Monthly Archives: September 2013

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD AT A CITY COUNCIL HEARING ON THE FUTURE OF OUR PUBLIC LIBRARIES!

On Monday, Sept 30, 2013, at 1:00 p.m. at 250 Broadway, 16th Floor Committee Room, a very important Public Hearing about Capital Construction Needs and Potential Disposal of Libraries in NYC will take place. The Agenda can be found online here:

http://legistar.council.nyc.gov/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=263833&GUID=E05BA270-C301-4C2B-AAE3-02CCEF702738&Search=

The City Council’s Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries, and International Intergroup Relations is holding the hearing.

It’s very important that as many people testify as possible against the Central Library Plan and the sale of public libraries, and on behalf of the needs of library users all over the city. We need to take advantage of this unique opportunity to testify. If you don’t want to testify you can still show your support just by being there. There is strength in numbers!

Please arrive a half hour early (12:30 pm) to go through security, and bring valid photo ID with you.

THE COMMITTEE TO SAVE THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
URGES YOU TO
Come to a meeting of the NYPL Trustees!

LET THEM KNOW YOU ARE WATCHING!

WHERE: COUNTEE CULLEN LIBRARY – NYPL
104 West 136th Street near Malcolm X Blvd. (Lenox Ave.)
135th St. stop on the 2 or 3 train
135th St. stop on the B or C train

WHEN: Wednesday, September 25
Meeting at 4pm – open to the public
Rally at 5pm

Stop the destruction of a great research library
Stop the sell-off of public libraries
Let NYPL know libraries should grow – not shrink

Take action to stop the Central Library Plan and save the 42nd Street Library!

Come to the NYPL trustees meeting and let them know you are watching as they plan to spend taxpayer money on their wasteful, destructive plan. Then, come to the rally afterwards in front of the Countee Cullen Library 104 West 136th Street in Central Harlem. The meeting starts at 4pm and rally starts at 5pm, so please be on time! We want to have a strong presence at the meeting. If you can’t make it at 4:00, join the rally after work at 5pm and greet the Trustees on their way out.

The Central Library Plan (CLP), at enormous cost to New York City and its taxpayers, would gut the 42nd Street Research Library – one of the world’s great reference libraries and a historic landmark. The CLP would demolish the library’s historic book stacks, install a circulating library in their place, and send 1.5 million books to central New Jersey. The new circulating library would be a reduced-size replacement for the Mid-Manhattan Library (at 40th and 5th Avenue) and SIBL (Science, Industry, and Business Library, at 34th and Madison), which will both be closed and sold off.

For more information about the Central Library Plan and its potential negative impacts on both the 42nd Street Library and the circulating libraries it would replace, go to www.savenypl.org

The CLP is part of a larger effort by New York City’s public library systems to shrink their capacity and sell off valuable real estate, which started with the controversial sale in 2008 of the beloved Donnell Library to real estate developers. The rally is cosponsored by our friends at Citizens Defending Libraries.

Wednesday, September 4th
10 a.m. to noon (Doors open 9:30 a.m.)
The Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Education Center
3940 Broadway, New York City, NY 10032
A, C or 1 subway to 168th Street

On Wednesday, September 4, candidates for Public Advocate and Comptroller will discuss one of the most under-reported issues of the campaign. New York City’s libraries are under siege from the Bloomberg administration’s budget cuts. The forum will press candidates for New York City Public Advocate and Comptroller offices on issues such as: the Central Library Plan to remove stacks from the New York Public Library’s research collection and relocate books to southern New Jersey; proposals by the New York and Brooklyn public libraries to sell publicly owned library buildings for private development; and the citywide reduction in library services at a time of growing demand.

Moderator: Roy Paul, Journalist, Commentator and Analyst

Roy Paul is a commentator on education, social and economic justice, and African-American culture and politics. He contributes political commentary on WABC 7 in New York and is a contributor to RapGenius.com. This summer, he moderated two forums with the Democratic candidates for Mayor of New York and a forum for Public Advocate candidates.

Sponsored by: Citizens Defending Libraries; The Committee to Save The New York Public Library; The Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center; Zead Ramadan, city council candidate and chairman of the center; Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcom X and Betty Shabazz; The Harlem Historical Society; and Mid-Manhattan Branch of the NAACP.