City Council Candidate Announces New Library Initiative to Serve NYC's Growing Immigrant Communities

The first-ever Japanese language lending library on Roosevelt Island was launched on Saturday by City Council Candidate for Manhattan’s District 5 Ben Kallos. The initiative was rolled out at the third annual Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival, where Kallos presented the first books donated for the program.

“New York City is a city of immigrants. My grandparents were from Hungary and my fiancée is Russian. “I’m so proud to support our richly multicultural district. This project exemplifies our campaign’s ethos of service to every constituent.”

The lending library comes at the request of the head of the Roosevelt Island Japanese Association, who sought a Japanese-language library for those residents fluent in Japanese and as a source of cultural enrichment. The library will include novels, reference books, periodicals and more, and will be housed in the Roosevelt Island Public Library.

The language library will allow Japanese-speaking Roosevelt Islanders access to a lending library in their native language. While the Roosevelt Island Library has collections in other languages, this lending library initiative represents the beginning of its Japanese language collection, allowing Japanese residents to take out books without having to wait for interlibrary loan service.

The lending library fits neatly into the spirit of multiculturalism championed by the New York Public Libraries, which contain offerings in dozens of foreign languages citywide. Roosevelt Island’s Asian population has been growing rapidly in recent years, and is now up to nearly forty percent of the Island’s population.

The initiative is expected grow in the coming months.

“This lending library is a great step for our community, and will serve as an important cultural touchstone,” said Junko Hasegawa, head of the Roosevelt Island Japanese Association.