The website provides information and links to help web surfers learn more about Queens history, the face of Queens today and how the borough’s residents are shaping its future.

In its youth, after being taken over from the Native Americans by the Dutch and the English, Queens was mostly made up of farmland.

The current site for the office of the Borough President is "chock full of information."

According to Jon Peterson and Vincent Siefried from the Queens College History Department, who wrote the article for the website entitled "The History of Queens," it was not until the 1830s that Queens began its transformation into the metropolis that it is today.

The construction of roads and railroads connected Queens with the rest of New York City and on Jan. 1, 1898, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, the Bronx and Manhattan were officially named the five boroughs comprising the Greater City of New York.

In the 1920s, following World War I, Queens doubled in size to one million people. There are nearly two million people in Queens today and only one farm left–preserved as a landmark by The Queens Historical Society – located at the historic Kingsland Homestead in Flushing.

The Historical Society offers tours of its colonial farmhouse as well as walking tours of Queens and has a library full of information pertaining to the past 300 years of Queens history.

The website also offers up-to-date information about the population of Queens, the number of births and deaths, the number of people receiving income support and the statistics regarding the land that Queens covers.

With the updated site, many residents of Queens may not realize the relative ease it takes to become informed and involved with their city’s departments.

Listed on the website are contact phone numbers and descriptions of many services offered in Queens.

There is a biography of Shulman, and contact people for every department in her office.

Web surfers in Queens can now also find out what their government agencies are doing for them and what issues the community and school boards are discussing, as well as which police precinct they are a part of, who to call in case of emergency, and what health and social services are available on the net.

For people who need to reach a Queens or New York City legislator, their phone numbers are available as well.

According to Andrews, the creators of the website are particularly proud of the information the site supplies to seniors and victims of domestic violence.

For seniors, there is everything from health care support to information on cultural centers and recreation.

There are phone numbers for the Emergency Food Hunger Hotline and the New York State Central Register Child Abuse and Maltreatment Hotline. Information and support are also provided for issues such as mental health, mental retardation, alcoholism and homelessness.

Linked to the web page "Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Survivors: A Directory of Queens Services" is a message from Claire Shulman indicating the importance of using the services in Queens.

"The trauma of [sexual assault and domestic violence] is often compounded by the fact that victims are ashamed or feel isolated by society. This silence must be broken. Help is available. This directory is a guide to medical, legal, social, counseling and psychological services available to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault," Shulman wrote.

The city has helpful suggestions and means of support for those people interested in starting a new business. The website offers information on how to obtain a business license or permit or become involved in local business groups.

The "Queens Employer Assistance Guide," noted on the website, can be useful for employers who are looking to hire staff and need advice on training methods or tax credits.

The use of land and property in Queens, for those wishing to see how the city is planned, is determined by the Planning and Development Department, whose public meetings are also listed on the site.

Every school in Queens, from elementary to higher education, is indicated with address and phone number, as are Queens’ libraries.

Links are available to the Board of Education Website and the Queens Borough Public Library official website.

The new and improved website was designed by Citysoft Inc., a Kew Gardens based company that has been in the business of helping several offices throughout the city meet their needs since the mid-1980’s.

Citysoft’s list of clients include the New York Mets, The Mayor’s Office, The Office of the Bronx Borough President, over 50 city community Boards and a number of local law and accounting firms.

The Queens Tribune’s annual official guide to Queens, the Queens Blue Book, is also up, running and just a click away.

For the facts and figures, maps and measures and all the phone numbers and websites of Queens, log on to www.queenstribune.com/guide2001/index.html.

If you don’t have home access to the Internet, you can still log onto the Queens Borough President’s web site on computers available at your local branches of the Queens Borough Public Library (QBPL).

All of the QBPL’s 61 branches offer free Internet access.

The Central Library branch of the QBPL has a "cyber center" with 48 Internet – accessible stations open to the public, run on a first-come-first-serve basis. It is not mandatory to have a library membership to use the computers.

The Central Library is located at 89-11 Merrick Blvd. in Jamaica. For more information call 990-0700.

Log on to the Office of the Queens Borough President’s web site at:
http://www.queens.nyc.ny.us./
For the Queens Blue Book log on to:
www.queenstribune.com/guide2001/index.html