This year we are doing the Read-In bigger, better, and more in your face. We have moved locations and dates and will be right at City Hall on a Tuesday and Wednesday right up where the city can see us. We are out there reading around the clock again from 4PM June 9th to 4PM June 10th on the City Hall plaza on the Brooklyn Bridge side by the subway stop. 
Why are we going to be out there again this year? Well, funny thing, we really thought this mayor was going to be different but it is up to the City Council to save the day once again. The mayor took back the $10 million that was added to operational budgets for libraries and offered up a quarter of what libraries need in the Capital Plan. This will once again leave libraries understaffed and scrambling and will continue the slow and sad deterioration of our public buildings under de Blasio’s watch (despite the agreement that the City would maintain the library buildings and keep them in good repair).
We are holding the Read-In to coincide with a City Council Stated Meeting and are already seeing great support from our elected official allies in the library fight. We are having a rally on Wednesday June 10th at 11AM to call attention to this issue and have a public showing of support for libraries from our friends on the City Council.
Speaking of friends we would like to thank our good friends at Brooklyn Public Library for being amazing hosts for the last five years of this event. We hope that someday the Read-In can be a celebration of libraries in the city but this year we have got to take it to where the pols live and draw as much attention to this as we can.
Please sign up here for slots at the Read In and to volunteer.
Please check out the libraries’ Invest in Libraries campaign for more information and details about the impact of libraries in Our Fair City.