If you have a moment

Please be a pal and sign this petition to get the funding of the Englewood Public Library restored. You’d be even more awesome if you passed this along to everybody whose email address you’ve ever learned. TIA!

Keep fighting the good fight

It seems likely that efforts to restore library funding have had a positive impact on elected officials; both the Newark Star Ledger and NJ.com recently had articles that said that library funding would be cut to a much less extreme degree than originally proposed. While this sounds like good news, no specifics in these stories, and the fact that budget restorations are sometimes not passed, means that we need to keep up our efforts. If you haven’t participated in the final push to restore library funding in NJ, please do so now.

Thanks!

Fingers crossed

It’s not much to go on, but I read a couple of articles today that mentioned that the NJ budget that gets passed may scale back on the proposed cuts to the state’s libraries. I’m not sure how much of a reprieve they’re talking about, but I’m cautiously optimistic.

Please help keep me in books and yarn* – Permanent for now

I know that this isn’t about me at all, but I feel that a little selfishness is allowed, as I will be directly affected if Governor Christie’s proposed budget is passed. As it stands, this budget would cut 74% of New Jersey library funding. By any accounting, that is an insane amount of money, even though the $10 million in library programs cut from the Governor’s budget represents little more than $1 per person in state funds.

What you can do:

• Become a NJ library champion
• Become a BCCLS (Bergen County) library champion
• Contact your legislators online (scroll down)
• Send a letter to your legislators Related: Find out who your legislators are
• Who doesn’t like a good rally? Join the May 6 rally for libraries in sexy Trenton, NJ
• Join the “Save New Jersey Libraries” Facebook Group. This is one of the most visible and least useful ways to support something, so make sure you do at least one or two of the other things, as well.

* Those are my vices, although I will admit that they’re not nearly as exciting as hookers and blow.