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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. For the last 15 minutes of the show today, we're going to celebrate National Library Workers Day. Yes, today is that day. It's part of National Library Week: National Library Workers Day. We want to say thank you to the people who keep these places running. We also want to do something useful with that, we hope, which is to tell people more than you may know about what libraries actually do.

Library workers, you're going to get first dibs on the phone. This is for you. Shout out the services that your library offers beyond lending out books and housing reference guides, and shout out your fellow workers to celebrate them on Library Workers Day. What makes a great library staffer? How do you try to be one if you are a library worker yourself? 212-433-WNYC, call us or text us. 212-433-9692.

Some of the answers to what you can do at libraries besides check out books might genuinely surprise you. Did you know, according to their website, you can use a sewing machine at the Greenpoint branch of the Brooklyn Public Library? You could even borrow one to take home until a couple of years ago. All three New York City library systems, that's the New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, Queens Public Library, offer career coaching by appointment at the library completely for free.

There's a job fair for people interested in careers in healthcare at the New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, for example, coming up on Thursday, May 28th, from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Beyond New York City, all the way to California, for one more example, the Oakland Public Library has a tool lending library, more than 5,000 tools you can check out just like a book. They've offered this service since the year 2000, I see. 212-433-WNYC on the services your library branches or systems or your individual ones, I guess that would be your branch, provide beyond lending books if you're a library worker. 212-433-9692.

On this Library Workers Appreciation Day, we can take some calls from library patrons, too. What do you use the library for that other people find surprising? Call in with some praise for a library worker who you have encountered. 212-433-WNYC. Library workers yourself, still first dibs, we have some open lines. 212-433-9692. We've set up one caller for this. It's Ryan Myers on Staten Island, who-- Well, we're going to find out from Ryan Myers what He does. Hi, Ryan. Welcome to the show.

Ryan Myers: Hi, Brian. Thanks for having me.

Brian Lehrer: People may not know because there's a Brooklyn Public Library and a Queens Public Library that the New York Public Library covers not just Manhattan and the Bronx, but Staten Island, too. That's where you are, right?

Ryan Myers: Exactly. In Staten Island, what I do out here at the St. George Library Center is I run all of our English as a second language classes. We teach English to people who are immigrating to the United States. Last cycle, just a few months ago, we had people from 91 different countries who spoke 59 different languages at our classes.

Brian Lehrer: Incredible.

Ryan Myers: From the Bronx to Manhattan to Staten Island, we had over 200,000 patrons come through our classes last year in our 23 branches.

Brian Lehrer: That's incredible. How long have you been doing that job?

Ryan Myers: I've been teaching English for about 15 years. I've been at this position as the hub manager for about a year now.

Brian Lehrer: Who comes in mostly? You were just emphasizing the diversity. I think people in the rest of the city have a certain stereotypical view of Staten Island. Where you are, St. George is very diverse, right?

Ryan Myers: It is indeed. Probably at St. George, we have some of the most diverse classrooms around the system. More than just Spanish speakers and Chinese speakers, we have Russians and Ukrainians, people from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, people from all over the Arab world. In any given classroom, we can have a dozen different languages being spoken by the various students that we have coming through our classes.

Brian Lehrer: One more question for you, then we're going to go to our callers. What's your favorite part of your job?

Ryan Myers: I love teaching pronunciation. Hearing somebody be able to express themselves clearly and be understood by someone else is a fantastic thing. Brian, let me say one more thing. We are starting new classes next week, and so if anybody is interested in referring someone for our English classes, they can go to nypl.org/english, and you can find all the information you need to find a local branch where you can send someone to register for classes and start on Monday.

Brian Lehrer: Ryan Myers from the St. George branch of the New York Public Library on Staten Island. Tell them you heard it on The Brian Lehrer Show, and you can take those classes for free. Oh, no. Anybody can take those classes for free, right?

Ryan Myers: Exactly. They're all for free. They're all for free.

Brian Lehrer: Thanks, Ryan. Good luck.

Ryan Myers: Thanks for having me, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Daniel in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC on National Library Workers Day. Hi, Daniel. Daniel, are you there??

Danielle: Are you talking about Danielle? Is it Danielle?

Brian Lehrer: Oh, Danielle, I apologize. I had it as Daniel. I apologize.

Danielle: That's okay.

Brian Lehrer: Hi.

Danielle: Hi. I'm currently on maternity leave, but was very excited to share some of the library resources that people might not know about at the Brooklyn Public Library. When I'm not home with one of the youngest Brooklyn knights with a library card, she's almost four months, and she already has her library card, I am working with anybody who is looking to be financially independent. That might mean patrons come to us looking to start or expand a business. Maybe they're looking for a job, or maybe they're looking for a better job. The part of the department that I actually work most closely with is for financial empowerment. Maybe you have debt, or maybe you need your taxes done.

The library works with-- I know it's a little bit too late because we're past the tax date deadline, but the library does work with DCWP and a lot of really great nonprofits in the city. We do offer tax assistance. Last year, I wasn't there this year, so I don't know quite what the numbers came to, but last year, when I was working with the team, we actually secured $4,000,941 in refunds, and we served close to 4,000 patrons to just get their tax assistance done.

I just wanted to share one other amazing program we do with financial empowerment. If anybody who has medical debt or student loan debt, we work also with lots of great organizations in the city. Today, although you had to make an appointment ahead, so call maybe the Brooklyn Public Library Central Branch of the Business and Career Center. We actually are doing a medical debt program today. I just want to say, as a library worker, I have benefited from these programs. I have actually talked with the folks who offer these medical debt clinics and was able to even bring down my own hospital bills. With student loan debt, I was able to get student loan forgiveness.

I just want to say, as a library worker, you can learn so much, and I want other patrons to learn about these programs-

Brian Lehrer: That is so great.

Danielle: -because we really want people to be financially independent.

Brian Lehrer: Another baby makes their radio debut on The Brian Lehrer Show. What's your baby's name?

Danielle: Esther.

Brian Lehrer: Hi, Esther.

Danielle: I'm holding Esther right now. I thought she might sleep, but she's not during this segment.

Brian Lehrer: Thanks, Danielle, and congratulations on the baby. We're going to go next to Gerald in Tuxedo, New York. You're on WNYC. Hi, Gerald.

Gerald: Hi. Thanks for taking my call. I am not a library worker, but I am on the board of the Tuxedo Park Library here. I just wanted to speak about how important libraries are in small towns like ours. The library, of course, does all the functions of lending out books and CDs and DVDs, but it does so much more. It's the only place that's open in the town seven days a week. It's a community gathering place for all kinds of events. The librarians are trained in various things. If you need to get something notarized, for instance, always a problem. You can just go in, and they are certified notaries. They'll sign your papers.

There are events, educational events. There are health events. The most popular event of the week by far is chair yoga for people of what you would say advanced years. There's a lot of trees up here, which means the electricity goes out a lot, and people can go to the library and charge their phones. I know that sounds elementary, but it really means something. In this town, the library is by far the most beloved institution. Maybe, I don't know, up there with the DPW, especially on snow days.

Brian Lehrer: A great description, Gerald. I want to thank you for this, and I got to go take some other calls, but that was a fabulous description of some library services other than books and its place in the community in Tuxedo. Thank you very much for that. We're going to go next to Alden in Brooklyn, who's got some things that you may never think of that a library does. Alden, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Alden: Hey, Brian. I haven't utilized this service yet, but I was amazed to find out that the Brooklyn Public Library has an instrument lending library.

Brian Lehrer: Really?

Alden: You can check out guitars, digital drums, banjos, amplifiers, all kinds. They have a long list of instruments you can check out for three weeks at a time.

Brian Lehrer: That is awesome. I wish I knew that. I once rented a bass clarinet for a month. I wanted to learn the bass clarinet, but I had to go to a music store and pay them. I wish I knew about that. Musical instruments and vinyl records. That is awesome.

Here's some texts that have come in. "I'm a school librarian, and my amazing teen interns are currently cataloging DVDs so students can borrow legacy media along with portable DVD players." Another text. "The New York Public Library offers comprehensive college prep programs for high school students." Wow. College prep that you don't have to pay for. Another text. "At the Nyack Library, you can borrow a bicycle." Marjorie, in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Marjorie.

Marjorie: Yes, hi. I just want to say I've got a 94-year-old mother who is pretty much homebound, and every week I take out seven books for her. She reads them all, bring them back, and the public library sent me congratulations, I had read 750 books, although I wasn't the one who read them. Anyway, just wanted to shout out to the Brooklyn Public Library.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. I'm going to try something I don't know if we have time for. Braha in Manhattan says she's a poet and wrote a poem to her second mother, who took her to the library every week. Braha, if you can do it in 30 seconds. Hi.

Braha: Oh, I don't know, but it's called the Falling Down Game for Beulah, and I can start it. I've always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library. That's Borges. I started off with that. Each Friday, Amy and I ride to and from Baychester Library, Allerton Branch, Fordham Branch, in the backpack of Beulah Tishelman's, my tichel mom's blackboard gray station wagon. Never the boring backseat, only the fun backpack for seltzer crates, apple baskets, and steamer trunks. Anyway, we talked about the ride, but all checked out at the children's room desk. Beulah gives us a booth, we crawl back into the hatch.

Brian Lehrer: That has to be the last word. I apologize, Braha. Yes, that is the meaning of the library to that child at that time, right? The children's section, toys, everything. Happy National Library Workers Day.

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