Students in the "Learn to Grow" program @ Ravenswood helped create an aquaponics system this week. Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture; the raising small aquatic life in water tanks, and hydroponics; the growing of plants in water. The aquaponic system at Ravenswood is pretty simple. Its called an "Aqua Farm" and has only one fish residing. It has two containers: one for fish on the bottom (aquaculture) and one for plants that sits above the fish container (hydroponics). A small aquatic pump was placed in the bottom container, which pushes up the fish effluent (the fish poop water and ammonia) into the plant container, where the ammonia (the toxic part for the fish) is broken down by nitrogen-fixing bacteria called biofilm, turning nitrates turn into nitrites. These are beneficial nutrients for plants. They are absorbed through the plants submerged roots. The water goes back down into the fish container through a spout and the cycle begins again.
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Queens Library would like to take this opportunity to update our library customers and staff on facts concerning the renovations at Central Library, and the compensation of our President and CEO. Queens Library is one of the most highly used and valuable resources in Queens, and we take our responsibility to provide world-class, life-changing library services very seriously.
QUEENS LIBRARY
Statement
Renovations and Executive Compensation
Queens Library is one of the largest and most successful library systems in the world. It brings vital educational and informational services to millions from 65 library locations.
In the past ten years, under Thomas Galante’s leadership, Queens Library has hosted 128 million visitors to its libraries. 5.4 million people have attended free programs. More than 200 million library items have been borrowed. An estimated 5 million children have depended on Queens Library as a safe haven after school.
Nationally and internationally, Queens Library is known as a leader and standard bearer in the field. It has been recognized time and again as one of the best public library systems in the world. The library won several national awards as the best library in the United States. (see below)
Under the leadership of Mr. Galante, the library grew to be the highest circulating library in the country. The library embarked on the most ambitious and successful capital renovation campaign in the library’s history, investing in public library renovations and improvements in library services. Even throughout the challenges posed in the Great Recession, the library has remained a reliable and a valuable resource that 40,000 people turn to every single day to enrich their lives.
Gabriel Taussig, Chairman of the Queens Library Board of Trustees, said: “Queens Library delivers world-class library service every day. We need excellent leadership. Compensation for the President & CEO was set by the Board of Trustees in 2005, after careful consideration, market study, and due diligence at the average for New York City Non-Profit CEOs – not more and not less – with an annual cost of living adjustment so the compensation would stay current.”
The Central Library building in Jamaica has been undergoing a $20 million modernization of the building. It is a 50 year old building and has hosted more than 70 million visitors in its lifetime. The modernization includes the upgrade of all customer service areas and central office departments and administrative spaces that manage the 62 libraries in the borough.
A goal is to be able to stop renting annexed office space and save an additional $150,000 per year by bringing those staff and services back in the Central Library. They include the fundraising/development office, capital and facilities management department and the Adult Learning Center.
As part of this reconfiguration, the President’s private office area was reduced in size, to provide for the use of the administrative office meeting and conference areas. A portion of the adjacent roof was converted into exterior meeting space as a way to add more conference area to the building at a very low cost. No public funds were used for this work. Every area of the building – public and office space -- is being renovated.
The costs of the renovation of administrative offices, which have not been upgraded in decades, is being completed at a modest cost per square foot, significantly below the cost of the public service area renovations.
This is part of an overall strategy to modernize every library in Queens. Under Mr. Galante’s leadership, two-thirds of these renovations have been completed, with the balance in the pipeline.
QUEENS LIBRARY AWARDS SINCE 2009
2014, Queens Chamber of Commerce Building Award for new Glen Oaks Library and Renovations to Bayside
2013, Library of Congress Literacy Awards – Queens Library’s Literacy Zone Welcome Centers recognized as a “best practice”
2013, Mayor’s Excellence in Design Award, new Far Rockaway Community Library
2013, Urban Libraries Council “Top Innovator” Award for response to Hurricane Sandy
2013, “Helping Hand” Award from NYC Small Business Council, for role in recovery after Hurricane Sandy.
2012, Mayor’s Excellence in Design Award, Addition to the East Elmhurst Community Library
2012, Municipal Arts Society MASterworks Award for the Children’s Library Discovery Center.
2011, Excellence in Design Awards from Queens Chamber of Commerce for new construction (Children’s Library Discovery Center) and renovation (Queens Library at East Elmhurst)
2011, NYLA/Mary Bobinski Innovative Public Library Director Award to Thomas Galante.
2011, ASCLA/KLAS/NOD Award for Queens Library’s Mail A Book Program with
interactive programming
2011, Queens Chamber of Commerce Building Award for Whitestone Reading Garden
renovation.
2010, Joseph F. Shubert Library Excellence Award for Queens Library for Teens, given by
New York State Regents Advisory Council on Libraries
2010, Marshall Cavendish Award for Excellence in Library Programming for Queens
Library HealthLink, given by American Library Association
2009, Library Journal’s Library of the Year Award
Earth Hour is a new environmental science after-school program for school age children. During our first program at Queens Library at Broadway, we discussed how electricity is made, and different forms of energy including fossil fuels and renewable sources.
We also built a hand-cranked dynamo that powers a green LED. The children really enjoyed building the dynamo and learned a lot about the electricity we use in the process. Find out when an Earth Hour program is happening at your branch by clicking on the "Upcoming Events" column on the right side of this web page.
Skip builds musical instruments out of trash with kids in the second grade and younger. He teaches the children about vibration and sound waves through some serious hands-on fun.
Using discarded items to make noise and explaining magnification, Skip astounds the young minds and layers loud and soft affects with high and low notes with a diverse array instruments made from everyday household items.
The community compost collections at Queens Library have been wildly successful. We have partnered with BIG! Compost and Smiling Hogshead Ranch to provide the communities we serve with weekly compost collections at four different Queens Library locations in Western Queens. Now that many of the nearby Green Markets have ended for the season, we want to let everyone know that we are still out there collecting kitchen scraps in your community each week (except holidays) through the winter and beyond!
Here is our schedule:
Monday mornings from 8:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. at QL @ Steinway
Tuesday evenings from 5:15 p.m.-6:45 p.m. at QL @ Woodside
Saturday mornings from 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. at QL @ Sunnyside
Saturday afternoons from 1:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. at QL @ Broadway
Please sign up for our newsletter for updates about this and other programs by submitting your email address on the upper right hand corner of our website.
For even more compost drop-off sites in Queens and beyond please visit BIG! Compost or the NYC Compost Project.
During our first environmental science program for teens at Queens Library at Long Island City, Greening Library staffer Gil Lopez worked with some teen patrons to install a Window Farm in the south facing window of upstairs auditorium A. We seeded one column of the system with collard greens and will leave the second column for a future Nature Kids program to seed. The Nature Kids children will check up on the plants weekly while the teen program will take place on the second Wednesday of each month. So check back with us for pictures and updates of how our indoor, stacked hydroponic system and the crops we are growing are coming along!
Please let us know (comment below!) if you are interested in creating a Window Farm in your home or apartment. We have a DIY Window Farm workshop that is offered regularly as a Greening Libraries program!
Last month, the Greening Libraries staff presented a workshop on entomophagy entitled “Discover Edible Insects” at the Steinway Branch. We will host the program again on Monday, January 6th at 6:15pm at the Sunnyside Library location. Since we are not experts on the topic, we used this slide show, found on the internet:
<iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/5989219" width="427" height="356" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" style="border:1px solid #CCC;border-width:1px 1px 0;margin-bottom:5px" allowfullscreen> </iframe> <div style="margin-bottom:5px"> <strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/GreggFlaharty/bio-slide-show-3" title="Entomophagy" target="_blank">Entomophagy</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/GreggFlaharty" target="_blank">Gregg Flaharty</a></strong> </div>
Inspiration for this Greening Libraries program came from a report by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations entitled “Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security“
http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3253e/i3253e00.htm
There was a good turnout for the presentation and we had some prepared bugs that the library ordered from an Internet based company called Thailand Unique.We have also found a local source of prepared bugs at the Evolution Store in SoHo and FAO Schwarz
At the end of the presentation we tried several types of insects and the overall response was good. I personally enjoyed the crickets the most as they had a more peppery & robust flavor than some of the others.
Please enjoy these links and let us know if you are inspired to add some insects to your cuisine by making a comment below.
Kelly Ripa eats a cricket taco!
http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/future-meat-edible-bugs-as-low-waste-homegrown-protein/
http://www.theperennialplate.com/episodes/2011/11/episode-78-eating-insects/
http://www.tiny-farms.com/blog.html
The Lepsis is a Terrarium for Growing Edible Bugs at Home!
http://www.businessinsider.com/7-foods-we-should-be-eating-2013-11
Bon Appetit
The Learn To Grow program at Ravenswood created jewelry from pressed plants this week. Preserved plants from our Learning Garden were used to adorn delicate handmade bracelets. Students left class proudly displaying their new treasures.
Every Wednesday at 11:30 AM, explore nature with your child! During this free toddler program, young learners explore the wonders of nature during inquiry based hands-on learning experiences.
Budding young botanists learned the ancient art of flower pressing during the Learn to Grow program at Ravenswood. Flowers and herbs such as lavender, sage and marigolds were preserved in plant presses made from cardboard and newspaper. Whimsical artwork made from plants grown this year in the Ravenswood Learning Garden was created by students of all ages, and is currently on display throughout the Ravenswood Library.