Lib Politics Rodeo October 11, 2013

Welcome to the Lib Politics Rodeo.

Every Friday we will round up the week’s news on library politics and highlight some of the things that we are following or reading. Here’s what we have in our lassos this week.

In the news:

Anythink covered EveryLibrary on their blog this week. They wrote a nice profile of who we are, what we are doing, and how to help. Thanks Anythink!

Last week residents of Wasilla in Alaska were awaiting the final vote count for the approval of a ballot measure that would increase taxes for a new public library. We have good news this week that it has passed.

We are following even more libraries this week that have an upcoming ballot measure this fall. the Tulsa City-Couty Library (Texas) has a $47.8 million bond for their Central Library Project. This will fund renovations to make the library more welcoming, technology current, and energy efficient. The Richland Library in Columbia, South Carolina also has a bond on the ballot this fall for library updating. Also, because low interest rates. Good timing Richland! And Shrewsbury, Massachusetts library is finding itself in the midst (mist?) of debates over its $23 million dollar debt exclusion bill for new library on the Nov 5 ballot.

Librarians and Libraries are having to step up as the Federal Government continues its shutdown. Student projects are stalled at universities, researchers are unable to get to data sets needed for important health research, and parents cannot sit their kids down in front of the panda cam. Panda cam aside, this will continue to impact researchers in bigger ways as more time passes. It is important that librarians engage politically so that we have a voice during times like this and can find ways to come together and step it up to lessen the impact on our patrons.

Before you leave the stadium today, consider helping us out with our 5k to Philly fundraiser. Thanks in advance!

That’s all for today. Join us next week for another round up. Happy trails!