Library Lobby Day, in NY, is a day that as many librarians as possible from across the state go to Albany, the state capital, and talk to the politicians in their region about the issues that are at hand. This year the recurring theme was the 18 million dollars that was being taken away from libraries. This is a devastating number. Without inflation costs factored in, it brings libraries back to funding levels from the 1980's. That really is not a good number.
So I went to talk to Al Stirpe, Joan Christensen and a couple others. Now I do need to point out that I have a love/hate relationship with this state. On one hand I feel very close to this state because I have grown so much since I have been here, both in leadership and spiritually. So because of this I feel very compelled to speak up for libraries and to be a voice in my community. However I have never claimed residency here and therefore I still find that I am very intimidated by everything and have a hard time speaking up.
However there was so many librarians that showed up for this event. It was so amazing. So wonderful to see so many of librarians in Albany defending something we all believe in.
We met in a large room and talked to some of the politicians. Many people were networking and just being able to see so many librarians was fantastic.
Then we were able to go meet with a number of senators, assemblymen and others.
Some only sent their aides, while others did not even show up for their appointment. I was very disappointed to see one of my local legislators walking away from his office right when our appointment was supposed to be happening.
While we were there with the Catholic day, which I do not entirely understand, it was still very nice. All in all a great day. We felt very successful and accomplished.
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