Last week, I posted an open letter to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, as well as mailing them a letter and a signed copy of the book, This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All, by Marilyn Johnson.
Today I received a response! Jeffrey McKay, the Lee District Supervisor, sent me the following letter:
Dear Ms. Eklund:
Thank you for taking the time to write in support of our Fairfax County library system and also for the signed copy of This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All.
I appreciated the passages you marked, along with the thoughtful points you make about the value of libraries. Because last year, the budget cuts to our library system were so large, I was very pleased to see that the County Executive spared the libraries this year. While it’s too early to know what the final budget will be, I will be considering your common sense observations about the value of libraries in my deliberations.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey C. McKay
Lee District Supervisor
p.s. I am very glad that you were able to rejoin the library system in November.
***
I’ve got to admit — that’s a nice letter to receive.
Mind you, it’s a politician’s letter. Notice that he definitely does not make any promises about trying to restore library funds.
But I do feel like he’s considered what I had to say, and that’s really what I was after. Times are still hard, and I do realize that coming up with the county budget is a huge task with hard choices. I hope they will at least be thinking about ways to restore library funding. It’s nice to learn that the point I was trying to make was at least heard.
And I really do appreciate such a friendly response.