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New York City is going through a heat wave, and Queens Public Library is here to help with special hours of operation this weekend!

Eighteen QPL locations will be open on Sunday, July 21 from 12 pm to 5 pm to serve as NYC cooling centers. (This includes the three branches regularly open for Sunday service and 15 branches with special hours due to the heat emergency.)

Cooling centers are places where you can enjoy free air conditioning during dangerous heat conditions.

Additionally, QPL has partnered with Lyft to provide free rides for people traveling to and from three library branches serving as cooling centers. Customers can travel to and from our Arverne, Corona, and Rochdale Village branches during their hours of operation between now and July 21. Rides can be accessed using the code NYCCOOL19. The code is valid for two rides, up to $15 each.

If you need a cool place to visit this Sunday, stop by one of the branches below to pick up a great book, use a computer, and more—and stay for the air conditioning!

Queens Public Library Locations Open Sunday, July 21 from 12PM to 5PM

Arverne Library
312 Beach 54 Street

Astoria Library
14-01 Astoria Boulevard

Bayside Library
214-20 Northern Boulevard

Bellerose Library
250-06 Hillside Avenue

Broadway Library
40-20 Broadway, Astoria

Central Library
89-11 Merrick Boulevard, Jamaica

Corona Library
38-23 104 Street

Flushing Library
41-17 Main Street

Hollis Library
202-05 Hillside Avenue

Howard Beach Library
92-06 156 Avenue

Jackson Heights Library
35-51 81 Street

Kew Gardens Hills Library
72-33 Vleigh Place, Flushing

Long Island City Library
37-44 21 Street

North Forest Park Library
98-27 Metropolitan Avenue, Forest Hills

Richmond Hill Library
118-14 Hillside Avenue

Ridgewood Library
20-12 Madison Street

Rochdale Village Library
169-09 137 Avenue, Jamaica

St. Albans Library
191-05 Linden Boulevard

Thank you to Mayor Bill de Blasio and his administration, NYC Emergency Management, and our staff for helping us stay open at these branches to serve our community.

If you need to find another Cooling Center closer to you, please call 311 or visit http://www.nyc.gov/beattheheat.

Above: A family shows off their new books courtesy of the JetBlue vending machine.

Last week, JetBlue installed a free book vending machine at Central Library as part of its Soar With Reading initiative, which promotes literacy and reading. The vending machine is full of children’s books, which customers can take home to start their own libraries. Every two weeks this summer, different books will become available in the machine. The vending machine has books for children ages 0-14, ranging from picture books to young adult titles. There is also one title for adults. Individuals are invited to take as many books as they would like.

Today, a special storytime featuring local author David Erza Stein celebrated the launch of the machine. Stein, the author and illustrator of 17 books, read from three of his books, including Dinosaur Kisses, which is available both from the vending machine and from Queens Public Library. He also read Interrupting Chicken and the Elephant of Surprise and Hush Little Bunny. The enthusiastic audience of children and parents enjoyed the storytime, lining up afterwards for autographs from the author and to collect books from the vending machine. After storytime, children went to the Children's Library Discovery Center to make a dinosaur craft.

Every spring, trees and plants release pollen into the air and this pollen can trigger an immune response.

This process is commonly referred to as “having allergies.” Dr. Joseph Cooke from NewYork-Presbyterian Queens shares the following tips to help individuals who may suffer from allergies.

“Allergies affect millions in the U.S., and while is there no way to avoid irritants like pollen entirely, there are simple solutions to mitigate allergic reactions,” explains Dr. Cooke.

1. Check the pollen index. Get in the helpful habit of checking these pollen counts daily. When the pollen count is high, consider limiting your outdoor exposure.
2. Know when pollen counts are the highest. Pollen counts tend to be the highest during midday hours. Try to schedule usual outdoor activities and exercise in the morning or late afternoon.
3. Change the filters in your house regularly. Air filters make a big difference in air quality. Make sure you’re changing out your air and furnace filters as recommended to reduce irritants in your home.
4. Leave your shoes at the door. Keep the allergens out of your house by taking off your shoes as you enter your home. Additionally, change out of your work clothes and keep them away from your bed.
5. Understand your allergy. There are around 30 different types of pollen and it is possible to be allergic to more than one type. If you regularly suffer from allergies, you may want to consider asking your doctor about taking an allergy test.
6. Use antihistamines two hours prior to sustained outdoor activity. If pollen counts are high, and you cannot avoid staying outdoors, use antihistamines two hours prior to outdoor activities to reduce allergy symptoms.
7. Select the right vacuum. A vacuum with HEPA-filtration technology can help remove irritants from the home to reduce the chance of breathing in pollen or dust.
8. Opt for the air conditioner. Fresh air in the home and car after the winter season seems nice, but for those with allergies, it might not be practical. If the pollen count is high, close your windows and consider turning on the air conditioning.
9. Make “spring cleaning” a season-long habit. During the spring season, we are constantly bringing irritants into the home. When pollen counts are high, be extra diligent about personal hygiene, washing your clothes, and cleaning up the house.
10. Consider eye drops and nasal rinses. Using saline eye drops and rinsing the nasal passages with a saline solution can reduce irritation, nasal congestion, and drainage throughout the day.

NewYork-Presbyterian Queens, located in Flushing, New York, is a community teaching hospital affiliated with Weill Cornell Medicine, serving Queens and metro New York residents. The 535-bed tertiary care facility provides services in 14 clinical departments and numerous subspecialties. Annually, 15,000 surgeries and 4,000 infant deliveries are performed at NewYork- Presbyterian Queens. With its network of affiliated primary and multispecialty care physician practices and community-based health centers, the hospital provides approximately 162,000 ambulatory care visits and 124,000 emergency service visits annually. For more information, visit nyp.org/queens.

One of the hardest things about living in New York City is staying cool during the summer. If you don’t have air conditioning in your home or your apartment, especially during a summer heatwave, please visit your local library!

All public libraries in New York City serve as official “cooling centers” during a heat emergency. Cooling centers are places where you can enjoy air-conditioned comfort. They are free and open to the public, even if you are not using their services. You can always call 311 or visit nyc.gov to find the nearest cooling center.

NYC Emergency Management will let the public know when a heat emergency happens, such as an unusually hot day, or several hot days in a row.

If you need a cool place to visit, or if you are at risk for heat-related illness, we are here for you.

Stop by your local branch of Queens Public Library this summer for great books, programs, and more—and stay for the air conditioning! To check any changes in the status of the air conditioning at your local library, please contact them directly.

Protect Your Health During a Heat Emergency

• If possible, stay out of the sun. When in the sun, wear sunscreen (at least SPF 15) and a hat to protect your face and head.
• Use an air conditioner if you have one. If you do not have an air conditioner, keep rooms well ventilated with open windows and fans. Fans work best at night, when they can bring in cooler air from outside.
• Consider going to a public pool, air-conditioned store, mall, movie theater, or a free NYC cooling center (like your local library).
• Wear lightweight, light-colored, loose clothing that covers as much of your skin as possible.
• Drink fluids—particularly water—even if you do not feel thirsty. (People with heart, kidney, or liver disease, or on fluid-restricted diets, should check with their doctors before increasing fluid intake.)
• Never leave children, pets, or those who require special care in a parked car during periods of intense summer heat.
• Avoid strenuous activity, especially during the sun’s peak hours—11 am to 4 pm. If you must engage in strenuous activity, do it during the coolest part of the day, usually in the morning between 4 am and 7 am.
• Cool showers or baths may be helpful, but avoid extreme temperature changes. Never take a shower immediately after becoming overheated—extreme temperature changes may make you ill, nauseated, or dizzy.
• If you have asthma or other respiratory problems, stay in an area where it is cool and the air is filtered or air-conditioned.

Source: NYC Emergency Management

This June, we celebrated Immigrant Heritage Month with our Bring Your Story initiative and Pride Month with our Let’s Make Some Noise initiative. Our programs were enthusiastically attended and many enjoyed participating in the Map Your Story project, celebrating where their ancestors came from. Customers used string to demonstrate the journeys their families took to arrive in the United States. Here are the maps from Richmond Hill (above) and Glen Oaks (below).

QPL’S Tech Lab, a Hub for Innovation and Education, Offers Hands-On Classes and Access to Specialized Software, 3D Printing, and More

Long Island City, NY—Queens Public Library this month marks the 70th anniversary of its continuous presence at the Queensbridge Houses, the largest public housing complex in the nation, with the expansion of its Tech Lab services to four days a week, as demand for digital literacy programs grows in the area.

Located at 10-43 41st Avenue, the Tech Lab primarily serves the housing complex, which is owned and operated by the New York City Housing Authority. A hub of innovation and technology in the community, QPL’s Tech Lab hosts workshops on a wide range of tech topics for all ages, and helps customers build critical skills to succeed in school and in the workplace.

The Tech Lab offers tutorials and workshops on general computer use, audio and video editing, graphic design, 3D printing, web development, computer programming, and video game design. It also provides access to specialized software like Audacity, Adobe Creative Suite, QuickBooks Pro, and Scratch, as well as to Maker Space, Arduino microcontrollers, and Little Bits electronics kits.

This summer, in an effort to go beyond its walls, the Lab launched a community project to explore local urban ecology and experience STEM learning in a creative setting. As part of the project, on Saturday, July 13, participants will board the BioBus, a mobile lab equipped with microscopes and staffed by scientists, and analyze water quality in the area.

Although public library systems in Chicago and other U.S. cities have only recently started offering library services in their public housing complexes, Queens Public Library has operated them for 70 years, first in Queensbridge, and later at several other locations, including the Ravenswood houses.

QPL’s Queensbridge outpost opened in 1949, initially serving as a library branch and then a family literacy center, before becoming a Tech Lab.

Launched in 2017 with a three-day service, the Lab is funded by the Mayor’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (MOCTO), and supports MOCTO’s investment in digital inclusion at Queensbridge Houses by serving as a ground for new technology programming and facilitating access to the Internet as residents log on to the Queensbridge Connected wireless network.

As part of the First Lady of New York City’s Gracie Book Club, Wally Lamb came to Central Library to read from his classic novel She’s Come Undone and discuss it with interlocutor LaShonda Barnett, the author of the novel Jam on the Vine.

Barnett and Lamb’s wide-ranging discussion included many of the key moments in She’s Come Undone, ranging from the main character’s rape to the book’s hopeful ending. Lamb’s epic saga, which he says he based on The Odyssey, was an Oprah’s Book Club pick in 1996.

“It’s sort of wonderful and it’s a little scary,” Lamb says about being chosen by Oprah. After his first two books were selected, he was intimidated while trying to write his third novel, not wanting to disappoint people. Finally, he told himself to “chase everybody’s expectations out of the room or you’re never going to be able to do it.” Lamb says he had to go back to writing for himself, not for others: “I had to go full circle and whatever happened after it was finished was going to happen.”

This year, the Gracie Book Club is focusing on stories of resilience connected with overcoming and living with mental illness, especially confronting the culture of shame that surrounds it. Lamb, who grew up in Norwich, the town in Connecticut with the state’s largest hospital for the mentally ill, says he’s always been sensitive to mental illness and the challenges it brings. He believes it is the book’s interior monologue that helps people to understand suffering by getting inside of a person and hearing their internal voice.

The author grew up in a house without many books. Ladies' Home Journal and Reader’s Digest were all the reading material that he had, so as he recalls, “the library became the access to worlds that went way beyond my hometown.”

He wrote She’s Come Undone in the University of Connecticut library, writing during the summers and the early mornings while he taught high school and raised his young children. “I started writing and continue to write in libraries,” he says.

Above: Forest Hills Library’s Pixelated Moon working on their robot.

Nearly 50 children representing nine teams from six branches, participating in Queens Public Library’s Robotics FIRST LEGO League, competed in the inaugural championship held on June 11 at the Flushing Library.

Is there a better way to spend the day than building robots? Not if you ask the competitors who got to show off their new skills in robotics during the event.

There were cheers, hugs, and high-fives. But above all there was a spirit of teamwork and learning through fun.

The kids, in grades 4 to 8, came from the Bayside, Forest Hills, Kew Gardens Hills, McGoldrick, Queensboro Hill, and Whitestone branches.

With guidance from branch staff coaches, they spent the springtime learning to work as a team and build, code, and program robots using LEGO MINDSTORMS® EV3, which combines LEGO® elements with programmable bricks, motors, and sensors.

The theme of the competition was INTO ORBIT, centering on space exploration and life on other planets. The challenge was to create robots that could work perfectly under challenging conditions in outer space. The robots were programmed to accomplish tasks autonomously on an INTO ORBIT playing field, like moving objects, leaping over obstacles, and rolling various gadgets down a slide.

The teams competed for the Champions Award, the highest level award given at the tournament, and were also awarded prizes for Core Values (primarily teamwork), Robot Design (reflecting the process and strategy behind a robot’s design and programming), and Robot Score (indicating performance on the playing field).

We asked our staff for their suggestions for best summer reads for adults. Here are their picks!

“The taut novel Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones focuses on an interesting plot involving the daughters of a bigamist in 1980s Atlanta. What makes this book so exceptional is its infusion of suspenseful plot with pithy explanations of relatable themes. From almost page one, I was wondering about and fretting over what was going to happen next.”—Jill Anderson, Outreach Services Assistant

“Herman Wouk recently passed away at the age of 103. He was a World War II vet and a prolific writer. Herman Wouk’s The Winds of War (1971) and War and Remembrance (1978) tell the story of a Navy family from 1938 to 1945. There are Jewish characters trapped in Nazi-occupied territory, characters who serve in the war, and love interests.”—Matthew Allison, Community Library Manager, Peninsula

“My suggestion is Suspicious Minds by Gwenda Bond, a novel which I think is especially interesting for people who are fans of the Netflix series Stranger Things, as it is a prequel to the series.”—Christine Degyansky, Librarian, Laurelton

“Howard Stern Comes Again is a kinder, gentler—and shall I say loveable?—Howard Stern. Howard is at his most vulnerable in 38 interviews with luminaries as diverse as Paul McCartney, Joan Rivers, Madonna, Jay-Z, and Anderson Cooper. No subjects are off limits, too intimate, or too painful, with a dive into relationships, love, religion, wealth, and celebrity. At 549 pages, this book will keep you thoroughly entertained on your flight or commuter train to your summer destination.”—Ms. Goldberg, Assistant Community Library Manager, Broadway

“If you’re looking for a quirky, original summer read, check out The Pisces by Melissa Broder. This story is set on a California beach and features a very intriguing mythological sea creature. Fans of the movie The Shape of Water will definitely want to pick up this strange yet semi-romantic tale!

Red Clocks by Leni Zumas is definitely worth the hype it received, and I hope its popularity continues to grow exponentially. Due to the subject matter, Red Clocks is reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale and other dystopian feminist works. Yet, Zumas succeeds at writing an original, thought-provoking story that deeply resonates with our current state of affairs. I personally loved the biographer’s frame story about the Faroese arctic explorer Eivør Mínervudottír (although it is fictional) and felt that it added an interesting layer of perspective to the novel.

I also couldn’t put down Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin. It’s a quick read, and the story draws you in from the first page. There’s so much going on, and Schweblin’s delivery is perfectly paced as the plot develops. There is an eerie, something’s-not-quite-right tone which presides over the story, and subtle reminders of this pop up every once in a while. If you like quick, off-the-beaten-path reads, I highly suggest this one."—all three picks by Shelby Schwartz, Librarian, Elmhurst

“For those who like fantasy, the Shades of Magic series (A Darker Shade of Magic, A Gathering of Shadows, and A Conjuring of Light) by V.E. Schwab builds an intricate and fascinating world where there are four Londons that overlap one another—their differences are based on the level of magic each London has. With a memorable cast of characters that traverse across the different Londons amidst adventure, romance, and swashbuckling, this is the perfect beach read for when you want to travel to a new world during a staycation!”—Jo-Ann Wong, Librarian, Floating Team

The Queens Memory Project invites you to Making Community Story Quilts, a new exhibit at the Queens Museum featuring artwork created during their 2017 and 2018 story quilt workshops.

These multi-session workshops invited people from the Fresh Meadows and Flushing library communities to create “talking” story quilts that combine textiles and technology to tell the visual and oral histories of their families’ migrations to the United States.

Also included in the exhibit is an ongoing embroidery map of Queens that visitors can interact with to add their stories and mark their own significant places in Queens.

“Many of the participants who made the artwork in this exhibition are going to be with us on Saturdays and Sundays from 1-3pm during the course of the exhibit to greet visitors and help them interact with the pieces," said Natalie Milbrodt, Queens Public Library's Coordinator of Metadata Services and the Director of Queens Memory. "It’s going to be a fun reunion and a great opportunity to extend the reach of the artistic community we built through our Memories of Migration workshops.”

Making Community Story Quilts is at the Queens Museum from July 7 to July 28, with an opening reception on Sunday, July 7th from 1pm to 3pm and a storytelling game on July 28th from 1pm to 3pm. We hope to see you there!