Help Save the Massachusetts State Library!

Still another state library is under attack by the politicians. At a press conference on Thursday, October 29, the Governor's Office announced that Governor Patrick is considering closing the State Library of Massachusetts as a cost-saving measure. This closure will have a monumental impact on the cultural heritage of the Commonwealth.

Open to the public since 1826, the State Library has developed comprehensive collections in the areas of government documents, law, Massachusetts history, and public and current affairs. From the Bradford manuscript "Of Plimoth Plantation" to the ever-expanding digital repository, the State Library has collected items of crucial importance to the record of Massachusetts' historical wealth.

Please sign the online petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveyourstatelibrary/?e to ensure that Massachusetts' heritage continues to remain freely accessible to all members of the public.

You can read more at http://mastatelibrary.blogspot.com/2009/11/save-state-library.html.

Comments

[C N Beattie]

Perhaps you should mention that there appears to be a fee to become a signer of this petition?

[Dorothy Snyder]

Public libraries equal access to knowledge for everyone - not just those who have money. People need knowledge and resources that libraries can provide more now than ever!

[Dick Eastman]

The web site SUGGESTS payment but does not require it. I signed the petition yesterday but did not make a payment.

- Dick Eastman

[Hilltownroots]

The donation page (appearing after you sign the petition) has a big banner "Save Your State Library," but reading the smaller print discloses that your donation goes wholly to the Internet company that hosts the petition! So donations are not to the benefit of the library. However, the last sentence in the body of the petition has a link you can use to contribute to the State.

[Leonard McCown]

How very sad for one of our oldest states. Seems politicians lack the educational background, or interest, to find other ways of cutting budgets. This is part of American heritage that would be lost.

[Mike St. Clair]

I'm sympathetic to the plight of our states, counties, societies, etc. in this tough economic climate, but shutting down facilities like this is short sighted. It's akin to killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. The help to the budget would be short term and miniscule. The damage would be long term and huge.

[Cheryl Williams]

However appalled I am about hearing about the possible closing of the Massachusetts State Library. I am even more appalled that this petition requires a payment and that payment in no part helps the Massachusetts State library. I would highly suggest anyone who wants to complain about this issue write to the Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick and complain.
Cheryl Williams
a former resident of Massachusetts
whose ancestry goes back
to the founding of the Bay Colony

[Roger Moffat]

The sentiments of Mike St Clair are in accord with mine, but apparently not with the numbskulls who decided things in Michigan.

Governor Granholm disbanded the Department of History, Arts and Libraries to save $2,000,000 - or about 30 cents per Michigan tax payer per year!!!!!

In some of the other budget items this would have been a rounding error.

from writer Anne Herbert

"Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries."

[Roger Moffat]

The petition does NOT require a payment - it gives the impression it is looking for a payment, but if you read that screen carefully you'll see above the payment section that it states words to the effect of "Your signature has been recorded"

However it does show VERY poor planning on the part of whoever organised this petition that they chose to do so through a site that would present every signer with a request for money to keep the petition site going, without CLEARLY (ie not in tiny type) stating that you don't have to pay to have your vote counted, and that the money you might pay goes to the website not the Massachusetts State Library.

[Flora]

I would hope that genealogical societies and libraries (federal, state, and local) are having a serious discussion as to how libraries fit in this 21st century with on-line companies that are scanning information and offering it to the public. Are the two compatible or, will one go away because government entities can no longer afford it.

[donkelly]

Please do not close the library. It is an educational imparitive.

Thank you.

donkelly, all over the internet with educational information.

[William C Waters]

People all over this great nation are donating their time and skills to increase our knowledge about our ancestors, as part of this effort we need access to the great reservoirs of data that currently reside in our state libraries. Please do not close the Massachusetts library, it is contains information that is not available anywhere else.

[James W. Crippen]

Thank you Dick Eastman for an opportunity to weigh in on this another Library closing issue.
JC3

[R.R. Bearse]

Typical Ma thinking,keep the public unable to find info on ANYTHING.Glad to say it's my Former residence!!!!

[Shirley Long, Toano, Virginia]

I cannot tell you how excited I was to trace my ancestors to MA. I care for my 93-year-old (immobile) mother and the only way I can research is via the internet. Althoudh the web sites are amazing, I would visit the libraries in person if I could.

I think this is a trend among states looking to keep up with expenses. Closing libraries shrivels minds.

[Barbara]

I just signed the petition and thought they wanted me to make a donation. It is tricky the way it is worded. I would hate to this close, I'm from Salem, Ma and what a shame. So much history being lost.

[Gordy Fish]

This is the oldest trick in the books to raise taxes. The politicians hold the libraries hostage. Its been going on in Phia. for years. How about cutting some of the patronage first?

[Robin Ryan]

I found out you had to make a donation at the end, but by that time I wanted to more than that so someone will listen to us. My post there is...Closing our State Library would cost Governor Patrick (The State of Massachusetts) an intensely amount of time, money and concern, on attempting to take away all the beautiful history we all have worked to hard to preserve for our children. Not to mention being able to educate these precious little minds so they can make our country a better place. We have rights that entitle us to being able to share our history with each other. We are counting on this man to focus on other desperate issues that need attention, like the our safety, our children, health issues, and all of the hungry, homeless people we have to drive by everyday, right here in our USA. HOW DOES THIS MAN SLEEP AT NIGHT??? I hope he realizes the all the time, money and concern should be for our children, health issues, and all of the hungry homeless people............................... NOT TO GREASE THE WHEELS IN OUR GOVERNMENT FOR THEIR OWN PERSOANL GAINS.
Sincerely,
Robin Ryan

P.S. Thanks for the link Dick, you are the greatest guy...

[Larz Neilson]

Of all states, Massachusetts has one of the deepest histories. It's the very founding of the nation. It's constitution was the model for the U.S. Constitution, esp. the Bill of Rights. Its genealogies are among the oldest in the country? What will happen with the material? It doesn't care for itself, you know. This is one of the hallmarks of our civilization.

[Linda Morris]

Govenor Patrick, known here in MA as "Tax It All Deval"! I hope all of you are paying attention; two years ago MA passed "health care for all" and our state is now close to bankruptcy. The health care reform bill just passed by our legislature is based on the MA plan, which requires everyone to buy or be given health insurance. Now libraries and homeless shelters are being closed and elder services are being cut to pay for it! Be prepared for more library and archive closures all across the country if this reform passes the senate and is signed into law. Please be aware the real cost of health care for all is very high, much higher than the politicians are telling us. In the end politicians are spineless and will cut things like libraries before they will ever cut state employee raises, overtime, state vehicles and jobs for people who are connected. Libraries and archives don't vote, connected state employees do.

[Margaret Strachan]

I signed the petition, and you do not have to pay a fee, just close the window after signing the petition.

Just think, Governor Patrick would rather spend $9 million in our stimulus money to build a footbridge for Gillette Stadium, than to save our State Library, or his own state employees jobs (and I'm not one of them). It's pathetic.

[helen tarbert]

As one who searches for genealogy, it would be a shame to have the access of the library of Massachusetts. May Governor Patrick think twice before he takes action