, schools and on the Internet. It is best known for the accuracy, breadth and convenience of its data, addressing all types of information needs - from homework help to health questions to business profiles - in a variety of formats. For more information, visit www.cengage.com or www.gale.com.

 

원문출처: http://www.queenslibrary.org/index.aspx?page_nm=Press+Releases

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Library of the Year 2009: The Politics of Excellence

Queens Library, NY

By John N. Berry III -- Library Journal, 6/15/2009

“Let there be no mistake. Public library service is a critical service that must be preserved. People need us, and we must continue to be there for them. We will fight every day to save the Queens Library this year, so that when this economy turns around we will be well positioned to expand library service to where it truly needs to be—open seven days a week,” CEO Thomas W. Galante said at a recent New York City Council budget hearing. For its daily delivery on that commitment, in both good and bad times, the Queens Library is the 2009 Gale/LJ Library of the Year.

Despite a current (FY08) budget cut of $5 million and the threat of reductions of nearly $20 million more in the next budget, the Queens Library has maintained massive and excellent programs of service and incredibly high levels of use by a public that lines up at every one of its 62 sites, every day, and occupies every space until it closes. The service includes some 23,000 free educational, cultural, and entertainment programs each year and a circulation approaching 20 million items. The Queens Library serves a population of 2.27 million, 55 percent of whom speak a language at home other than English—it is just one of the 160 different languages spoken in that diverse borough. No one in Queens lives more than a mile from a library branch.

Managing under fire

The administration and staff of the Queens Library do all this while discussing and developing scenarios and plans for FY09 budget reductions everyone hopes will be less than the $20 million threatened.

Queens's FY08 budget of $127.5 million affords the library $56 per capita. That budget pays for a full-time staff of 1150 and an additional 550 on hourly rates. Nearly 25 percent of them are “librarians” who hold the MLS. Many earned that degree while working at Queens, with tuition help from the library.

“It takes a lot of effort and time to scenario plan in the face of a huge budget cut. We do it in broad strokes up front,” says Galante. “We scheduled a week in June, as soon as we knew the number, to meet with our senior people to figure out what to do. In the meantime, we're planning different service models and service schedules.”

Despite huge cuts proposed by the New York City mayor's office, the city's three libraries have strong support from the speaker of the council, Christine Quinn. “We've met with [Quinn's] senior staff and city council finance. We know they are going to do all they can to help us out,” says Galante. “It is fair to say we'll get some funds restored, the only question is how much.”

The economy and the library

Planning for future cuts is complicated by the FY08 reduction. For one, the library has had a hiring freeze since October, and with the economic downturn, Queens has had very little staff turnover. Usually, about 12 full-time staff leave each month to go back to school or to relocate. Recently, there were no departures for several months, and only two or three people left in others. Galante sees the departure of five people in May as a sign of economic recovery, but the low turnover gives him few vacancies to use to lower personnel costs.

Moreover, says Galante, “We view our programs as basic services, not as temporary grant programs. So when budget cuts come, we don't just cut our programs.” Nonetheless, the FY08 cutbacks saw an art gallery at the central library closed to repurpose the space for patrons. The teen Internet Mentors program, through which mentors get paid $8 an hour to share skills with other patrons after school, was scaled back. The library's bookmobile, used for community outreach, was taken off the road.

“There has been pain this year, but at least we have maintained six-day service in every library and seven-day service in four, including the central library. We've kept our doors open as much as they have been for many years,” says Galante.

The worst-case scenario, $20 million gone, would mean half of the libraries would be open only two or three days a week. Galante's top priorities are to avoid layoffs and to keep library hours at their current level. “We'll need a large restoration to keep six-day service,” he says. “We have to be open Monday through Friday when the kids get out of school. Thousands come every day. They need the library,” Galante says.

“You don't want to close on the weekend. Classes are very popular then because it is a day off. A cut in hours limits public access to everything—the materials, the librarians, the computers, the programs, and the facility,” says Maureen O'Connor, COO at Queens.

Politics and budgets

“Most elected officials support the library, but they need all the help they can get from us and from citizens. The focus is to raise awareness of the value of public libraries. We show all we do and all the people we help. We rely on our government officials to help support us, so we don't take any jabs, no shots at people. That wouldn't be smart,” asserts Galante. “We do a lot of advocacy work. We do it smart, build relationships. Many elected officials tell us to rally, rally, rally, because it helps them support libraries when it comes to the budget negotiation.

“Libraries were given one of the highest satisfaction rates as one of the most important city services when the mayor did a citizen survey about six months ago,” Galante says with pride. He believes protests like one at city hall on May 28 help libraries get more support and help elected officials support them.

“If you can show elected officials something, most of them will get on board. For example, we have two new neighborhood libraries, [the Court Square branch] we redesigned with help from LJ. So we said to local officials, 'Wouldn't you like to have one of those in your district?' That's how we got 25 libraries redone. Five are opening soon,” says Galante.

The CEO and his team build relationships with all 45 elected officials who represent Queens. That includes 15 city council members, some 18 state assembly members, senators, and others. State aid is not much in New York, and it is in decline. Queens Library gets about six percent of its budget, or $6.5 million, in operating aid from the state.

State grants provide more, like two capital grants of $6 million each in the last two years for renovations. In the last five years, Queens Library has attracted $180 million through government sources.

Bang for the bucks

Part of proving the value of the library to citizens and officials and giving it a higher profile is making it more attractive and efficient. Galante's goal to renovate and expand every library continues apace.

“We have three new libraries in design right now, about to go into construction. We've completely gutted about 25 libraries and reconfigured the space to meet current service needs,” says Galante. “We're creating separate teen areas, ripping out circulation desks, and putting in self-service stations.”

Self-check machines at some facilities have eliminated long lines to check out materials at all the old circulation desks. People used to wait ten to 25 minutes for clerks to scan barcodes. The machines double the capacity, and there is always someone on hand to help users. Galante says that model has allowed staff to get out on the floor even though the facilities maintain information and service desks staffed by librarians.

The creativity in Queens extends to its integrated library system (ILS), which is being custom designed. “We're working with [Queens's current vendor] VTLS to build our own ILS using its system as a core,” states Galante. “We want to have real quality customer service, and the only way to have that in an online service arena is to be sure it is not driven by the vendors but by our own focus and our most forward thinking.” VTLS plans to take the system to market.

Galante's management style is a unique mix of future vision, current operations and staff, and political savvy to deal with the complexities of city finance in hard times. “The reason we do a good job is our people. The senior management team we have built does wonderful work,” says Galante. Every department head has moved up in the past few years.

Long term, Galante aims “to continue all our services and programs, keeping them current and providing great online service.” He expects every facility will be renovated and modernized in a decade.

Services & programs

The Queens Library staff are very proud of their programs that “attract users who hover on the edge.” They mean people new to the United States, who don't speak English, and those who “grew up poor and hopeless,” as Joanne King, associate director for communications, wrote in the award application. The library caters to those who are “not anchored in any of the traditional institutions and are neither in school nor employed.” They concentrate on programs that get jobs, support academic success, and help people lead healthy lives. There are also programs to promote entrepreneurship, aid folks in staying on the “right side of the law,” and provide access to health and human services in a variety of languages.

Very few, if any, other libraries provide programming as varied or massive as that offered at Queens. While many programs were begun with grants, Queens quickly evaluates new programs and if they work, immediately incorporates them into its vast array of core library services and its regular operating budget.

The New Americans Program, started in 1977, aims to encourage the use of the library by new immigrants, who are often leery of government institutions. The program, which has a resident demographer, identifies each new group arriving in Queens and builds services, including collections in the language of each group, to help them trust and be comfortable with the library and other “official” institutions.

Empowering teens

King calls the library's Teen Empowerment Initiative “the most audacious move on the organizational status quo ever attempted by the library.” As in libraries everywhere, at Queens thousands of “restless teens” arrive every day after school. Some bring homework, but most just come to hang out. They can be noisy, disruptive, and often take over large areas of a library, making it uncomfortable or threatening to other users.

“The first thing a lot of libraries do is add more security people. Our strategy is to hire youth counselors to work with the kids,” says Galante. He is obviously proud to have Lambert Shell, a former college basketball player who did a few years as a pro and went back to school to get his library degree, at the new Youth Enrichment Unit at Queens.

“Look, teenagers want a place to socialize, and we welcome them. Then we do programs to introduce them to the library. We get kids from all classes, from communities with high rates of foster care placements and others with families who own homes. They all need this kind of focused service,” says Shell. The programs work, Shell argues, because the kids themselves are involved in them and because the administration supports the programs at the highest levels.

So far so good: in FY08, the library held 4000 programs attended by 58,700 teens. There were no incidents in community libraries that once had daily visits by police.

The recession, however, has brought new challenges. “After-school programs that were funded are now closing,” says Shell. “It will get worse after a new budget year begins. We already see more kids coming.”

Model programming

The library's BOOST (Best Out of School Time) program, with funding from the Wallace Foundation, combines a safe haven with homework help and after-school enrichment emphasizing math, science, and literacy. Unattended children are targeted at all 62 Queens libraries, and 27 sites have activity assistants trained to move kids from fun to supplemental learning. BOOST currently serves 2200 kids every weeknight during the school year.

Queens began its Family Literacy Programs in 2003 with a grant from the New York State Education Department. That was when Susan Dalmas became adult literacy manager. The program, with some 163 parents and 200 children now enrolled at five sites, promotes literacy and lifelong learning, and it tries to give parents the tools they need to advocate for education services for their kids and economic viability for themselves.

The adult programs reach 5000 people a year and are growing. The adult learner program provides basic instruction to adults whose English proficiency is below the fifth-grade level. In addition to 500 formal registrants, others use the seven centers to improve literacy through self-study with computer programs and special collections.

The health literacy program offers basic literacy in health science or medical languages or jargon and refers those in need to health-care agencies and even assigns staff to take them there and help them deal with the agency.

The ESOL schedule at Queens serves nearly 3000 students every year in 100 classes at 24 locations. Some sections are earmarked for seniors, others for those who are illiterate in their native language as well as in English.

To introduce the library's business resources to those who manage and work in the 46,000 firms in Queens, the library runs its StartUp Business Plan Competition. In cooperation with the Queens Economic Development Corporation and sponsored by the Citi Foundation, the library awards prizes totaling $29,000 for the best business proposals. Applicants attend classes in planning, marketing, financial statements, and library resources for four months, then submit their plan.

In a library with more than 23,000 programs, these are just the tip of the iceberg. The library maintains the energy and drive for those and still runs a library system that is exemplary in the areas of popular collection development, reference, and adult and children's service and lends more materials than any other library in the United States.

Morale in hard times

“I'm always an optimist. It is part of the job to be a little bit of a cheerleader,” says Galante when asked how he maintains staff morale in tough times. A human resources director hired three years ago has built good relationships with the union.

“We do a lot of work on communication, to make sure staff are in the loop.” The CEO meets biannually with all the employees in groups of 150. It takes two weeks, and he is quick to say it is “not at all a speech.” He delivers about 20 minutes of “where we've been and another 20 of where we're going.” Then for 90 minutes, he answers questions.

“You can't leave until you ask some questions,” Galante tells each group. By the time they finish there are usually still a dozen hands waving in the air.

The next round of meetings might be a bit tougher. “The kind of budget cuts we're talking about are not just 'tighten your belts a little.' We've already done that and more,” says O'Connor. Keeping morale up isn't always easy.

It is not just managing under the gun that won Queens the Library of the Year Award. It is the ability of the managers and staff to provide an incredibly diverse set of services and continue the constant modernization of the 62 libraries. Their sustained commitment to library service that truly improves the lives of everyone in the borough is what makes the Queens Library so strong.

 

원문출처: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6663764.html?rssid=191