Monthly Archives: November 2013
UPDATE – DUE TO RAIN, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED TO DECEMBER 16TH
Although this event is not sponsored by the Committee to Save the New York Public LIbrary, we encourage everyone to attend!
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Books Not Billionaires Flash Mob to Save NYPL
Monday, December 9 at 12:00 noon sharp
Steps of the 42nd Street Library
(rain date: Monday, December 16)
The New York Public Library is in peril. Plans are afoot to exile its legendary research holdings to storage in New Jersey. Why? So the nearby Mid-Manhattan Branch, one of the country’s busiest libraries, can be sold to billionaire real-estate developers and replaced with a luxury tower. A much smaller Mid-Manhattan library would then be crammed into the space made available by evicting the research collection.
Help stop this crazy “renovation” by joining in a street theater flash mob at noon sharp on Monday, December 9 on the steps of the 42nd Street Research Library. Dress as a favorite book or as one of the real-estate billionaires who see the books as an obstacle to profits. Be ready to take part in theatrical improvisation as the plutocrats try to displace the books, and the books alternately lament their fate and seek to stand their ground.
It’s easy to make a giant book costume out of cardboard or foam core. Here’s one model:
http://theworldaccordingtobenny.blogspot.com/2013/11/books-not-billionaires.html
RSVP on Facebook: http://www.tinyurl.com/SaveNYPL
Sponsored by the Library Lovers League
on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/LibraryLoversLeague
on Twitter @LibraryLoversNY
Please join us Wednesday, November 20th, during the New York Public Library’s quarterly trustees meeting to tell the trustees: Don’t waste money on the extravagant, destructive “remaking” planned for the historic 42nd Street Library, and don’t sell the Mid-Manhattan Library!
As Bill DeBlasio prepares to take office and the NYPL administration prepares to reveal its “new” design for the 42nd Street building, we need to keep the pressure on. We will have plenty of signs and flyers. This event is cosponsored by Citizens Defending Libraries.
WHEN: Wednesday, November 20th, 3:45 PM – 5:30 PM
WHERE: Fifth Avenue and 41st Street in front of the main entrance to the 42nd Street Library
Monday’s rally outside the New York Public Library’s annual fundraising gala was a great success! We thanked donors for their support of the library, and handed out nearly a thousand leaflets explaining our concerns about the wasteful and destructive Central Library Plan. We also highlighted the irony of the gala featuring Mayor Bloomberg as a guest of honor, given his support for selling off library branches and the city’s inadequate funding of the public library systems.
Please join us this coming Monday, November 4th, to greet Mayor Bloomberg and tell him to spend taxpayer money on library needs, not an extravagant, destructive remaking of the historic 42nd Street Library. The New York Public Library’s annual fundraising gala at the 42nd Street Library should be a celebration of creation, not demolition. We want to thank the NYPL’s donors for supporting the library, but also alert them to the NYPL’s wasteful plans to gut the 42nd Street Library and sell off the Mid-Manhattan.
We will have plenty of signs and flyers. This event is cosponsored by Citizens Defending Libraries.
WHEN: Monday, November 4th, 6:45 PM – 8:00 PM
WHERE: Fifth Avenue and 41st Street in front of the main entrance to the 42nd Street building.