New York Libraries Are Letting People Check Out Neckties for Job Interviews

These days libraries are for much more than just borrowing books. In addition to checking out movies, sheet music, and audio books, many libraries offer free classes to learn new technologies or skill sets, and now, for the first time, four library branches of the Queens Library of New York are letting patrons borrow neckties.

Library-goers at the Central, South Jamaica, Arverne, and Laurelton branches can check out neckties for up to three weeks to use for job interviews or any occasion where they might need one, according to the This Is New York blog.

The program was launched as part of the Queens Library’s Job and Business Academy after many people would come in asking for job advice or help with interviews. They either wouldn’t realize they needed a tie until it was too late, or just couldn’t afford one.

Tara Lannen-Stanton, the assistant director of Queens Library’s Job and Business Academy, told APlus that anyone “regardless of demographics, employment status or income can use an extra boost of confidence when it comes to job hunting.”

The “Tiebraries” receive their ties through donations and each tie comes with a diagram of how to assemble it, as well as interview tips.

The “Tiebrary” program in Queens has even inspired other libraries to do the same. The Philadelphia Library also has a tie-giving program now.

“It’s an illustration of libraries really responding to the needs of their communities,” Nate Eddy, of the Free Library of Philadelphia, told A Plus. “People still associate libraries with quiet places to check out a book, but we’re so much more than that.”