What will we lose?

I hope you are still enjoying National Library Week! Visit your local library and tell them how much you appreciate what they do.

Local libraries do so much for people. Right now, funding is stressed and politicians see libraries as an easy thing to cut, even though library programs have been flat funded for 20 years- so it is hard to believe these small programs have caused the state's current fiscal crisis!Gov. Christie's proposed cuts would cause:

• Libraries will lose 50% of state aid at a time when demand for services is increasing dramatically
• More than half of public libraries will lose access to the Internet
• Many libraries will lose email service
• Many libraries will lose their websites or access to them
• The Talking Book and Braille Center (known as the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped) will close
• Group contracts which bring down the cost of other electronic resources purchased by libraries will cease; regional library cooperatives will close
• Access to electronic databases such as RefUSA and EBSCO will cease
• Statewide interlibrary loan and delivery of library materials will cease

This is horrible. Please, make your voice heard. Write your Assemblyfolk and state Senator. Tell your legislators to STOP cuts in funding to Our Fair State's libraries. Visit ILoveNJLibraries.org for more information.