“The people here value their library,’’ said Cheryl Abdullah, the Dover library’s director. “It’s amazing to see. People use the library as a tool of the community.’’ Abdullah credits the Friends of the Library, a support organization, with raising awareness and money.
“In Massachusetts, state funding for libraries was cut from about $33 million in fiscal year 2008-2009 to about $24 million last year. The state funding this fiscal year is about $21 million, according to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.”
Despite the cuts in the library system, the Dover community has not slowed down in supporting its library and kept it afloat through its efforts.
Difficult economic times are also an opportunity for our state to come together as an community to learn about what we value in our cities and towns, and to decide how we pay for the services and structures we all care about. Civic engagement efforts across the state are playing a key role in helping our friends and neighbors understand both the role of government in our lives, and our own roles in supporting initiatives and reforming the way we provide for services in our state.
Let's hope that we keep hearing about more and more communities that are supporting their public structures the way we've seen residents coming together in Bridgewater and Dover. If you know of other communities please do not hesitate to contact us!
I’m asking this question seriously. IMHO it takes just one person who is fairly well known and well liked in the community to kick it off and recruit a critical mass of neighbors and friends. Critical mass of course is defined by the size of the community.
And you are correct, Judy, the fundraising was kicked off quietly by a person who was a former state rep. and 30-yr. town moderator. This year, Yarmouth is looking to close the West Yarmouth library, and some donors there are beginning to organize as well. MANY libraries on Cape are private libraries which are open to the public, and the ‘Friends of’ groups do a great deal to keep them open when town funding is cut.
you have too.
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p>You can’t lose organizing your community around a library. It cuts across all political types and neighborhood cliques. I still am in touch with folks I met 30 years ago even the cranky skinflint yankee who sends me Christmas cards with a note “I suppose your backing that Obama guy. Sure is a good talker.”
A current Democratic state rep. and I were part of a group that met on folding chairs in the basement of a building like a samzidat, putting together our first truly PUBLIC library friends group. :~)