#library budgets

[kingsbridgelibraryteens]

Looking for ways to show the library some love (and hopefully restore our budget)?

Starting today, you can not only sign a support letter online and create a virtual sticky note to support the New York Public Library ... but you can ALSO sign a support letter in-person at your local branch!

And for a limited time, those in-person letters will be rewarded with FREE LIBRARY SWAG. So, stop by to show your library some love, and get something free in return!!!

[reasonsforhope]

"New York City officials have agreed to restore more than $111 million in funding to libraries and cultural institutions, the City Council announced Thursday [June 27, 2024].

The agreement is a victory for residents and organizations who had been pushing back for months against budget cuts in the nation’s largest city and one of the world’s foremost cultural capitals.

In November, the city announced it would cut the budget of the New York Public libraries by $58.3 million in fiscal year 2025, and slash the budget for other cultural institutions, including the Bronx Zoo and Carnegie Hall, by $53 million. The new deal reverses those cuts, and is set to be finalized in a City Council vote Sunday...

“Our arts and cultural institutions and libraries are foundational pillars of our city, and New Yorkers depend on their services every day,” said New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, thanking the mayor’s administration for reaching the deal. “The Council has consistently championed funding restorations for these institutions as a top priority, and we’re proud to reach an agreement with Mayor Adams and the administration to successfully secure these critical investments for them in the city budget.”

The news was received with collective approval from New York institutions that had been forced to cut hours and public access due to lack of funding.

“The Museum of the City of New York is delighted to learn of the restoration of cuts to the cultural sector,” the museum’s president Stephanie Hill Wilchfort told CNN in a statement.

“This support makes it possible for MCNY to be open seven days a week, starting on July 1,” said Wilchfort, who serves as Executive Vice Chair of the Cultural Institutions Group, a coalition of 34 non-profit organizations such as the city’s museums, gardens, and arts centers. “As such, the Museum’s exhibitions exploring history, popular culture, and art will be open to the public on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the first time since the pandemic. City support also allows the Museum to operate as a cooling center, open at no charge to anyone who seeks relief from warm weather.”

The city’s three public library systems — New York, Queens, and Brooklyn — issued a joint statement thanking the administration, the city council and New York residents, who overwhelmingly supported the campaign to restore library budgets. More than 174,000 people sent letters to City Hall in support of the “No Cuts to Libraries!” campaign since the cuts were announced in November [2023].

“This funding will allow us to resume seven-day service, a priority for many New Yorkers,” the libraries said in a statement shared with CNN. “We expect that service to begin in the coming weeks, bringing our branches back to the same hours of operation prior to the November 2023 cuts. The funding also allows us to continue universal six-day service, which New Yorkers have enjoyed for nearly a decade.”

-via CNN, June 28, 2024

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Toronto libraries could all soon be open year-round, Mayor Olivia Chow announced Sunday.

Speaking at a Toronto library, Chow announced a new plan on Sunday that will see seven-day-a-week service provided at all branches by July 2026. Currently, some branches in the city are closed on Sundays and Mondays. Last year's city budget allocated $10 million to expand hours at some of those branches, but not all.

"In my last budget we started this work, and in my next budget we will finish it," Chow told a small crowd at Toronto's Wychwood library branch, which is currently closed on Sundays.

"It shouldn't be closed today," Chow said. "It's Sunday. A lot of families are looking for things to do with their kids." [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland, @vague-humanoid

[idontmindifuforgetme]

I just want to be the smartest girl in the room and to know how to speak 7 languages and to always have books in hand and to always be best dressed and to always be on top of my studies and to smell really good and to do flash cards on the treadmill and to not be distracted by the things that don’t matter and to still have time for all my passions.

[foldingfittedsheets]

I am full of book woes.

I picked up The Midnight Lie because somehow it ended up in my library tag to check out. It was great, I liked the style a lot and I could clearly see it trending toward a sapphic train wreck ending, but it was a train wreck that made sense and was satisfying.

After the cliffhanger ending it was clear there’s another book to potentially straighten it all out. Turns out my library doesn’t have that one though. So I get to wait until I have spending money in a few weeks and buy it if I want to know what happens.

Then I got my hold for Clockwork Boys and devoured it but it’s four weeks out for the follow up to that one. Worried I’ll lose my momentum and forget details in the interim.

Book club is embarking on The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry next which I’m excited to reread but frustrated that I can’t finish either of the duologies I just read.

[rumade]

If you live in the UK, you have gotta start using these services as much as you can! They will use low user numbers as further justification for cutting services. Make use of your leisure centres, libraries, and any arts services. Show them some love!

[queerliblib]

Hey QLL!

I was wondering if you could help me!

I am notoriously terrible at googling.

I am looking for cozy queer fantasy SPECIFICALLY with a nonbinary AGENDER main character. Preferably with the mc using they/them or otherwise pronouns that are not she or he.

When I try to Google, every list seems to erase "nonbinary" and "agender" :( and every book I find in these lists, is about every other identity EXCEPT agender, nonbinary, or gender identities that do not align with the binary male or female. It makes me really sad because I just want to read books with main characters who are like me, and I don't have the skills to write books....

the first cozy fantasies with non-binary MC’s who use either they/them or neopronouns that comes to mind are:

Awakenings by Claudie Arseneault

The Baker & The Bard by Fern Haught

there’s also Transmogrify! which is a fantasy anthology with many non-binary authors & characters.

[maureen-corpse]

God budgeting really puts the Little Treat dependency in perspective doesn’t it

[motziedapul]

Libraries and SO. MUCH. FREE STUFF!!!

I wanna emphasize to people who don't know this, but the library usually has a TON of free stuff. Not just books. But also books.

Here's a list of stuff you can get from Toronto Public Library specifically, but many of which are offered at public libraries in general.

Free books and ebooks and comics and audio books

Free Internet

Free Movies

Free Music

Free Access to Learning Databases

Free Equipment for audiovisual work (mics, recording booths, etc)

Free 3D Printers and maker spaces for fabrication

Free spaces to study and work

Free Access to Museums and Attractions

Free events in the city

Free classes and workshops

Free phone calls where someone will read you a story

Free Wifi hotspot you can borrow

If you're having a rough time with money, the library has you covered for most things that aren't groceries. It keeps people safe, educated, engaged, AND you can make amazing stuff with the resources they give you.

They can also educate you on financial literacy and other topics with their free workshops. I went to a tax workshop at the local library and learned a ton about how to do my taxes correctly.

You NEED to be aware of all the things your library can give you because this is where your taxes go and it can serve you in more ways than you can imagine.

BUT FOR PEOPLE WHO DO NOT HAVE WELL-FUNDED PUBLIC LIBRARY SYSTEMS I am also Filipino so I know the ways of the 🏴‍☠️

(the above is a reddit thread, please read through it thoroughly)

Golden Rules:

Be safe, read the instructions on how to keep your browsing safe

Do not 🏴‍☠️ what you can get from the library for free

Do not 🏴‍☠️ indie creators, please support them

Otherwise 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

[bubblesandpages]

Ummm no. No, actually. The why-are-there-so-many-words-on-the-page I-skip-to-dialogue crowd on Booktok is concerning, and shouldn't be actively encouraged. Booktok has already had such an impact on the publishing industry, you want them to send the message to book suits that they should purposefully lower the reading level? As a marketing ploy? Be so for really right now.

[weidli]

Girl what the fuck frankly. for the EBOOK ?????

[kingsbridgelibraryteens]

Adults, kids, and teens! Stop by our library today to sign a letter of support, and get a free gift from NYPL while supplies last.

Remember that if you can't come to the library in person, you can still sign a support letter online and/or create a virtual sticky note to support the library!

#NoCutsToLibraries

#InvestInLibraries

[an-ruraiocht]

i am REALLY enjoying the lengthy digressions about in-universe poetic form, literary theory, and script history in the greenwing & dart series. we love when a medievalist lets a nerd be protagonist and then commits to it

[iamthecomet]

Friendly reminder to support your local library because there are plenty of people who think libraries are stupid and unimportant and MAN are they loud sometimes.

[thewizardofozwel]

Hey, elections got you down? Feeling like you don't have a chance at impacting the world around you?

Now introducing, "VOTE AT YOUR FUCKING MUNICIPAL, PROVINCIAL, LOCAL LEVEL ELECTIONS!"

[remyfire]

Got my entire to do list done by 10am, so if there were any doubts about how well my ADHD and laptop play together, I think this puts paid to them