[Peace-discuss] 7pm Wednesday Urbana Library board meeting -- Fwd: Update about 'The Administration of the Urbana Free Library: Hold a public forum and make Lissak explain her decisions.' on Change.org

[Stuart Levy]

You may have heard about a recent massive culling of non-fiction books 
from the Urbana Free Library, apparently under the direction of the 
library's director, and over the objections of staff who were able to 
object.  It's been written up in Smile Politely (see link below) and in 
the News-Gazette, and elsewhere.  It's caused quite a stir - and it's 
encouraging that people are taking the fate of their library so seriously.

The Urbana Free Library board is holding a special public meeting, this 
Wednesday, 6/19, at 7pm.   See below.


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Update about 'The Administration of the Urbana Free Library: 
Hold a public forum and make Lissak explain her decisions.' on Change.org
Date: 	Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:11:37 +0000
From: 	Anand Sarwate <mail at change.org>
Reply-To: 	Change.org <no-reply at change.org>
To: 	stuartnlevy at gmail.com



Thanks to all of you who signed this petition so far. I was pleased to 
read this morning that there will be a special meeting of the Board of 
Trustees this week:

Wednesday, June 19, 7:00 p.m.,
Urbana Free Library Auditorium.

The agenda includes time for public comment and an executive session.

For those of you who are local, I urge you to go to the meeting if you 
can and put pressure on the Board, which has so far been rather mum on 
the whole situation. Some more information is here:

http://smilepolitely.com/culture/miscommunication_or_mismanagement/

The situation is getting some press outside of the C-U community. For 
example:

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/education-oronte-churm/pillaging-city-library

I am not sure one board meeting will resolve the issue to the 
satisfaction of the community. The damage to the collection is quite 
serious, and it's clear that many of the books (e.g. from 500s down) are 
not coming back at all. It took the mayor's intervention to stop the 
weeding process, even after the public opposition started coming in.

To that end I would still encourage you to contact your friends, family, 
and others who care about the UFL and its future and ask them to sign on:

https://www.change.org/petitions/the-administration-of-the-urbana-free-library-hold-a-public-forum-and-make-lissak-explain-her-decisions 
<https://www.change.org/petitions/the-administration-of-the-urbana-free-library-hold-a-public-forum-and-make-lissak-explain-her-decisions?utm_source=supporter_message&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=petition_message_notice>

If they don't like to sign online petitions they can contact the Board 
of Trustees:

http://urbanafreelibrary.org/board-trustees

Mary Ellen Farrell, President : mfarrell at tufl.info 
<mailto:mfarrell at tufl.info>
Chris Scherer, Vice-President : cscherer at tufl.info 
<mailto:cscherer at tufl.info>

Thank you again for your support. It means a lot to me, to the community 
of library patrons, and to the hard-working librarians at UFL who are 
being scapegoated in this process.

Warmly,
Anand Sarwate
anand.sarwate at gmail.com <mailto:anand.sarwate at gmail.com>


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