Save LibraryLinkNJ! | LibraryLinkNJ

Update: Bob Andrzejczak (District 1) is now in the Senate and has introduced identical bill S3395. A4815 has additional sponsors:

Land, R. Bruce as Primary Sponsor
Andrzejczak, Bob as Primary Sponsor
Murphy, Carol A. as Primary Sponsor
DeAngelo, Wayne P. as Co-Sponsor
Benson, Daniel R. as Co-Sponsor
Karabinchak, Robert J. as Co-Sponsor
Mazzeo, Vincent as Co-Sponsor
Reynolds-Jackson, Verlina as Co-Sponsor
Jasey, Mila M. as Co-Sponsor
Vainieri Huttle, Valerie as Co-Sponsor

Over the last 30 years, LibraryLinkNJ has been proud to provide you with a variety of services, from delivering books and materials to training library staff. It has been our honor to work with and serve all of you in this capacity.

We currently face a budget deficit of $370,000. This deficit has occurred due to a variety of factors beyond our control. The cost of providing our services has increased substantially, while our state funding has remained flat.

On February 7, the LibraryLinkNJ Executive Board voted to keep LibraryLinkNJ open into FY2020 (July 1, 2019 - June 30, 2020). This decision will allow us to continue to push our state representatives to provide a level of funding that would enable LibraryLinkNJ to operate at full capacity. In addition to providing the services you need for your local communities, identifying and securing this funding will be one of our top priorities in the coming year. Without it, we will again have to revisit dissolving the Cooperative in 2020.

So we’re asking for your help! The bills, A4815/S3395, are now making their way through the legislative process. Senator Bob Andrzejczak (District 1), Assemblyman R. Bruce Land (District 1), and others have introduced these bills that would provide enough funding to preserve full services via LibraryLinkNJ through the end of the current fiscal year.

We are asking that you, your family, and your friends email or call your legislators to let them know you support A4815/S3395, and that you would like them to support these, as well. You can find your legislators by clicking on this link and scrolling to your town:

https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/selectmun.asp

Please contact your State Senator and both of your representatives in the General Assembly. Once you locate them on the website, click “Contact Your Legislator(s)” to email them and express your support for A4815/S3395.

The fight to save LibraryLinkNJ is not over. We are incredibly grateful to have worked for and with you, and we thank you for your support. We hope you will work with us to save LibraryLinkNJ today!

This information is also available in print-friendly PDF.

We thank the New Jersey Library Association, including Executive Director Patricia Tumulty and President Leah Wagner, for their advocacy on behalf of the New Jersey Library Network, which provides funding at the state level, and on behalf of Per Capita State Aid for Public Libraries (A-3801 and S-2668), which provides funding at the local library level. When you contact your representatives for A-4815, please support funding legislation for both initiatives.