Calendar of Defending Library Events

[Back To Main Page]  (The main updates to this page now just occur in the calendar below.)

Below is Citizens Defending Libraries publicly available Google Calendar.

We try to keep the calendar up to date as best we can.  We don't always succeed.  You are invited to let us know what we should be adding to it.

IMPORTANT UPCOMING EVENTS:

•   Please refer to the calendar above for upcoming events.  We have switched over to this (together with periodic emails to signers of the petition, plus Tweets and Facebook posts) as the primary means of updating people although we may occasionally list put certain future events down below here to get them extra attention.

•   NYPL Board of Trustee Meetings.  The dates for the New York Public Library trustees meetings (which sometimes change) and the other public meetings of its various board committees (Executive, Program and Policy, etc.) are posted on the web (double check calendar year).  Attendance by the public is valuable.  The public is not invited to speak at these meetings.  The trustees meetings (not the committee meetings) are usually, not always, at the 42nd Street Central Reference Library, 476 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018 at 4:00 PM.

•   BPL Board of Trustee Meetings.  The dates for the Brooklyn Public Library trustees meetings (which sometimes change) are posted on the web (click on "trustees").  Attendance by the public is valuable.  The public is not invited to speak at these meetings.  Information about the other public meetings of its various board committee is not available on web although it probably should be under the state Open Meetings Law.  The trustees meetings are usually, not always, held at in Trustees Room, Grand Army Plaza Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY 11238 at 5:30 PM.

 •   QPL Board of Trustee Meetings.  The dates for the Queens Public Library trustees meetings go up publicly no long in advance of the meetings here at bottom of page.  Attendance by the public is valuable.  We suggest calling the Press Office for more information.  The public is not invited to speak at these meetings.  Minutes of the meetings, board packets and other information respecting past meetings is extensively available at the site.  The trustees meetings are usually at the Central Library, 89-11 Merrick Boulevard, Jamaica, NY 11432 and held in the evening.

  •   City Council Meetings, Including its Library and Culture Committees. The calendar for the New York City Council is on the web.  (You can also use it as a porthole to view video of past meetings.)  Libraries are handled by its “Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Intergroup Relations” as well as that committees “Subcommittee on Libraries,” which has a history of being passive is response the domination of  Cultural Committee Chair Jimmy Van Bramer who has consistently pressed for all the library sales and policies related thereto.  The underfunding of libraries as an excuse to sell them is also a budget matter.  When libraries owned by the city are turned into real estate deals the first City Council Committee to get a crack at the proposal before the entire City Council is the Land Use Committee.

   •   City Planning Commission meetings. When, as is typically the case, library real estate is directly owned by the city (rather than just paid for by the city) it must go before the City Planning Commission if the real estate is to be sold.  It's part of the ULURP process (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.) The calendar for the New York City Planning Commission is here.  Certain meetings take public comment and others, which just involve the commission's discussion don't.

   •   Community Board and Borough President Meetings. Also as part of the ULURP process, when libraries are directly owned by the city (rather than just paid for by the city), sales must go before the local community boards (usually starting with its Land Use Committee) and the Borough President.  Even when particular library sales are not being approved it is good to go to these meeting to bring up the subject of underfunding of libraries, sale of libraries and elimination of books and librarians.

 CONTACT: To contact Citizens Defending Libraries email Backpack362 (at) aol.com.

You may also leave a comment with information in the comments section at the bottom of this page.

The first petition (gathered over 17,000 signature, most of them online- available at signon.org with a background statement and can still be signed).   On June 16, Citizens Defending libraries issued a new updated petition that you can sign now:

Mayor de Blasio: Rescue Our Libraries from Developer Destruction

You can also paste the following url into your browser.

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/mayor-de-blasio-rescue-2?source=s.tw&r_by=5895137