Criminal Law Library Blog
The following is being posted as an urgent message at the request of a law librarian colleague :
As I am sure you know this year is on track to produce a budget disaster for libraries in New York City. The cuts currently proposed will result in massive layoffs and cuts in public service. A small group of library workers and concerned citizens has started a postcard campaign to highlight support for public libraries and ask the City Council to restore as much funding to library budgets as possible.
The idea is that we are going back to an old fashioned postcard writing campaign. Individuals are encouraged to write postcards in support of libraries and mail them to the offices of City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer. His office will collect the postcards and present them to the City Council, en masse as a sort of Miracle on 34th Street statement. Any postcards will do. We suggest being creative, but inexpensive postcards, ten for a dollar in Time Square, work great too.
This effort was started by the group Urban Librarians Unite and is now being endorsed and supported by Queens Library Guild Local 1321, Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO), and Desk Set. It is not a part of the formal campaigns by the city public libraries, and it is our intention to augment, not compete, with those official efforts. We are asking you to pass the word to your members, encourage them to solicit postcards, and promote the campaign. As we move forward we hope to organize events including a possible read-in to support New York City libraries.
The deadline for sending postcards to Council Member Van Bramer is Tuesday, June 15. But, of course, there is no time like the present for information profession and librarian colleagues to support one another.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I hope that you will ally yourself with us as we fight for every dime we can get for public libraries in the city.
Sincerely,
Christian Zabriske Urban Librarians Unite