☾sapere aude☽

The moon and the sunset and even the sea and trees are sort of unstoppable. There is not much anyone could do to make these things not persist, even if they made a really concerted effort. Libraries are unfortunately not in that category - we are in fact kind of the opposite of that category in that actually we disappear frighteningly quickly and easily without constant support.

It worries me a little to see people paint us as anything other than fighting a series of pitched battles to survive. We persist because we're fighting those battles, all the time, but your help fighting them is not just appreciated but specifically and extremely necessary.

Using libraries is a really helpful first step in helping us persist, but at this point, we may need more people to go on to the second step of telling your local municipal politicians about it when you do. I'm not sure where Tumblr got the idea that increased library use translates directly into increased funding for libraries, but that hasn't ever been true in my experience. It's just an effective argument you can make when asking for an increase. And the politicians don't much like listening to us about it, even when we are giving them the Very Impressive Numbers you help us get to by using our services, because when we do it we are usually asking them for money, which tends to make every argument less compelling.

So, your voice has a really outsize impact compared to ours - it really does help! We got our asses saved recently by a group of about 20 concerned citizens just showing up at a council meeting where they were discussing stopping payments for library support. They didn't get to speak or anything, they just sort of showed up and made it clear why they were there and stared down the mayor about it. And they did, in fact, keep the payments going! I cannot overstate how incredibly efficient your voices are, compared to ours.

If we are going to stick around, I think we're going to need the extra oomph that efficiency provides. Please, if you would like libraries to persist... Help us do that.

Sincerely,

four metal chopsticks engraved with a quote from the poem "north country" by mary oliver: