Letter to Mayor Adams
April 24, 2023
Dear Mayor Adams,
The Maplewood Memorial Library Board of Trustees writes to you to express our deep concern and opposition to the aggressive cuts proposed to New York City’s public library systems in the fiscal year 2024 budget. This year’s proposed cuts of $37 million, coupled with last year’s unrestored City Council funding, slashes $52.7 million from the preeminent civic, cultural and educational institutions of New York City.
Cutting library funding hurts communities. Such deep cuts will reduce operating hours and libraries’ ability to provide vital services and programs to millions of patrons every year. New York City’s public libraries are dynamic, public-serving engines of New York’s intellectual vitality, and a key component for any recovery from the devastating Covid pandemic.
Here in Maplewood, New Jersey, we are part of the fabric of the New York metropolitan region, and are deeply invested in the health and vitality of New York City. We work in New York City and pay New York taxes. Our schools, doctors, and families are in New York. We feel passionately about New York’s democratic traditions and long-standing commitment to diversity and free expression. As such, we are deeply troubled by budget cuts that devalue the public library, our nation’s most democratic institution.
We note that New York’s proposal to slash library funding coincides with a growing national movement to ban books in libraries and schools, particularly those books that tackle issues of racial justice, sexual orientation, and gender identity. We are troubled by rising harassment and death threats against librarians who reject censorship. We are alarmed as statehouses across the country introduce legislation to effectively criminalize books. In this context, New York’s fiscal attack on the library fits a troubling pattern. Budget cuts are yet another deliberate governmental initiative to reduce access to library services, public spaces, books and ideas. Budget cuts ban books.
We urge you and the New York City Council to reverse the proposed cuts to New York City’s public libraries and to recognize the vital purpose of the public library in serving our citizenry and sustaining our democracy.
Sincerely,
Dr. Katherine McCaffrey
President of the Maplewood Memorial Library Board of Trustees