Library Update: You Gotta Have Friends, Plus A New Petition
In these times of proposed library cuts, it never occurred to us that we should be directing all concerned to Friends of the Free Library, who’ve fought more battles like this than anyone would like to count. (The video above is a bit of a Friends primer.) As it turns out, the Friends are circulating their own petition as well, in addition to a massive rally on behalf of all the libraries in Philly to be affected by the proposed closings. We’ll get you info on that as it firms up, but in the meantime, sign the petition here. And if we may, let’s pass the mic to the Friends, who put it all in perspective:
The Free Library will take significant budget cuts that include the permanent shuttering of 20% of its buildings or 11 branches (INCLUDING THE FISHTOWN BRANCH); 71 layoffs and a $1.6 million reduction to the materials (books, tapes, DVDs, periodicals, graphic novels, etc.) budget that has not been increased in 8 years. These library buildings, some of which were built with funds from Andrew Carnegie will revert back to the public properties division to be sold.
Philebrity, you can defend our community’s free and public access to valuable books, information and reference material. You can defend the access to a safe, enriching environment our Library provides to our community, especially to our children. Please post a story and/or our petition below on your blog. You may also contact us (215.567.4562) to find out how you can help. Thanks for your support!
Well put, peeps. And if we may be so presumptuous, let’s put a call/challenge out: We know a lot of you folks out there volunteered for Obama in recent weeks and months. Well done! One problem: Everything is still kinda screwed up. But as far as this library thing goes, how cool would it be if even a fraction of you threw your volunteering time towards raising awareness and coming up with ideas of how to save these libraries? Just saying. As the days move forward, it seems doubtless that a general, neighborhood-spanning coalition to save the libraries should congeal. And no doubt, Friends Of The Free Library will be at the heart of it. Get involved. It’s a no brainer.
Previously: Libraries Update: General Petition Circulating, Rally In Kingsessing On Saturday
November 14th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Is there an online petition somewhere? The link is for a PDF that gets printed and mailed.
You can also sens faxes to all (or some) of your elected city officials by using this link: http://www.hallwatch.org/faxbank/philadelphia
November 14th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
SEND faxes
November 14th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Isn’t the “Friends” just a library managed membership org for the library? Aren’t the friends quite a few mill into a $90 million fund raising campaign for the expansion of the central branch? Why no one put the cuts next to the high level development operation to raise the dough for the new wing still mystifies me.
November 17th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Hey – I work with the Friends and just wanted to comment on that previous comment – the Friends of the Free Library is independent of the Library. The Library Foundation, not the Friends, is the org that has been running the Expansion Project.
And there is also an online petition that a volunteer set up for us at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savefreelibrarybranches/index.html
All of this is on our website – thanks philebrity for all the posting you’ve been doing on this!