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

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

Originally published 6/30/10 in the Lansing City Pulse.

by Gavin Craig – Lansing, MI

In 2005, my wife and I moved back to the Lansing area after an unsuccessful year looking for work in Detroit and the east coast. We knew the area well from our time at Michigan State University, but we were coming back without much of a support system. Our closest family was in Detroit (my father lives in Chicago, and my wife’s parents in New Jersey), and nearly all of our friends had moved out of the area (and the state). Our daughter was a little more than a year old at the time, and we were expecting our second.

We were living on a single income, and needed entertainment and educational resources for a stay-at-home-mother and a place for the family to get out and socialize. We found all of this in the Capital Area District Library’s Foster branch, which had a great collection of kids’ books and music, and a weekly story hour.

Our children are older now, and my wife and I are both working full-time, but the library is still a big part of our lives. Our daughters check out more chapter books than picture books these days (Cynthia Rylant is a particular favorite), but Sesame Street CDs are still popular, and audiobooks still keep us all happy, healthy, and sane on the long drives to visit grandparents in Chicago, New Jersey and Tennessee.

Aug. 3, voters will be asked to renew the millage that supports the Capital Area District Library. Even with increased operation costs and record levels of library use, CADL has not requested additional funds, but only a renewal of the millage. This millage covers nearly 90 percent of CADL’s operation. Without it, 13 CADL branches will close by Jan. 3, 2011.

The Capital Area District Library is an essential community resource, and one of the best values in the area. In 2009, more than 1.5 million visitors checked out 2.7 million items. My family conservatively estimates that we get $148 for every dollar of our property taxes that goes to support the library.

Even more, my daughters get excited when it’s time to go to the library. They love to return books on the conveyor belt in the downtown branch, they meet up with friends by accident or at special events. They sit and read, and read and read.

Please vote to renew CADL’s millage on August 3. The library is a treasure.

A new page has been added to supportcadl.org. The Support CADL Toolkit is available here, and includes everything you need to know and have in order to help support the Capital Area District Library millage campaign! The Toolkit outlines how to make an impact in everything from a minute to a day. You can also download and distribute our official flyer, as well as talking points and email templates for informing your friends about the millage.

With the August 3rd vote for CADL’s operational millage fast approaching, the time has come to start spreading the word about the vote.  What can you do to help? Talk to everyone you know about the value the library has to you.  If you bring your children to storytimes, use the library to feed your book habit, or use the computers to access information, make sure to tell a friend.  Positive word of mouth is one of the best ways you can help support the Capital Area District Library, and make sure they continue to provide invaluable services in the future!  Check out the CADLwebsite for more specific information about the millage renewal.

Got a story to share? Tell CADL Your Story!

Visit www.cadl.org/stories to share your favorite memory of the library. Or just tell CADL what you like about the library. Unsure where to begin? Check out CADL’s Library Value Calculator at www.cadl.org/calculator.