Queens Public Library at Queens Village — Attraction in New York

The library was awful. The cursing and yelling by a particular staff member shocked me. The outrage with something as simple as forgetting your library card was uncomfortable. Asking for help with the copy machine felt like a crime. Not knowing a procedure to return a book got a sneer. Unsurprisingly, kids hated coming here. So ....i'll admit....I made some calls and sent some emails. Yes, yes I did. Quite a few actually. This is our library and we have a right to enjoy it. I grew up loving this library with my friends. We used to come in to escape the heat as kids. Eventually I reached 2 very important people and now there is new management. And I'd do it again. There has been noticeable improvement, not perfect but a definite adjustment. I think many were in a rut and needed to be refreshed. It happens. A few people are resistant and still need to be reminded that they are there to perform a service to the community. But with some time, I think things will only improve. Hey, some of the staff may even start to smile when they remember why they took the job, find their joy again. To help others grow in education is a noble position.

Have hope. Bring the kids! I know most people I have talked to said their kids have been afraid to come here. No more. I hope the kids return. They may have to do some local advertising and damage control to get kids back, offer some fun programs, kids yoga or arts and crafts, reading hour, movie days, maybe some sing a longs or family game days like family bingo with light refreshments.

Looking forward to a better library not only for us, but the staff. We are all hard working people in this neighborhood and people deserve happiness. And if it ever goes back to where it was before, which was pretty horrific, I'd call again. I dont need to be liked (although who doesn't like being liked), but I do need to attend a friendly, happy library.

Keep the improved reviews coming. Shout out to the library staff for all they do. It is really appreciated. It's not easy to deal with so many public personalities. But if we all work together we can enjoy our...

I grew up in Queens Village and spent many hours at this library as a child and was looking forward to re-engaging with the library after many years away (I am now in adulthood).

Unfortunately, unlike my childhood experiences where I always found my visits to the library to be enjoyable my recent experiences were pretty awful primarily due to the interactions with the women who sits at the main desk and from my assumption is responsible for helping individuals check-out materials and answer questions about the library.

The woman is hostile towards patrons and seems annoyed when asked questions of any nature pertaining to the library. Her behavior and demeanor is extremely surprising for someone working at a library and is atypical of any experience I have ever had visiting any library throughout my childhood/adult life.

My first interaction with this woman was so poor that I was determined to avoid interacting with her at all costs on all subsequent visits and while I was fairly successful in achieving this I happen to overhear her interactions with a young man (10-11 years old) and found her to be equally hostile towards him.

It’s very disturbing to think that a child’s library experience could be shaped by the negative interactions with someone like this so I would implore the management of this library to strongly reconsider who they allow to be customer facing and provide training to those individuals who are customer facing so that they understand that a library should be a SAFE place where people can ask questions, learn about services, and engage with learning materials NOT be treated with hostility or made to feel like they shouldn’t bother the staff.

In a world where there are so many sources of division and hostility a public library is the last place one would expect to encounter...

I went to the queens village branch on 7/14/22 at around 2:30pm to get a physical library card and check out some books. The woman working at the front desk was rude, inattentive, and a bit racist. I stood in front of her for 5 minutes waiting for her to be done on her phone so she could get me started on my library card process and when she finally started helping me she was very short and seemed annoyed to be there. I asked her if she could help me find the book titled “The Push” by Ashley Audrain (a white Canadian author) and she immediately told me (a black woman) to go look in the black experience section. I was confused because the book has nothing to do with the “black experience” and felt she just wanted to dismiss me. I went back to her and asked her to look it up because I don’t know why it would be in that section, and she didn’t even remember the title I asked for, meaning she wasn’t really listening in the first place. She finally looked it up and told me they didn’t have the book. If I hadn’t asked she would be perfectly fine wasting my time. I will never come back to this library, the service was...