Queens Library Calls For Donations To Keep Its Shelves Full

The Friends of Queens Library and the Queens Library Foundation are launching an emergency campaign to buy library books and other materials for library shelves. The campaign follows a drastic drop in the library's new materials budget, as public funding sources have fallen short.

Donations as little as $5 will help fill the shelves. The Friends of the Library are asking library-lovers to fill out an envelope available in the library or at local merchants' or to go online at www.queenslibraryfoundation.org.

Buy A Book donations of $25 or more entitle the donor to specify in which Queens Library to place the new book and a personalized bookplate with the name of the donor or someone he wishes to honor.

In 2008, Queens Library was able to purchase more than one million homework help books, best sellers, reference works, magazines and videos to lend, and they were gobbled up as soon as the library could get them on the shelves. This year, funding is available for a few thousand, at best. The Friends of the Library are determined to help enrich the educational and cultural lives of their neighbors, and to keep minds and library shelves full through their efforts.

There are more than 3,000 Friends of the Library who strengthen their community libraries in neighborhoods all over Queens. They play a key role in promoting library programs and services, volunteering and advocating. For more information about the Friends of the Library, phone 718-990-8585.

The Queens Library Foundation is the fundraising arm of the Queens Library. It supports the tens of thousands of free programs and services offered by the Queens Library annually. For information on supporting Queens Library on any scale, phone 718-480-4270.

Queens Library is an independent, not-for-profit corporation and is not affiliated with any other library. Queens Library serves a population of 2.3 million in the most ethnically diverse county in the U.S. With 23 million items in circulation for FY2010, the Library has among the highest circulations of any public library system in the world. For more information about programs, services, locations, events and news, visit www.queenslibrary.org or call 718-990-0700.