Date: Election Day, Tuesday August 3^rd

Time: 5:00 p.m. until you leave or closing time

Location: Kelly’s Irish Pub, Downtown Lansing - 203 South Washington Square

We’ll supply munchies, check election results from our designated election headquarters room, and have tables reserved for our party. We hope you’ll stop by to celebrate with us!

And in case you can’t make it to Kelly’s on Aug. 3…

Everyone involved in the Libraries Now!/Support CADL effort wants to thank you for your support in word, deed, and contribution. It is because of you that we are able to provide vital programs and materials to the communities we proudly serve.

With sincerest gratitude,

The Support CADL Team

Even more reasons to vote “yes” on renewing the CADL millage:

From Flickr User: Library of Congress

1. Library usage is up, not down. In fact, it’s way up. And CADL is not asking for one penny of increased funding. Not one penny! Seriously.

2. If the millage passes, it doesn’t increase your current property taxes by one penny, and the 13 CADL branches and bookmobile continue to operate. If the millage fails, the library closes, and your property taxes won’t even decrease enough for you to notice. (Less than 3.5%. Seriously.)

3. Michigan needs to hold on to young, college-educated people, especially families. You’ve heard about “cool cities”? Yeah, I didn’t really buy that either. My family and I don’t live in a loft, and we don’t want to. We don’t want a new nightclub, or a cool place to shop downtown. We want a library. We want story hours. We want a safe place to bring our kids where they can have fun and learn and we can find information on how to kill the dandelions in my lawn or cook a good dinner faster. If you want to keep college graduates in state, fund the library. Seriously.

“What is more important in a library than anything else – than everything else – is the fact that it exists.” -Archibald MacLeish

Earlier this month the Oakland Press published a story about the closure of the Troy libraries scheduled for July 1, 2011. According to the article the reduced hours and weekend closures that are occurring now in preparation for the closure caught many would be patrons by surprise. The frightening thing is that this could happen here in Lansing if library supporters are not aware that the August 3rd millage renewal provides almost 90% of the funding required to keep the library open.

No millage = no library.

This week, I have been asking patrons to tell me what the library means to them and I want to share some of their responses with you. Free books! Free movies! Free music and downloads! Free computers! I expected these because I spoke with a lot of kids who do not realize that their parents’ tax dollars make the library a good value, rather than ‘free.’ Adults tell me that libraries represent the cornerstone of democracy and that the access to all types of information regardless of income level, race, religion, education, physical limitations and age provides an immeasurable sense of security. What I hear most often is how much the personalized service in an increasingly non-personalized world is appreciated.

Do not allow what has happened in other areas happen in our community. Educate your friends and family about the importance of libraries in our community and encourage them VOTE YES on CADL’s renewal August 3.

Anyone here remember the movie, “Short Circuit 2?” In it, a naive robot, who thinks he is alive, is obsessed with collecting “input” or knowledge. As a middle school teacher, I identify with the character. Check out this scene from the movie in which the robot comes face to face with a massive bookstore, a treasure trove of input:

Certainly Capital Area District Library (CADL) provides input-seekers young and old with a vast array (terabytes!) of input. However, the CADL system doesn’t just offer media for borrowing and enjoyment. The CADL system is helping young children, teens, and adults stay mentally active year-round, especially in the summer months. The libraries offer scheduled group reading activities, song and dance, story-time events, live theater, family movies and a lot more. Check out all the summer activities here.

This video explains how programs, like those CADL offers during the summer, should be developed help fill the summer learning void:

As an educator, I concentrate on helping students develop the skills to be contributing members of a community. The library is a perfect place to practice using those skills. The library is a safe, comfortable and respectful place where community members can interact with one another, share knowledge and thoughts, be entertained and discover new things. It’s also a great equalizer, with free membership that allows all people access to its many resources, including free Internet.

The library system is maintained through civic support in many forms, especially the millage, which is up for renewal in the August 3 primary election. I encourage you to join me in showing our young people how as a community, we can participate in the political process to declare our support for the library system. Remember that scene from Short Circuit 2? “See those guys right there? They want to take your books away!” Let’s not be those guys and vote “Yes” to renew the CADL millage.

Mike Vasas is a Lansing resident who teaches middle school music.He runs a music blog project at http://songsnotbyme.com

Michigan is struggling.  Lansing is struggling.  We’re all struggling.  Because of this fact, many people will say that we’re all over taxed and public institutions need to live within their means just like citizens.  These people will be vocal opponents to any millage.  They’ll also say that the more taxes there are the less money an economy has to thrive.  While this may be true in many circumstances, there is at least one exception.   Public Libraries.

Publicly funded libraries are one of the few public institutions that citizens can directly see how much value they get from their contribution to a public institution. In fact, the more citizens use their library, the more value they get from their library tax dollars.    You will probably save more money than you will have to pay to fund the library.  So go ahead, Vote Yes for the CADL millage renewal (they’re not even asking for more money) on August 3rd and get value from your tax dollars.  To see how much value you’re getting, check out CADL’s Library Use Value Calculator.