The Friends of The Seattle Public Library had the distinct pleasure of featuring award winning-author Richard Farr at their 68th annual meeting this past Sunday. Farr’s book, Emperors of the Ice: A True Story of Disaster and Survival in the Antarctic, 1910 – 13, has been named winner of the 2009 Scanduzzi Children’s Book Award (part of the annual Washington State Book Awards) in the category of Books for Middle Grades and Young Adults (10 – 18 year old readers). Not surprisingly, Mr. Farr is a serious user of The Seattle Public Library.
Mr. Farr shared with us the email he sent to the Seattle City Council on Monday, October 26th. Please join Mr. Farr and help the Friends reach the goal of 500 emails to Seattle City Council!
Send your email to budget@seattle.gov
The email can be short-
Subject line: Restore branch library hours. Text: My name is ____. I use the ____ library. Please restore branch library hours.
For your inspiration, information and enjoyment, here is Mr. Farr’s email to the Seattle City Council. Thank you, Mr. Farr, for allowing the Friends to share your words and for supporting The Seattle Public Library:
To the Seattle City Council:
Since I’m an author, permit me to tell you a (very) short story:
Once upon a time, in the year 2019, the City of Somewhere went through a Great Depression. There was so little money that few people even had enough to eat, and they had to heat their homes by burning old copies of the City Budget. Because of the crime wave, public safety was the top priority, and it was clear that some inessential service would have to be slashed. Luckily, one of these was a very expensive and not very important program called “schooling.” The city worked out that it could save a lot of money by shuttering all schools for a week, even more by closing them on Fridays, and more still by not opening most of them until eleven in the morning. Everyone was delighted to be able to save the money for things that really mattered. In fact, because the schools had closed, even some of the least important services, such as libraries, were able to keep operating.
Back to Seattle, 2009: times are tough, but we are not in a Great Depression, and it would take a Great Depression for the city to even consider closing its schools. So the question before you today is simply this: what makes libraries less important than schools? Why are they morally easier to close? Why is it easier to consider them inessential?
The Washington Center for the Book just awarded me this years Scanduizzi Prize, the Washington State Book Award for Young Adult literature, for my book “Emperors of the Ice.” I simply could not have written this book except by spending 15-20 hours per week in the Seattle libraries, constantly depending on the skill and dedication (and availability) of its staff. But I’m just an extreme case: every citizen needs libraries. More important still: every child who grows up in a great and (even today) wealthy city deserves a community that would simply be too ashamed to consider library closures as a budget-fixing option.
Please, for the sake of the city itself, let’s be too ashamed to do this. Do not cut the library’s budget. That Seattle “aspires” to be a “world-class city” is very nice, but the stark reality is this: as everyone has known since the Babylonians, a city in which you cannot go to the library is no kind of city at all.
With respect,
Richard Farr
Author, “Emperors of the Ice”
www.richardfarr.net
To purchase “Emperors of the Ice” click here OR To check out “Emperors of the Ice” from The Seattle Public Library click here
Josephine waited 2 1/2 hours tonite for an opportunity to ask council to “think outside the box” to find some way to keep our libraries open. She suggested that The Seattle Public Library try to fund itself like King County Library. Weeks ago, during the Library’s Budget Presentation, Councilmember Conlin wondered if there were some way to change the library’s funding structure. Right now, the library is classified as a “non-taxing authority” and, as such, can’t levy for operational money. All operational money must come from the City of Seattle’s General Fund. Capital maintanence, funds which are also deeply impacted by the budget crunch, must come from the City’s REET (Real Estate Excise Tax). Because The Library is bound to get funds from these sources it is always in competition with other essential services during tough economic times. Changing the funding structure, however, may be a difficult task.
Clare Cronkleton, a facilitator at Seattle Free School and organizer of “It’s Sew Fun” at the Ballard library, spoke to Council asking them to reconsider cuts to The Seattle Public Library. “As community members that promote the sharing of information and resources, we are proponents of the same principles guiding the mission of libraries,” she said.”Free school is able to exist because of accessible resources like The Seattle Public Libraries. Our classes, which now range in size from 5 to 120 students, take place during the very hours that are now under consideration for being cut.” She told Council that the library is, “a symbol of resourcefullness, creativity, and ingenuity–the very traits that should be encouraged in times of shortfall.” On behalf of the thousands of Seattle Community members who have participated in some way or another with the Free School she asked Council to reconsider cuts to library hours.
Susan Adkins, Seattle Public Library Foundation president, relayed the words of Sue Nevler, Executive Director, E.B. Dunn Historic Garden Trust, who wrote, “As an active and committed library patron I am compelled to plead that you do not make these most damaging cuts of funds to our Seattle Library system. Just last year my husband, George Nevler, was honored posthumously for his participation in the Libraries for All campaign. An ardent reader, he visited all branch libraries, save one, before he died unexpectedly at age 50. Our two boys, one with a diagnosis of autism, are both avid readers. My hope is that their futures, though now diminished by the absence of their father, will continue to be shaped by the wealth of knowledge available to them in the sacred space of their library. I ask you to please reflect and do not make these severe cuts which will have a profound impact on the many citizens of Seattle who have their own unique stories tied to their library.”
Rona Zevin told the Council, “The cuts to branch libraries are too severe.” She also told Council that almost no one knows about these cuts. Zevin was petitioning in front of Northeast branch this week and noted the many people who hadn’t yet heard about the potential cut in hours. Today’s 
Patt Copeland voiced her support for The Seattle Public Library and the Library Equal Access Program known as LEAP. Her bookgroup for Visually Impaired Readers “has been a lifeline to many people dealing with the difficult issues of vision loss,” she said. She urged Council to, “Remember that our library programs are more than just numbers or statistics and that the library staff need to be nurtured in their willingness to say yes to new programs and not totally overwhelmed by their fear of budget cuts and reduced operating hours.” She concluded, “Please keep the doors open to our libraries and fund the importance of literacy to all our citizens.”
Camille Jassny stood before the Council with her husband, David, and her guide dog, Brietta, to tell say that she uses the library for a low vision book group. She urged Council,”Please do not cut these programs, do not shut doors. Please restore library hours.” Her book group “ranges in age from young up to 105.” There are 15-20 people in the group which meets at the Downtown library. “Many people travel a distance to get to our meeting by access bus, by foot, or Seattle Transit,” she said. “People need to have a place to meet, computers to use, books to use.”
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