Librarian in Residence – Goethe-Institut New York

Three for All

The branch libraries are on my program in the upcoming days. In my entries, I hope that I don’t mention too much of what Bernd Merker already posted in his “summer blog.” Well, possibly there are new people reading the blog and also new aspects.

There are 63 locations which in addition to the Central Library in Jamaica take care of the entire borough. Three representative regional directors share the management. They are responsible for all the areas that are under the responsibility of the branch librarians. That is above all matters of personnel management and all further administrative issues of the location in general. The
neighborhoods and thereby the actual and potential public are not always easy to “identify.”

The most famous-infamous is surelyFar Rockaway. It’s not only the location in the outermost southeast section of Queens that makes it a place that is far from the so-called civic framework. Reports of shootings or other criminal assaults there are not infrequent. Who can make it here in library work can make it anywhere.

More about that tomorrow, because I’ll be visiting in Far Rockaway then with Nick Buron, one of the three regional directors.

Whoever wants to learn more about the work there now, a current article in the New York Times with the headline "Urban Fiction Makes Its Way From Streets to Libraries" is recommended.

American librarians in this field often have fewer reservations.