Support Your Local Library
A note from the Director concerning proposed cuts to the Mississippi Library Commission's funding:
I wanted to take a moment to share with you how decreased funding at the Mississippi Library Commission will affect Lamar County Library System patrons. Currently 21% of the personnel expenditures at Lamar County Library System come from grants we receive from the Mississippi Library Commission. We are currently serving over 15,000 patrons a month with a staff of only 15 full time employees. Our smaller branches only have 2 full time staff members.
Reducing staff hours would also mean reducing the hours that we open for business. When staff members are sick, it might mean closing the branch because there would likely be no extra staff to send to cover the branches. It would also mean cutting programming out almost completely, save for storytimes and maybe one adult program per branch because we could simply would not have the staff available to conduct them. Staff would have less time to help patrons when they need one-on-one help with homework, job applications, resumes and research for school. The patrons would suffer tremendously if we lost staff and had to reduce service hours, right now at a time when they need us the most. Losses to other grants that we receive from the Mississippi Library Commission would mean that we would not be able to offer public service programs, replace the public computers, or purchase books. Not replacing computers alone would have terrible repercussions for those 3000 patrons a month who rely on our computers for school, job seeking and resume-building. So many of our patrons who use the computers do not have, or cannot afford, computers or Internet services. At a time when government programs, classes and job applications are only offered online, not having access to the Internet greatly reduces those patrons' access to services and job opportunities.
Please contact the Governor as well as your local legislators to voice your concern over this. There will also be a rally at the State Capitol at 11am on Tuesday, March 29th. It is more important than ever that Friends, Trustees and patrons of the Lamar County Library System take action. Please attend this rally if you are able and contact your legislators:
Governor Barbor: 1-877-405-0733 or 601-359-3150/P.O. Box 139, Jackson, Mississippi 39205/governor@governor.state.ms.us.
Senate
Joey Fillingane:8 Westbrook Drive,Sumrall, MS 39482/jfillingane@senate.ms.gov
Tom King: PO BOX 1134,Petal,MS 39465/tking@senate.ms.gov
Billy Hudson: 27 Troon Circle,Hattiesburg, MS 39401/bhudson@senate.ms.gov
House
Harvey Fillingane: 241 Fillingane Rd.,Sumrall, MS 39482/hfillingane@house.ms.gov
Toby Barker: 409 S 21st Ave.,Hattiesburg, MS 39401/tbarker@house.ms.gov
Larry Byrd: 17 Byrd Road,Petal, MS 39465/lbyrd@house.ms.gov
Herb Frierson: 12 Trailwood Lane,Poplarville, MS 39470/hfrierson@house.ms.gov
Bill Pigot: 92 Pigott-Easterling Rd.,Tylertown, MS 39667/bpigot@house.ms.gov
Ken Morgan: 1640 Highway 587, Morgantown, MS 39483/kmorgan@house.ms.gov
Perhaps if these people who do not have internet access and computers would get their priorities right and forego the Nike tennis shoes and clothes, the smartphones and $500 to $1000 car boom boxes and used their "earned income tax credits" (an oxymoron), they could buy a computer. Heaven for bid spending any money on anything educational!
ReplyDeleteThere is a wide spectrum of individuals that use the library and it's resoruces. Personally, I haven't seen anyone with a boom box parked at the library, but I have seen people that may not have the extra money to buy a computer or pay for internet services use the library. But it's funny how people find anything to use to bash some one else. I guess people find entitlement anywhere they can. I am glad the library is open and serves as a center of resources for those in the community. I truly hope they get the funding needed to keep all their employees.
ReplyDeleteAside from affording Internet access, there are so many families living in the rural areas who do not have access to broadband. With the Internet sites being graphically and Java-based, doing something as simple as opening an email or trying to fill in a job application on dial-up is impossible. I think it is sad that no matter what kind of post is put on this blog, there is always someone who just wants to be ugly and snarky. That first comment really contributed a great deal of intelligence to the conversation, didn't it? I never cease to be amazed. Despite what some of the ignorant comments on these blog comments suggest, there are intelligent, good people in Lumberton who want nothing more than to see this city rise up out of the chaos it is in now. I just wish more of them would post comments and show that we are not all a bunch of red neck white and black idiots just trying to stab each other in the back.
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