This is not as funny as you'd think

[conuly]

There are going to be budget cuts, and lots of them.

And the NYPL is not immune. If you use the NYPL, please write and/or donate. (Heck, if you just want to donate to a good cause, go ahead. You can even direct the money towards your local branch, or mine. We visit the St. George library.)

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Public Library are also facing budget cuts. If you use any of those library systems, like, ever, please take the time to complain about this.

Comments

[silver-chipmunk.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the plug!

[conuly]

I'd rather I didn't have to.

[silver-chipmunk.livejournal.com]

It's a dance we do every year. they cut our budget, we fire up support, they restore part of it. The more support, theoretically the more restoration. Or so we hope.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

No, actually, don't anticipate ever using any of those (you have three overlapping library systems? Really?).

But I donate to the library here regularly, even though the legislature punishes us whenever we vote down tax increases by cutting the library budget.*

*And parks/rec, and emergency med, and firefighting, and law enforcement....somehow an across-the-board pay cut for all the #%^@! bureaucrats pushing paper for the state never even gets mentioned as an OPTION.

[conuly]

you have three overlapping library systems? Really?

They don't really overlap, as such, but yes.

You have to remember that Brooklyn is a city in its own right, and that each boro in NYC is also a county (and, in the case of Kings County, AKA Brooklyn, its own city). The different library systems predate the consolidation of the city (and aren't run by the government in any case, although they are partially funded with public money).

Because it's an unusual set-up, there are some unusual rules regarding them. For example, as I've been told, a library card at any one system can take out books from ANY of them (in the same way that your membership pass to the Central Park Zoo gets you into all but one of the other zoos in NYC), but you have to return books to the correct library system (but not necessarily the same branch you took them out of).

It's not actually as confusing as all that. Most people don't make a habit of going to libraries far from their homes just for the heck of it, so you just get a card for your area.