| 40 million - | Annual library attendance in New York City. This is higher than the total attendance of all of the City's cultural institutions and sporting events, combined. |
| 100,000 - | Nearly 100,000 school children visit New York City libraries every afternoon. This number of children would fill Madison Square Garden to capacity 5 times, or Yankee Stadium nearly twice. Libraries are the only FREE “after-school program” in every City neighborhood. |
| 98 - | 98% of the City's free, publicly-accessible computers are in public libraries. Many low-income families in New York City do not have home or work access to computers or the Internet, which is why they need access to public library computers. |
| 82 - | 82% of New Yorkers rate public libraries as good or excellent. Libraries received the highest customer satisfaction rating in Baruch College's 2000 survey of City services; higher than police, sanitation, or parks. |
| .5 - | .5% (one half of 1%) is the portion of the City budget that goes to public
libraries. By any measure, libraries are a bargain! |
Why The New York Public Library Matters:
| 49.36 million - | Number of items in The New York Public Library's collections. It's not just books (only 19.3 million are books). The Library has CDs, videos, comics, photos, magazines, designs - even baseball cards; and, of course, rare manuscripts. |
| 11 million - | Number of annual visits to the Library's website. People from 192 countries visit the Library's website annually, to search the catalogs, use the electronic databases, or browse the digital collections. (There are only 196 countries in the United Nations). www.nypl.org has 13,600 pages and 100,000 digital images. |
| 1,800 - | Number of computers available for public use. All of NYPL's 85 branches and the 4 research libraries have PCs with free access to hun-dreds of databases, the Library's catalogs, and a wide range of Internet resources. |
| 32,300 - | Number of programs held by the Library annually. Lectures, readings, performances, and films, among other programs, are held for every age group and every interest, for both enjoyment and learning. In Fiscal Year 2002, half a million people attended these, including nearly 4,000 technology training sessions. Nearly all are FREE. |
| 30,000 - | Number of people who have taken the "Click-on @ the Library" computer training
classes since the program began in March 2001. “Click-on” is one of the few FREE computer training programs in NYC. |
How Cuts Have Already Affected NYPL Library Service in FY 2003:
| $16.1 million - | City budget cut already absorbed by the Library for fiscal year 2003 (7/1/02
- 6/30/03) |
| 5 - | The number of days per week most of our 85 Branch and 4 Research Libraries
are now open. Even during the Great Depression, libraries remained open 6 and 7 days a week. |
| 260,000 - | Funding for more than a quarter million books per year has been lost. Imagine one long book shelf stretching from City Hall to Central Park without any books. 260,000 books, standing up on library shelves, translates into 8,666 shelves. That's a row of books 5 miles long. |
| 3,000 - | 3,000 fewer new books per branch will be purchased this year. With fewer new books to choose from, this means the typical wait for a best seller is now 470 people. |
| 100,000 - | Loss of publicly funded support for the Connecting Libraries and Schools Project
and the Summer Reading Program means 100,000 fewer kids will
be reached. Studies show that children who read even 1 book over the summer better retain their reading skills into the next school year. |
| 1,000 - | Fewer adults reached by literacy and ESOL programs. Many adult New Yorkers can't read or write well enough to read a bedtime story to a child, to understand directions on a medicine bottle, or write well enough to advance on the job. NYPL has lost 9 out of 22 (41%) of its literacy staff; enrollment in the classes is now down 20%. |
| 200 - | Number of staff members lost in 2002 through attrition and early retirement. That is just under 10% of all full-time employees. A hiring freeze means that they cannot be replaced. |
How the Additional Cuts Imposed on NYPL for FY 2004 will Impact the Library:
| 4 - | Number of days per week most of the system's 89 libraries will be open. |
What New Yorkers Can Do:
| $17 - | The average cost of a book (including processing and cataloging) in The Branch
Libraries. Every donation, no matter how large or small, can help The New York Public Library keep its shelves filled, its programs going, and its services uninterrupted. |
5/5/03