The $32.4 million, 32,000-square-foot library, which is projected to serve 1.2 million visitors annually, is now open. And to celebrate the official opening, CEO and president of Queens Library Dennis Walcott, Borough President Melinda Katz, and every civic leader and elected official within the confines of the district gathered together at the Elmhurst Community Library at noon on Tuesday for a ribbon cutting, followed by the official opening of the doors to consumers.
Originally, the Elmhurst Community Library, which had broken ground in 2011, was set to open in 2013. However the date continued to shift back. The 2013 grand opening was then set for spring 2014, followed by a set opening for spring 2015.
Assemblyman Francisco Moya (D-Jackson Heights) said the new Elmhurst Community Library is the most beautiful building he had ever seen in his life, and is “one of those buildings that will be cherished every time anyone walks by.”
This guy must not get out much if he thinks that's the most beautiful building in creation.
26 comments:
Sounds like Moya was trippin' balls.
Do people still go to the library anymore?
Yes it is another sanctuary for the homeless to congregate.
All of the world's information and literature is available on your smartphone.
Every student has a computer and tablets.
What a waste of moneys and resources...
It sounds like Moya grew up in a dirt floored adobe.
Grand Opening! Now its obsolete! Way to spend taxpayer money!
Should have sold the site for millions to a developer.
All of you should get out more often.
Walk into your library branch on a Saturday and especially in the afternoons during the week.
You'll be very surprised.
Talk is real cheap.
Put some "skin in the game" and see what goes on and you'll have a more informed perspective.
I have.
It is far more satisfying to curl up with an honest-to-goodness BOOK than a tablet. Not everyone can afford a tablet or a phone. Observant Jews cannot use electronic books on the Sabbath. Illustrations are much more visible in books than on phones. There are many reasons to have libraries other than "homeless shelters". That is the NYC reason, perhaps, but to eliminate libraries is reducing an important cultural benefit to people.
It always seems to me that the people here who expend the most verbiage on the lack of need for libraries are those who may have never spent a lot of time in one.
And no, not everyone has a smartphone or tablet, or has access to one.
Come on, you can purchase a tablet these days for less than $50. Who can't afford that? Observant Jew? Don't use a tablet on the Sabbath. Problem solved. Libraries are structures whose time has long since passed. Their numbers should be reduced. Heck, it would probably be cheaper to buy the masses a tablet than to keep these albatrosses open. - Alfster
This is Queens so forget all those lofy ideals on the purpose of a library. The library in Queens serves two purposes for the state (which has been hijacked by Joe Crowley and the gang):
1. a place to disseminate official information and to mold the public along official lines
2. a place for the library board to oversee capital contracts that pays a kings ransom from our taxes to, of example, put in a new smoking lounge.
Pretty sad how the rest of the city is making a drive to save their Carnegie Librarys and aside from a few old men getting a scant mention this one was torn down for a white elephant. I bet at the opening you had enought electeds and elected wannabees to pass legislation. Queens is SO in tune with everyone else.
Wow. I cannot believe the comments. First has no one on this site ever been to the Fresh Meadows or Flushing library branches. They are packed with kids and the libraries run many programs for the kids. There is nothing like looking at all the books on the shelves and pulling out the ones that look interesting to get a small child interested in reading. Libraries provide computer access for everyone. Many homework assignments specify that the bibliography cannot come from websites. Book sources are required too and the school libraries may only have a few copies of books on relevant topics. Libraries also rent dvds. And lets not forget all the senior citizens that use the library as a chance to get out of the house and read the current newspapers and magazines that the libraries have available. Libraries also have books in many languages.
Libraries are more important now that there are no more Barnes and Nobels bookstores in Queens. Searching Amazon for a book is not the same as holding that book in your hand and flipping through the pages to decide if you want to read it.
Most of these comments just make me sad.
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Those criticizing the libraries have liklely never read a book. There is still much information that you can't find on the net. Much of the information on the net is not vetted. Can you really tell opinion from fact? Can't exactly rely on Wikipedia when you're writing an academic paper.
Reading from electronic devices often causes headaches. The light is directly cast into your eyes. Reading from print material is more eyeball-relaxing in that the light is reflected.
Looking at a illuminated screen for extended periods would certainly mess up your vision. That's why mommy always told you not to sit too close to the TV.
Libraries are necessary, despite being utilized as nursery schools, exploited by officials (remember lincoln restler's meeting) and yes temporary shelter for the homeless, it's the last bastion to get information. Which should be a right as as well as a privilege for the tax paying public.
And the paper format will never die, inevitably, the general public will grow weary or wise up and put away their cellphones. Especially with the continuing hacking of personal finances and consuming and unconstitutional government mining of personal emails and messages.
You are out of touch.
I'd rather have my college class reading material loaded on a tablet than carry 15 pounds of books around with me.
So....easier to mark and review for tests. I get a printout or slide show of pertinent material at test time from the notes I underscored.
And why can't an observant Jew read Torah on a tablet? This is technical hair splitting religio-legalese nonsense!
Moses would have put the 10 commandments on a tablet instead of Sinai granite and run a slide show.
They would still be broken by many, either way.
This is ALL religious afterthought, concocted by some rabbis to assure control over their flock.
My tablet is not human. It is not a mule , which needs a rest on the sabbath.
These are archaic rules that have little to do with real faith.
Fine art books and specialty editions should and will remain on paper, for an exorbitant price.
Modern light reading crap is best read on tablet then erased.
Paperback clutter consumes space.
However, if you drop a book , it might get dented but won't break. And nobody wants to steal your book.
Enough said.
Technically weren't the Ten Commandments written on two tablets...?
Pardon me, your ignorance is showing, or maybe it's your libtard-oriented bigotry, Mr. Hair-splitting "nonsense" . Observant Jews cannot create a flame or extinguish a flame on the Sabbath. The Sages ruled that batteries are considered a flame for religious purposes, so it doesn't have to be an actual physical flame to be forbidden. That eliminates being able to use computer tablets to read books on the Sabbath. It is NOT to give an inanimate object, a computer tablet, a rest! Duh. Get your facts straight before you try to have a joke at others' expense, lest it boomerang right at you.
The Sabbath is the only time that a lot of observant Jews have to relax and read and not have to chase a living. So to dismiss their opportunity to take out library books to enjoy as archaic or to point out that tablets weigh less is just narrow minded.
The comments have nothing to do with electronic vs print, and everything to do with having the library an instrument of the state propaganda and its funding as a trough for the well connected pigs that run things to feast on.
Its like everything in this god forsaken part of NYC, its mobbed up with the boys from the Party.
Gimme a break, you "observant Jews".
You might be the ones causing havoc in Israel-Palestine with your own brand of narrow minded bigotry which can be intolerant and excluding of others' views.
FYI, Roman emperor Constantine would have welcomed pagan Romans becoming Jews instead of Christians (as he did) if it weren't for the ritual of circumcision. Are you a person of wrote religion or of true faith?
Following ritual does not necessarily make you a good Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, etc.
It's what is in your heart that counts and how you treat your fellow men and women. You cannot fool G-d with hypocrisy.
I once knew a mafioso who bent his knees every Sunday in a church pew. On weekdays he was the muscle for a loan shark.
What about the "house goy" named by observant Jews? Calling someone a "goy" or "Goyem" is a derrogitory bigoted term.
So much for you. Now I'm done with the lesson.
LOL. I have sage on my spice shelf.
Quite a few, to be exact. Plenty of "sages".
Get with the 21st century.
How do you know that Moses held the ten on two tablets? He might have used three.
Yeah...we've all seem De Mille's "Ten Commandments", so it must be so. And they both had arched tops too.
These great epics are ALL hand me down stories so we cannot confirm the as fact, not that it matters.
Bury your nose in either a book or a tablet or a "smart" phone and block out the world.
Then you can be easily exploited . Keep in touch! Psychiatrists couches are full of out of touch fantasy freaks.
We have to watch "reality shows" now, to keep in touch with reality.
Walk the ward. Enjoy music art and sex. Real sex, not setting.
That makes you human instead of a tech drone or book worm!
Typo...sexting not setting.
Damn tablet spell check Nazi program did not like my modern word usage.
Funny...any time somebody makes a comment regarding Jews or Jewish people...there is somebody always at hand to suggest "anti Semitism"!
Grow up and take criticism like a trooper. Nothing to do with ignorance or "Jew hating".
The same goes for so called accusations of African American bigotry.
WE ARE ALL AMERICANS. Great to pay honor to our heritage but let's not regress to nationalism or tribalism.
A lot of what a lot of people take as truth from religion is pure concoction..most of it written centuries later by people who where not there at the time these great religious events occurred.
I think the boomerang came back at you, not the thrower.
YOu can provide free wimax to the nabes, but the database vendors restrict access to people physically sitting in the library. Most intelligent information on the net isn't free, you have to pay, and the better your institution, the better your access
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