Queens Public Library: Internationale Nutzerschaft und Discovery Center für ...

The borough of Queens is home to New York City’s largest immigrant population. Things change so quickly here that Queens Library has a staffer who devotes herself to the borough’s demographic alone. She advises the more than 60 branches, on which language collections are necessary and which events would be appropriate (New Americans Program, language courses, Russian Evenings, etc.). The Library’s website is offered in English, Chinese, Korean, French, Russian and Spanish, and all librarians who work in the "New Americans Program" must be able to speak at least one language besides English – a sign of how seriously the library takes the needs of its patrons.

The Central Library is currently being renovated. The renovation is undertaken in four stages, and the first stage, a new Children’s Library, has already opened. It is wonderful! Offering materials that speak to the various senses, it is a place that encourages learning, reading, and play. The Library worked in part with museum educators to develop such innovations as:

- a map of Queens on the floor of the library. When one walks on it, one hears the sounds that are heard in that part of the city (birds in the forest, airplanes at the airport).
- the Discovery Center, which offers opportunity for interactive scientific experiments. Science students are engaged on an hourly basis to conduct workshops with the children. In addition to the experiments’ superstructures, there are also books to further reading on the scientific themes.
- an aquarium with fish and a fish telephone children may use to learn more about the fish.
- display cases with visual representations showing DDC classification sections.
- questions that are dispalyed on shelves. Children can solve them with the bystanding books.
- E-Book readers with children's books, available for loan, that also read out loud (audio files).
- a number of new and creative events offered to children, including one on photography, during which children take photographs and then tell the stories that goe with them (in the process they learn camera techniques and how to present to a group), and others on building robots, gaming, and scientific experiments (see above).

Children are encouraged to try things out for themselves, to ask questions and then find the answers themselves. And this, in my opinion, is a very good style of learning for all, not only for children but also for older students.

Fred Gitner, assistant director of Queens Library, tells me that 40% of people living in Queens have a library card. This kind of success, I believe, speaks for itself.