The Bloomberg Administration’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget proposes slashing funding to libraries citywide by $106.7 million. Read more here: Albor Ruiz – New York City’s public libraries need their patrons to stand up against mayoral budget cuts (Daily News).
And while you are at it PLEASE sign a petition to let your city council member know that you love your library.
Ouch. Brooklyn Public Library could be facing a 36% cut to its City funding on June 30, 2013, representing nearly a 1/3 reduction to the current budget. If the Library closes its doors, we will lose access to FREE:
Learn more about the city budget issue by reading the Library’s preliminary budget testimony to the City Council. AND PLEASE EMAIL YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS!
[REPOST] Join Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) on Saturday, May 11 for Bike the Branches—a one-day bike ride to benefit the Library. Experience the borough and BPL like never before, while connecting with family, friends and fellow Brooklynites as you bike our network of 60 neighborhood libraries that serve each community.
Choose your own route and set your own pace as you visit as many of our branches as you want, or follow one of our suggested routes to take a tour of Brooklyn’s storied waterfront, literary history, culinary highlights or architectural gems. Sign up to ride as an individual or with friends and co-workers, and ask your friends and family to sponsor your ride for BPL.
Get your “passport” stamped at as many branches as you can visit between 10am and 5pm. Throughout the day, stop in at select branches to recharge and enjoy entertainment and fun activities, and top off the day at Central Library’s Finish Line Celebration from 5-7pm—you won’t want to miss it!
Register today to Bike the Branches and support Brooklyn Public Library with a rewarding day of wellness, literacy and community.
Click the link, register, and vote for the EXTEND LIBRARY HOURS proposal! John Liu will testify on behalf of the top three vote getters at an upcoming budget hearing (via Urban Librarians Unite)
NYC: want to show support for libraries? Come out for these events THIS week!
Monday, April 15th from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Sit Out and rally in front of the 42nd Street Central Reference Library and Mid-Manhattan Branch to express outrage about the demolition of the research stacks there and the consolidation/shrinkage of the libraries. SIBIL library will also be demolished, sold for private development. Lets show the public what is happening to our libraries.
Wednesday, April 17, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Rally for Donnell Library, closed in 2008 and still no promised replacement. 20 West 53rd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues, (meet on 40 West 53rd).
Thursday, April 18th between 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. Steps of City Hall, City Hall Park, Broadway and Chambers Streets in Manhattan, City Comptroller John Liu will discuss the administration’s funding cuts and sell-off of the public libraries at a press conference.
In December 2012, the board of trustees at the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum (VT) laid off 11 library staff and invited them to reapply for 3.25 positions. Rural Librarians Unite organized a rally in response. Here is some footage. More information is available on the Rural Librarians Unite website: rurallibrariansunite.org
Those protesting the sale and development of North London’s Friern Barnet library and its surrounding green space have the following message for the council:
“Library campaign groups working with the Occupy movement and the local community share a common aim: that Friern Barnet library should be re-opened in the existing building by Barnet council and preserved as a fully funded library and community space with the direct involvement of local people in the decision making process. The occupation of the building is a direct action that has highlighted the massive community support for Friern Barnet library, and has challenged not only its closure but the entire One Barnet programme and the privatisation of our public services in general.” Article here:
Urban Librarians Unite (ULU) has started a public wishlist on Powell’s. Feel free to buy used copies! All books can be shipped to:
Urban Librarians Unite
45-06 Queens Blvd
Suite 120
Sunnyside, NY 11104
Press shot for Biblioball 2009: Baby It’s Cold Outside
As posted in Flavorpill: “New York’s favorite librarian collective returns to the Bell house for their annual bash to help benefit Literacy for Incarcerated Teens. Every year The Desk Set fills the room with bespectacled folks who dance the night away, leading up to the midnight raffle that has featured prizes from books to new bikes. This year, 50% of all the raffle’s proceeds will go towards Urban Librarians Unite’s Sandy Children’s Book Relief Fund, so basically everything you do at the Biblioball helps out somebody who needs it. Also DJ sets from DJ Duane Harriott, Brian Blackout, John XI, Marty McSorley, and Mikey Post, a photo-booth, and lots of librarians. Seriously, what more could you ask for?”
Reposted from ULU’s website:
The libraries in some areas of New York City were hard hit by the storm and many communities which we serve have been devastated. There are a number of libraries in Queens which have suffered extensive damage and whose collections have been wiped out. When libraries are flooded the books on the low shelves (where little hands can reach them) get hit the worst. Urban Librarians Unite (ULU) is calling on our friends and supporters to help us build a new collection of materials for NYC libraries as well as putting books directly into the hands of young victims of this storm.
All donations of new and good quality used books should be sent to:
Urban Librarians Unite
45-06 Queens Blvd
Suite 120
Sunnyside, NY 11104
If you are unable to send books we are taking monetary donations to help us with the Children’s Book Relief and with setting up Volunteer Library Brigade teams in the disaster zone. Please make a note that you are contributing to Sandy Relief efforts when you make your donation at http://urbanlibrariansunite.org/support-ulu/donations/.
These young people have active minds which need something to focus on amid this chaos. Relocated families are forced to live in close quarters and are bored and stressed. Help us to give children a distraction and some joy in these troubling times. If you have questions or would like to help please contact urbanlibrariansunite@gmail.com
Caitlin is a queer, a Jew, and a librarian (sometimes even a queer Jewish librarian) living and working in Brooklyn, NY. She wears different clothes and uses props while dutifully playing her role as each. Sometimes she forgets to change costumes which can be confusing for both herself and others. 
