Today's post will be one of the notable exceptions.
At the meeting of the Southern York County Business Association I went to earlier in the month, I had the privilege of chatting with Demi Fair, library director at the Paul Smith Library in Shrewsbury. At the time, she mentioned that certain proposals at the state level stood to cut library funding significantly, and I heard similar news at my last visit to my own library in Dover.
Today, I received an e-mail from the library system, asking me to write to my legislators to ask them to reconsider cuts to library funding. As I'm not normally an "activist" of any sort, I almost passed it by. Then I started reading. The e-mail, from York Libraries President Trish Calvani, says:
Libraries will be forced to cut hours in proportion to the level of funding lost. The doors may be closed when you need us most. This affects 1 out of 3 York County residents.
Reduced library hours will greatly impact residents who need access to high speed Internet.
Libraries will have fewer staff members to help you. This means a longer wait for help and less expertise to secure the resources you need.
We will have to limit or stop our delivery service which conveniently transports the books you request from any York County library location to your local library. This shared system currently saves you time and gas money.
Your beloved programs like story times and summer reading club programs would be in jeopardy. Limited resources will greatly reduce what we can provide.
Library services that provide positive outlets for our teens would be reduced or cut.
Blog readers who've been around since last summer probably know what made my finger stop before hitting the delete key - the possible cuts to summer programming. You might remember that we spent all last summer finding 30 "letterboxes" as part of a partnership between the libraries and Keystone Activity Zone. It was free - and educational - and essentially comprised most of our family time last summer. If funding for activities like that were cut, we'd all be heartbroken.
I'm no political genius, but I do know that if library funding does come, it will be at a cost elsewhere. While I realize that, I also know how much the library has brought to my family, and I'm willing to explore other cuts in order to keep this valuable resource around. You're welcome to disagree, and if so, thanks for reading this far and for respecting my opinion. If, however, you happen to agree, I'm sure the libraries would appreciate your support in their letter campaign.
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