FAQ

Update, April 22: You Have Been Heard! The $1-per-book inter-branch charge has been taken off the table as a way of dealing with the Library's budget crisis, and it's largely thanks to the hundred of wonderful emails sent through this website. Click here for more info.

Keep watching this site for more news of threats to the Library as the City budget is worked out, and ways you can speak up about how important a well funded Library is to the people of Los Angeles.

Read on to see what this website looked like when we set out to defeat the $1-per-book inter-branch loan fee:

The Threat We Face
Unless the public makes its voice heard to Mayor Villaraigosa, the Library Commissioners and the City Council, on July 1 the Los Angeles Public Library will begin charging a prohibitive $1-per-book fee for any book requested sent between branches. This is happening even though many new branches were deliberately stocked with small numbers of books and patrons encouraged to order books from other branches for pick up at their local library. And since February, the Library has had a freeze on buying new books.

How Can You Help?
You can use this website to easily send an email (note: link no longer sends an email) in support of a free public library to Mayor Villaraigosa, the Library Commissioners and the City Librarian, who will also share your emails with the City Council. You can also
post your suggestions for alternative fundraising options to support Library book purchases on our Public Forum. And please tell your friends.

What Happens Next?
Mayor Villaraigosa will announce his proposed 2008-09 Budget, and then it will go before the Budget Finance Committee for discussion in meetings from April 28 through May 13. The Library budget will be discussed on Thursday, May 1. The Committee will be told about the public feeling surrounding the proposed Library fee increase, and members of the public will have an opportunity to speak. Based on public outcry, the Budget Finance Committee may choose to recommend that these proposed fees are not implemented. The Budget will then pass to the full City Council for approval.

What Do Librarians Think?
L.A.'s librarians don't want to see their budgets cuts, or fees added that will keep people from using the library either. If you support this cause, please tell your local librarian that you appreciate their work and you are working to help keep the library free for everyone.

Who Made This Site?
This website was launched by Kim Cooper and Richard Schave, the newlywed L.A. writers and social historians behind Esotouric bus adventures and the 1947project and On Bunker Hill time travel blogs. This is their third preservation website following successful campaigns to Save the 76 Ball and to have writer Charles Bukowski's East Hollywood bungalow named a historic-cultural monument. Now they turn their organizing efforts to protecting the Library they grew up with and still use constantly in their daily life and work.

Supporting Documents
Minutes of Library Commissioner’s Meeting—March 20, 2008 during which Commissioner Rita Walters moved to approve the 2008 Fines and Fees Schedule of the Los Angeles Public Library, effective July 1, 2008

Library Budget 2008-09 information page explaining the need for a proposed $1-per-book interbranch loan fee

Scheduled Budget & Finance Committee Hearings on the Mayor's Proposed 2008-09 Budget with the Library budget scheduled for consideration on Thursday, May 1

We also urge you to click here to see feedback on this website from Fontayne Holmes, our City Librarian, and a way for library lovers to donate directly to a special fund created to buy new books.