SaveLAPL gets libraries to stay open on Sundays

Grassroots SaveLAPL Website Succeeds In Keeping Library Branches Open Sundays

WHAT: After one month and 1300 emails from SaveLAPL.org visitors, proposed Sunday closures for Los Angeles regional branch libraries is reversed

WHERE: Grassroots preservation campaign - http://www.savelapl.org
Supporting documents and FAQ - http://www.savelapl.org/faq

In the week leading up to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's 2008-09 budget announcement, a grassroots group of book lovers, L.A. historians, librarians and free software activists came quickly together as saveLAPL.org to draw attention to disturbing proposals to implement a $1-per-book loan fee for inter-branch library requests and close the regional branch libraries on Sundays.

The website was built on an open source platform first developed for Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign, CivicSpace, a free tool available for quick and easy public organizing. Within one month, following 1300 impassioned emails to the Mayor and other city officials, the $1 fee and Sunday closures were taken off the table (saving 36.5 jobs) in a stunning victory for those who believe, as Benjamin Franklin did, that the Public Library must remain FREE and ACCESSIBLE for all citizens.

On May 14, members of the L.A. City Council Budget & Finance Committee, after being the recipients of hundreds of pro-library emails from SaveLAPL visitors, released their recommendations for the city budget, and thel ibrary was at the front of their minds.

Councilwoman Wendy Greuel told the Daily News, "There is still pain across the board. We restored the bare minimum to the services. But we were able to restore some of the things that are important to our constituents, like libraries, sidewalks, streets and park rangers."

The full City Council will begin voting on the budget on May 19, and is expected to follow the Budget & Finance's recommendations.

This is a victory for library lovers across Los Angeles, and means that next year no one will have to pay $1 to borrow a book from a different branch or be unable to visit a library on a Sunday. Will LAPL be properly funded to buy books next year,-- unlike this year when book purchases stopped in February? We'll have to wait and see what the final budget says, but we are hopeful that the current pro-library feeling across the city and among the City Council member will encourage full funding.

The branches no longer effected by proposed Sunday closures are North Hollywood, Mid-Valley Regional, Arroyo Seco, West Los Angeles, Hollywood (Goldwyn Branch), Exposition Park, San Pedro and West Valley. By remaining open on Sundays, 36.5 library jobs will be saved.

The SaveLAPL.org website was launched by Kim Cooper and Richard Schave, the newlywed L.A. writers and social historians behind Esotouric bus adventures and the 1947project time travel blog. This was their third preservation campaign following successful campaigns to Save the 76 Ball and to have writer Charles Bukowski's East Hollywood bungalow named a historic-cultural monument. They are thrilled to have been able to help focus the attention o city officials on the importance of maintaining a free, accessible and well funded public library.

Launched late in the evening of April 14, at the start of National Library Week the www.savelapl.org website resulted in more than 1300 emails to the Mayor, Library Commission, Budget & Finance Committee and City Librarian, features on KCRW's "Which Way LA," KPCC, KPFK, KXLU and KFWB, an Op-Ed by actress Julie Andrews in the LA Times, and coverage in the Daily News, Library Journal, LA Weekly and many blogs including LAObserved, Librarian.net, the L.A Times online, Franklin Avenue, Pico and the Man and Mickie's Zoo.