Mid-Coast Perspective

As we’re all aware, the budget submitted by Ted Strickland to the state legislature included provisions halving state support for public libraries. The Ohio Library Council has created a breakdown of the impact of this proposed budget cut. As you can see, no library in the state was spared and many library systems stand to see their budgets slashed to the point where they will be forced to shutter their doors.

This site aims to help provide library supporters with the tools necessary to take direct action in defense of our libraries. Our objective is ambitious, but our public libraries will not go quietly into the night, and they will not shutter without a fight. If they’re determined to cut our libraries, lets make sure that decision costs them as much as it costs us.

I’ve outlined objectives below, and I will be making resources available on this site to aid you in achieving these objectives.

1) We need to make sure that every politician in the state of Ohio knows how we feel on this issue. At the local level we need to contact our city council members and mayors and encourage them to adopt resolutions in defense of our libraries, to send letters/emails/calls to the state legislators and the governor’s office, and to join us in Columbus showing support for our libraries. At the state levels we need to encourage our state legislators to vote against any proposed budget that slashes funding by more than the previously projected 19%. At the federal level, we must tell our representatives and senators that we need their support in contacting the statehouse and encourage them to find alternatives to wholesale budget slashing. We also must remind them of the value that public libraries bring to their districts and the country as a whole and request ear-marked federal funding to bridge our libraries.

2) We need to make sure that every person in Ohio knows what the governor has proposed and what it will mean for our community. This means that we need a concerted effort to make sure our opinions are expressed on the opinion pages and editorial pages of every newspaper in the state and at least once per week until funding is restored. You will find a list of newspapers on this site as well as sample letters that I have written.

In addition to writing newspaper opinions, contact local newspaper writers, bloggers, radio shows, and television shows and ask if they’ll do a story, cover a demonstration, and seek state comments.

3) We need to make sure that our elected officials understand the implications of shuttering our libraries. To do this, I encourage you to contact the campaign contributors of Ted Strickland and your representatives and senators and tell them what is at stake and how you feel about them supporting politicians who think shuttering libraries is an acceptable option.

4) Finally, lets make sure our voices are not only heard but resonate going forward. We can make a difference, and as a group, we can remind Ohio politicians that we elected them to serve us, and we will not tolerate being underserved by them.

More to come,

~Johnathon