Thank you for your amazing outpouring of support.

- State Legislators and the Governor have heard your voice. Most have reported
receiving over 15,000 E-mails, and phone calls.

- We thank them for listening and being attentive to the needs of our library
systems across Knox County and the State of Ohio

- Now we must wait for the Conference Committee and the General Assembly
to reach a decision about the budget.

June 26 - Library Crisis Update From John K. Chidester, Director, Public Library of
Mount Vernon & Knox County:

Gov. Strickland has not changed his position on his proposal to cut public library funding by more than 30%, over and above the 20%
which has already occurred as a result of declining tax revenues.  However, a large number of our state legislators have expressed their
intention not to support these cuts.  Since it is the General Assembly that ultimately decides on the biennial budget bill, we are hopeful that
these expressions of support will translate into some significant measure of relief for libraries when the final vote is taken.  We would like to
express our deepest gratitude to all who raised their voices in support of libraries over the past several days.  Your message has clearly been
heard by our legislators.  Please stay tuned.  We will issue updates and additional information as the situation develops.

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If the original budget from Governor Strickland were to pass, the cuts to the Public Library
of Mount Vernon and Knox County would mean:

--A 65% reduction in library staff
--Possible closing of up to two library branches
--Severe restriction of hours, staff  and services in the remaining two branches
--Restricted public access to Internet, job searching resources, small business
information, health information and other resources
--Increasingly severe restriction of library materials: Books, newspapers,
magazines, CDs, DVDs

We need to act now to stop this from happening! The July 1 deadline for the State budget has
passed and Ohio is now operating under an interim budget until at least July 7. The legislators are
still working to finalize their decisions on library funding and other key portions of the budget.
Send your objections to the Governor and six members of the Conference Committee
as well as our legislators ASAP. Continue to let your voice be heard.