Less Than 7 Percent Of Bayside Librarygoers Had Blocked Cards

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — Late fines will no longer keep Queens Public Library cardholders from checking out books; a policy change that New York’s library systems instituted this week in a push towards equity, since fines disproportionately impacted low-income librarygoers, including in Queens, data shows.

Before the pandemic, 101,723 QPL patrons who had racked up more than $15 in fines couldn’t check out free library books. This policy, however, has been put on hold since March 2020.

Queens cardholders with suspended privileges, pre-pandemic, disproportionately lived in low-income neighborhoods, including some in Southeast Queens as well as Corona and Elmhurst, according to data provided by the library.

At the Baisley Park branch in South Jamaica, for instance, roughly on in five librarygoers had a blocked card.

By contrast, whiter, wealthier neighborhoods were home to relatively fewer library patrons with blocked cards.

In Bayside, less than 7 percent of cardholders at each of the neighborhoods' QPL branches had suspended privileges, amounting to only 1.2 percent of the QPL patrons who had racked up more than $15 in fines overall, data shows.

Blocked cards by branch

At Bayside’s two QPL library branches — the Bayside branch, and Bay Terrace branch — only 6.51 and 6.76 percent of patrons had blocked cards before this week, data shows.

By contrast, the QPL branches with the highest percentage of suspended cardholders all had blocked-card rates that greatly exceeded the blocked-card rates at Bayside’s branches.

The Baisley Park and Averne branch, for instance, had blocked-card rates of 20.2 and 19.98 percent, respectively, which is three times the percentage of blocked cards at the Bayside branch.

Patch compared the top five QPL branches with the highest percentage of blocked cards to the percentage of suspended cards at the Bayside branches here:

But the QPL branches with higher-than-average blocked-card rates weren't just in Southeast Queens. Patch found that in the neighborhoods of Astoria and Long Island City, NYCHA librarygoers bore the brunt of area late fees.

‘A barrier to access’

City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, who represents Northwest Queens and chairs the council’s Committee on Cultural Affairs and Libraries, said that late fees were a barrier to access.

“Access to knowledge is one of the great opportunity equalizers in our society,” he said, adding that fees kept people from “check[ing] out books, and in many instances, it kept people from even visiting their local library.”

As Van Bramer has pointed out in the past, libraries are critical access points not just for knowledge, but also social services.

During the coronavirus pandemic alone, Queens’ 62 library branches have doubled as testing sites, and offered other basic services that not all patrons have at home, like Internet and air conditioning.

"During the pandemic, it was clearer than ever that we live in a Tale of Two Cities, with our most vulnerable citizens too often left behind," New York Public Library president Anthony W. Marx said in a statement, adding that abolishing late fines is central to making the city’s libraries more accessible.

The three New York City library systems have slightly differing rules about fees going forward, but all have eliminated late fines.

In Queens, the public libraries also eliminated collection fees, processing fees, and fees on book requests that aren’t picked up.

Patrons, however, will still have to pay a replacement fee if they check out library materials and don’t return them about a month past their due date. Librarygoers with $50 in replacement fees, or more than 20 overdue items, won’t be able to check out books, but can still use branches’ computers, e-books, and other digital services.

Find out more about QPL fines and fees here.