Among the victories, Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council are touting in the more than $100 billion budget deal for the upcoming fiscal year, is tens of millions of dollars of restored funding to the city’s three public library systems.

Philip Nami, a patron at the Central Library branch of the Queens Public Library system, said he has been visiting the library for 40 years.

Nami and other library visitors don’t have to worry about cuts to library services after hearing about potential cuts to funding for city libraries for months.

While announcing the city’s new $107 billion budget deal for Fiscal Year 2024 Thursday, Adams said city officials restored $36 million in proposed cuts to Brooklyn, Queens and New York Public Library budgets right before the deadline Friday.

“For libraries alone, we partnered with the Council to put in 36 million dollars,” Adams said. “That, along with labor costs, brings us to a higher level of funding in Fiscal Year 2024 than it was at adoption in 2023.”

Nami said he visits the library on Merrick Boulevard in Jamaica every day and does not know where he would go without it.

“I use it usually just to use the computer two hours a day,” he said.

“For Queens we were talking about eliminating Sunday service altogether,” said Dennis Walcott, president and CEO of the Queens Public Library system. “Really curtailing Saturday service, reducing collections as well.”

Walcott said jobs and critical services, particularly to low income communities, have been saved with the budget agreement.

“I call the library system the community’s living room. We’re there for the public,” he said. “We’re there to serve the public. We are the safe haven for the public, but even more importantly, we are the open democratic institution for the public.”

There is more than reading that goes on in libraries. For some people, libraries are a safe haven.  

“It’s fun being in the library,” said Muhsana Owens, a library user. “At least you get out of trouble, at least you get off the streets, at least you’re somewhere safe.”

For others, they provide the only opportunity some people would have to enjoy the services offered at a library such as free computers, internet and media services and community programs.

“Internet, different programs, different shows, the cultural stuff,” Nami said. “It’s like going to school and going to the library expands my horizons.”

Since 2015, the city’s three public library systems have also been promoting their #InvestInLibraries campaign, which has led to additional funding for programs and for addressing repairs of the city’s aging library infrastructure.