Dear friends and colleagues,
There have been a number of postings to law-lib regarding newspaper articles
that discussed how Internet access through local and public libraries has
increased dramaticly over the past few years. While this news is fantastic,
indicating how our society is ever more becoming "connected", especially
through our library system, an alarming issue that has been overlooked is
that of funding. As chairperson of the Law Library Association of Greater
New York (LLAGNY), Government Relations Committee (GRC), I have been posting
to law-lib and the LLAGNY list how the Electronic Doorway Library program
(EDL) is in jeporday because Governor Pataki has cut off its funding. This
EDL program and other states similar programs are what allows the public
access to the Internet in the first place. Librarians, library employees,
and patrons have to become proactive with regard to letting the legislators
that they elected know that cutting off funds for vital library programs
will not be tolerated. While the responses the LLAGNY GRC has been
receiving regarding these issues has been OK, more needs to be done. It is
up to the librarian community to act and take the lead. Besides sending
email and letters to our legislative representatives, librarians, etc.
should also send letters to newspaper and magazine editors and columnists,
informing them of these important issues. The LLAGNY GRC has already
contacted a number of editors, but we need help. Remember, there is
strength in unity.
Sincerely,
Eric M. Kaufman, Chairperson
LLAGNY GRC
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Eric M. Kaufman, Senior Reference Librarian
New York County Lawyers' Association
14 Vesey Street, 3rd Floor
New York, N.Y. 10007
(212)267-6646, ext. 204
Fax: (212)791-6437
Email: ekaufman2@mindspring.com
"Any opinions expressed are my own and not thoses of my employer"
"Knowledge is happiness, because to have knowledge-broad, deep knowledge-is
to know true ends from false, and lofty things from low. To know the
thoughts and deeds that have marked man's progress is to feel the great
heart throbs of humanity through the centuries; and if one does not feel in
these pulsations a heavenward striving, one must indeed be deaf to the
harmonies of life". Helen Keller
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