Help Us Reach 500,000 Americans To Support Libraries

Greta Van Susteran recently tweeted to her millions of followers that no college should build academic libraries because it is a waste of money since we have smart phones and her FB video on the same topic was trending on Facebook.

Tim Worstal wrote in Forbes that we should close libraries and simply give everyone a Kindle. The Koch Brothers SuperPAC tried to defund libraries in Kentucky and Illinois, put gag orders on librarians, and spent tens of thousands in opposition to a new library. There are well-established Anti-Tax and Anti-Government groups on Facebook who often come out against libraries.

The one thing that all of these anti-library actions have had in common is the ability to reach of millions of Americans quickly and easily. The Koch Brothers have a database of hundreds of millions of Americans, Greta has Millions of Followers on twitter and millions of likes on FB, Anti-tax and anti-government groups have millions of Americans in their audiences on Facebook, and Forbes’ articles often reach millions of Americans.

Like us on Facebook and invite your friends and family to do the same

Libraries need a way to respond quickly with our own audiences of Americans. We need to be able to quickly and cheaply reach as many Americans as we can with a single Facebook Post or Tweet. If we can educate voters about the importance of libraries, put pressure on politicians and school boards when they try to defund libraries, and respond efficiently when we are attacked, we can drastically change the landscape for library activism.

That’s why I'm not going to ask you for money. Instead I want to ask you for your help to extend our reach to more Americans on behalf of libraries. I want to ask you to help us spend less money on educating Americans about the need for libraries but at the same time extending our reach so that we can talk to more Americans about the importance of libraries. We can do this cheaply and efficiently through our Facebook Page and that’s why I am asking you to take just 5 minutes right now, and invite as many of your friends and family to like EveryLibrary’s Facebook Page. It truly only takes a few minutes to do and has the potential to shift the way we work in a significant way.

If you aren’t convinced to take action yet, think of these articles. In this article, I read about the power and influence of some rogue political Facebook pages that are changing the psyche of American Voters. In this article, I read that Trump is spending 70 million dollars a month to build an actionable database of supporters that he can use to rally to his cause. These Facebook pages and Databases reach millions of Americans with a single post or email and some of those rogue Facebook pages spread information (and misinformation) that empowers groups who are in opposition to libraries. They are working to radicalize Americans to rally them against many of the values that we espouse as library supporters. They are using divisive language and rhetoric, that if goes unanswered, has the potential to drastically shift the favor of voters against us.

If we can build that same kind of Facebook following then with a single post we can educate millions of voters about the importance of libraries. And, even more importantly, if we can build a large enough Facebook page we can get more petitions signed to fight against bad legislation or rally communities to support school libraries. If we have a large enough number of supporters it will drastically increase the number of people who will see our posts and we will be able to ensure that politicians can’t defund libraries or propose legislation against libraries without hearing about it from millions of Americans. And we will be able to do this without spending more money on social media ads and, instead, we can spend that money directly on winning elections for libraries.

There is no other library activist organization that is working so hard to build our networks of supporters. We are starting by trying to build the nation’s largest Facebook page that seeks to build voter or political support for libraries with a large enough reach. We have the opportunity to build that Facebook Page right now and we can’t let that opportunity slip. Of course, we have two ways to build this Facebook Page as I see it. We can use donor money to pay for it or we can ask you to take a few minutes and invite your friends and family to like our Facebook page. But I would rather that we spent your money directly on library campaigns. That’s why I’m pleading with you to help us today by taking a few minutes and using that invite button to invite as many people as you can to like our page.

We are spreading the word about this initiative to ensure that we reach hundreds of thousands of our supporters. But unless YOU take some action today and invite your friends and family to like our page, nothing will change. We have a big huge goal of getting 500,000 Americans to like our Facebook Page and I truly think we can do it, but again, only if you get involved today. Help us shift the fight for libraries in our favor. Don’t let this opportunity slip