May 27, 2014 By Christian Murray
The Queens Library will be starting a mobile library service in Hunters Point this Saturday, which is expected to be in operation until a physical library is built on Center Boulevard.
The mobile library will be parked next to Gantry Plaza State Park (Center Blvd at 48th Avenue) each Saturday starting May 31 and will operate between 8:30 am and 5:30pm. The service will offer books and materials for all ages, as well as two computers for public use.
Residents will be able to borrow and return books in a similar fashion as if they were going to any other Queens Library.
The plan is to have the mobile library operate all year round– although it will not be in service July 5. “We are likely to keep it there until the [Hunters Point branch] library is built,” said Joanne King, a library spokeswoman.
The Hunters Point Community library should have been completed by now. However, the project continues to face delays as builders have been unwilling to erect it for the $28 million on offer—and it could still be years before it is completed.
Library location
“The Hunters Point community deserves a world class library and we are very much looking forward to seeing that vision become a reality,” said Mark Christie, President of the Friends of Hunters Point Library, a local advocacy group that is working with the Queens Library. “While we wait on the bricks and mortar we are so pleased to have the mobile library service.”
The Friends of Hunters Point Library is launching a children’s “pop up” program that will start this Saturday and will run through August 23. The “pop-up” will feature arts & crafts, story readings and a host of other activities between 11 am and 2 p.m each Saturday–except for July 5.
The “pop-up” will be located in the park near the mobile library.
Additionally, Food cellar, located at 4-85 47th Rd, is about to offer residents a “take a book, leave a book” service in partnership with Urban Libraries Unite. Residents will be able to go to the supermarket, take books out of a mini-library and return them based on the honor system.
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2 Comments
Doesn’t ‘library’ now mean “public building with free wi-fi?” Hopefully the design allows many uses, beyond the uses of traditional libraries.
Wonder how long it will be before they either give up on the design of this library that is so expensive it can’t be built or will they just plop a regular library in that beautiful empty lot? Frankly, my opinion is that the space could be so many other wonderful things, i.e. Performance space?