Love This Blog? Help Keep it on the Intertubes!

tags: NYC Life, NYPL, public services, public education, public libraries

If you are broke and unemployed in any city of this nation, including NYC, you would have very few free public resources at your disposal to help you find work because of the massive budget cuts that have been made to this nation's public libraries. I find this situation outrageous.

I have a special request to make of you: if you read this blog, consider the fact that all my wireless access is provided by the NYPL, and wireless access is one service that will be cut or discontinued. If Mayor Bloomberg, the eighth richest person in America, has his way, he will cut funding by 22% to all three New York City public library systems (NYPL, Brooklyn and Queens). These cuts would eliminate 943 employees, end all weekend service, and the materials budget will be cut by at least 30%. The NYC Council must approve this budget by June 30.

"At the Brooklyn Public Library, the materials budget would be cut by 30% and service at most branches limited to five hours (1-6 pm) on weekdays, in order to serve students after school," reports the Library Journal. "New York Public Library (NYPL) would reduce average weekly hours of service from 52 to 32 and cut the materials budget by 26% in the Branch Libraries and 35% in the Research Libraries."

If you read this blog, remember that I personally rely on NYPL for:

1. safe, stable and free wireless access, which is essential for;
   • blog research, writing and publishing
   • freelance research and writing as well as seeking more writing assignments
   • job searching
   • email and other forms of communication
   • access to Nature
2. photocopier and printer usage
3. DVDs
4. books
5. a quiet, clean and safe work environment
6. a consistent place to go every day

I see many underemployed, unemployed and homeless people at the library every day who, like me, depend upon the library for so many essential things to keep them alive and "fighting the good fight."

The damage caused by this zombie economy is reverberating down into the poorest and most vulnerable sectors of society, resulting in an astonishing 30% increase in library usage and circulation this year alone, as people turn to their public libraries for free entertainment, computer usage and internet access, and for aid in their job searches and career planning.

All branches of the NYC library system are conducting a letter-writing campaign between now and 1 June. If you live in NYC, please stop into your local branch at your convenience and write your letter in support of public libraries, asking Bloomberg to restore library funding and the six/seven day per week hours.

Library services on the "chopping block":

1. 1091 jobs lost, including 943 "layoffs"
2. book, journal and magazine purchases and subscriptions will be severely cut back
3. public computer access will be reduced or, in some branches, become totally unavailable
4. hours will be severely reduced with no library service available on weekends
5. some branches may close
6. free wireless access for the public will be discontinued

Regardless of where you live and work, if you read and enjoy my blog, then you too, will be affected by this drastic budgetary cutback. So please, help me and all those voiceless others who depend upon the public libraries in NYC by contacting Mayor Bloomberg and asking him to restore the library budget and six/seven day public service hours;

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
City Hall
New York, NY 10007

PHONE: 311 (or, outside NYC, call 212-NEW-YORK)
FAX: (212) 312-0700
E-MAIL: http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html

If you are a resident of NYC, please write your city council member.

Source:

Library Journal.