I am reposting this from a great librarian blog, The Desk Set. Read the original post here, and send the Councilman a few postcards - I did (as you can see from the photo above!)Original post:
http://thedeskset.org/?p=1743
We are thrilled to be involved in the Save New York City Libraries Postcard Campaign, and we’ve invited Queens Public Librarian and Urban Librarians Unite founder, Christian Zabriskie, to tell you why and how you should participate:
The greatest group of libraries in the world is on the brink of death. The Tri-Li system, three public library systems comprising 209 libraries and serving over 8 million people will have its back broken before our eyes in a mere two months time. NOW is the time to act. We do not have the comfort of ennui, we cannot allow ourselves the luxury of apathy. If you want to see public library service be destroyed, hundreds of library workers out of work, library hours slashed, entire branches closed, if you care nothing for the poor, the undereducated, the populace yearning for culture and simple dignity, if libraries in New York City mean nothing to you then do nothing.
If you have courage, if you have energy, if you refuse to see the poor man’s university broken on the wheel of the budget then get involved. A group of library organizations have united in an unofficial campaign to preserve libraries in our city. This campaign, intended to augment but not replace the formal efforts of the Brooklyn, New York, and Queens Public Libraries, is a populist movement coming from Desk Set, Urban Librarians Unite, Local 1321 Queens Library Guild, Metro Library Council, ACRL/NY, and others. We call for all who love libraries to act now. The premise is simple but with your help the execution could have the weight of thousands of voices.
Very simple people, send a postcard in support of libraries to City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer. After you have sent in a postcard ask your friends to do the same, then ask your roommates, your family, people who ask you out on dates, random people in bars, anyone and everyone who will write a few words and sign their name in support of libraries. Any postcard will do, you can get them for ten to a dollar in Times Square, make them yourself, buy them at flea markets, anything. Postage for a postcard is 28 cents, you can mail out eight or ten for less than three bucks, even a librarian can afford that.
Jimmy’s office is keeping all the postcards for us and is going to present them en masse to the City Council before the final budget hearings. Jimmy is our people, he worked for Queens Library for years, serves on the Council’s libraries committee, and has been a vocal advocate of libraries on the city council. We want to give him ammunition, something with physical weight. Show people that you care with something tangible, then get everyone you know to join their voice with yours.
If you love libraries, if you love librarians, if you love librarians in libraries then get out there and get those postcards in. Send them early and often to:
Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer 47-01 Queens Blvd, Suite 205 Sunnyside, NY 11104
The future of the libraries in New York City lies in your hands, fill those hands with postcards calling out your support.
Hell, Yes! Thanks Christian, and thanks to all of you who have already sent postcards. It seems like we’re constantly being told that our libraries are on the verge, and it’s often overwhelming to know what to do about it. And because it keeps happening, because people continue to believe that library budgets should be cut, and because we know the economy is in the toilet, it starts to feel as though there’s nothing we can do. We know we need to fight, but sometimes we don’t know how, or even if there’s a point. That’s what is so genius about the postcard campaign. It is so easy, so so so easy. And multiply as many postcards you can write by as many people as you know, and suddenly you have a heap, a ton, a mess of postcards letting the city know that we need our libraries and our library workers. That we love them.
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