5 ms·

I think it's just historical inertia. There's no real advantage to combining them since they mostly serve their local borough population. Each has their own cen

I think it's just historical inertia. There's no real advantage to combining them since they mostly serve their local borough population. Each has their own central branch which is a magnet for research on various topics. The NYPL is just so much larger in terms of collections so it outshines the others, but Queens and Brooklyn are really solid library systems on their own.

JackFr 6y ago
According to Wikipedia, the Queens Public Library is in fact the largest circulating public library in the country.
- embarcadero 6y ago
  "one of". It's unlikely to be bigger than NYPL, which has 92 locations to QPL's 62.
  - saalweachter 6y ago
    It's possibly bigger on number of patrons/items-lent-per-year. Queens has half a million more people than Manhattan.
    - bobthepanda 6y ago
      I know the Flushing branch is extremely busy, to the point where it's hard to find a place to sit inside it that isn't just the floor. My impression of the library systems is that Queens in particular does a lot of community events that aren't library related in the library.
    - embarcadero 6y ago
      NYPL services Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island. That's 3.5 million people to Queens' 2.25 million.