Queens Public Library www.queenslibrary.org/

Organization Overview:

The Queens Library is one of three public library systems serving the people of New York City. The Library serves a population of 2.2 million in the borough of Queens, the most ethnically diverse county in the United States. With a record 18.9 million items in circulation and in-person attendance of 14.3 million people in 2005, the library has one of the highest circulations of any public library system in the world. The library's services are spread throughout 63 locations and six Adult Learning Centers in Queens.

Projects:

1. Young Adult Librarianship: An Urban Library Experience (Up to Three Students)
This project will appeal to students who are interested in innovative library services for teenagers in inner cities and the challenges of the digital divide in low-literacy communities. The students will work alongside a young adult librarian in a branch of the Queens Library system where there is a grant-funded teen after-school program. Students will have an opportunity to visit New York City public school classrooms, take part in a library-school collaboration project, interact with teens and program staff and see examples of how a library deals positively with the "after-school problem." (For a recent example of teenagers in libraries making the news, see the article that appeared in the January 2, 2007 edition of The New York Times: "Lock the Library! Rowdy Students Are Taking Over." The American Library Association president responded with a letter to the editor printed in the January 8 edition; her letter includes a mention of the Queens Library.)

Participant Comments

"I did a school visit with my mentor. I also sat in on four different after-school programs (one for second-chance young men, one for conflict resolution, one for helping eighth graders research, one on animae). I presented one of my SI projects to the Queens Teen Staff. I was also able to sit in on a staff management training session, which was also insightful.

"I liked having the exposure to all of the different after-school programming. Some of it was simple entertainment, but a lot of it was going a long way to do some serious good in the communities.

"Working with the teens, seeing the conditions and attitudes they live in, the schools and libraries they work in, gave me an understanding into how hard it is for some of these kids to 'make it' scholastically -- and how important it is for the library to step up and give the teens a safe place where they can be comfortable, if it only means being a little loud and searching MySpace for a bit.

"The Queens Public Library was a great place to work and gave me a wide variety of experience and work.

"My supervisor, Laurel Sandor, was great. She was always willing to talk with me about decisions she made in regard to her programming and also to shed some light on the situations these teens come up in. "


2. Public Librarianship Smorgasbord (Up to Six Students)
This project will give students (two per location) a unique opportunity to see first-hand how library service is provided to communities in one of the largest public libraries in the country in one of the largest cities in the country in the most diverse county in the country. Students will shadow experienced and friendly librarians in neighborhood libraries. They will have opportunities to both observe and participate in library daily activities for children, teens and adults representing numerous countries. By the end of the week, participating students should have a better understanding of the literacy needs of immigrant communities, the challenges faced by large urban libraries and the ways in which libraries seek to meet these challenges and needs.


3. New Americans Program Immigration Resource Web Site (One or Two Students)
Students will work on developing content for a new Web site for the New Americans Program of the Queens Library by finding and selecting websites that are useful to new immigrants residing in the greater New York area. Selected sites should be evaluated and annotated and/or summarized in low literacy level English. Examples of appropriate websites are: NYC Department of Education site, NYC Mayor's Office of Immigrant affairs, other city agencies offering services of interest to immigrants, various national or local discussions on current immigration reforms, the history of immigration in NYC or in Queens, health insurance information, new language assistance regulations for NYC hospitals, local community organizations that reach out to immigrant groups, etc. For more information, please refer to the Hartford Public Library's Web page as a sample.