The Florida Legislature is once again threatening to eliminate state funding to our state’s libraries. The attached press release from the Florida Library Association summarizes the crisis at hand.
We have seen in the past two years how funding cuts have severely damaged our public libraries and the services they provide to communities. Staff have been fired or not replaced. Branches have been closed. Hours of operation have been cut back. Collection development dollars have been slashed. That was only Round One! If this latest attempt to eliminate all of the $21.2 million of state aid to libraries is successful, our libraries will be decimated.
You can help stop or significantly reduce the funding cuts. Please visit the Florida Library Association’s Advocacy Action Alert site at the web address below.
http://capwiz.com/ala/fl/issues/alert/?alertid=14792616
Here you can compose an email message to the leaders in Tallahassee. However, action is needed before Friday, March 19th. The committees are nearing the end of their work to report their bills out of committee and introduce action on the floors of the legislative chambers.
If you value our libraries and the work they do for our communities, it is essential that you participate in this communications action. If your genealogical research benefits from our libraries’ genealogy collections, databases, meeting room space, and knowledgeable staff members, you have to help protect them. Their existence and continued operations depends on each and every one of us.
Please visit the website now, complete the online form to generate emails, and pass the word to every single person you know who uses libraries for any purpose here in Florida.
This is a huge crisis, and YOU can really help!
Sincerely yours,
George G. Morgan
President, Aha! Seminars, Inc.
Director, Florida Genealogical Society, Inc.
VP of Membership Services, Federation of Genealogical Societies
