Dear Library Patron,
Most likely this request for your help finds you in a wave of shock and alarm over the proposed 10.76% budget cut for our Library System. This cut is more than double the cuts of most city departments. The smallest department stands at this point to take the largest monetary hit, amounting to more than 1/10th of the 4.2 million dollar municipal cut. This disproportionate budget cut will devastate the library system and immediately translate into greatly reduced library hours, fewer programs and offerings and slashed book, technology and software purchases. It will also place in jeopardy the ability to borrow books from other libraries throughout the commonwealth.
This situation is critical at a time when more citizens than ever will turn to their libraries for job information, research, and affordable entertainment. We have worked hard to restore a system that was threatened a few years ago with branch closures. It is for this reason that we implore you to contact your officials and ask them to adjust the proposed cuts to the library to a more equitable formula with other departments sharing this burden. The following contact people with their telephone numbers, along with a few bulleted suggestions to utter to our public officials, will hopefully move you to contact these people, who decide the fate of the library system, as soon as possible because time is of the essence. They need to hear from us now before it is too late. I ask you to forward this plea to other library patrons requesting that they also make the calls.
Thank you for your concern for our library system.
Mary Ann Maloney
President of the Friends of the Springfield Library
Contact information:
Mayor Dominic Sarno 36 court Street, Spfld. MA 01103 Tel:
787--6100
City Council President, 221 Wildwood Ave. Spfld. MA Tel: 783-2201
Executive Director, Stephen Lasuskas, 36 Court Street, Spfld. MA 01103 Tel: 784-1580
Suggested possible script for calls:
Hello, I'm calling to urge Mayor Sarno and the control board to reconsider the proposed budget cuts for the library department. The cuts being discussed are unfair and would decimate the Springfield Library System.
The proposed cuts to the library department would:
· Represent twice as large a cut as for other city departments
· Lead to a loss of matching funds from the state
· Greatly reduce library hours, programs and services
· Slash the budget for books, technology and software purchases
· End the opportunity to borrow books from other libraries across the commonwealth
The city library and its branches are essential to providing services to people in times of personal and economic crisis. I urge the financial decision makers to reconsider the budget cuts to the library department in order to avoid the devastation to our library system.