Queens Library Newsletter Thanking Officials Backfires

Jennifer Pinkowski -- Library Journal, 12/14/2007

In July, New York City restored $42.7 million in library funding, returning six-day library service to the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library, and the Queens Library. But the Queens Library is being criticized for a little too much enthusiasm in thanking officials for the funding. Earlier this month, Queens Library distributed 16,000 copies of a special edition of its bimonthly newsletter, Library Matters, in which Mayor Mike Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and 17 City Council members, mostly from Queens, were thanked for supporting the funding restoration. About 9000 copies were sent to library supporters and the rest went to the system's 63 branches. 

Citizens Union, a government watchdog group, criticized the newsletter for "promoting" politicans, according to the New York Sun, which published a copy of the newsletter. Even some officials pictured in the newsletter were dismayed; City Council member Tony Avella told the newspaper it was "really over the top." In response to a Citizens Union report in October criticizing self-promoting advertisements, last month the council voted 48-1 to institute new restrictions that prohibit officeholders from using public money for self-promotion. Queens Library spokeswoman Joanne King defended the newsletter's enthusiastic approach. "The library is thanking the city council, the mayor, and the speaker's office for restoring six-day service," she told the  Sun. "We need to let library users know who is supporting their needs." Then again, as the newspaper pointed out, the other two systems in the city were more modest in their praise.