A library is your place to read, study, learn, get inspired, do research, write your novel, and take classes — for free. For those reasons and more, libraries are one of the most crucial resources a community provides.

Nationwide, funding for libraries has been declining over the years. New York City has started to reverse that trend, but this fragile progress depends on City leaders as they write their budget.

That’s where you come in. City leaders don’t want to hear from Library staff about how important the Library is — they need to hear directly from real New Yorkers who rely on their local Library.

Write one sentence to describe what your library means to you. We’ll deliver your stories to New York City leaders to make sure they know how important the library is to you!

Yay libraries

Liz Manhattan

"Librarian" is the very best version of me.

Beanbag Bushwick

How would I ever have become the person I am today without the New York Public Library!

Jane New York City

Pace -- and expansion -- of mind!

Maria Jersey City, NJ

"This was the first library I can remember going to as a child, and it cracked my imagination wide open, letting wonder and possibility rush in."

Emily Cortelyou, Brooklyn

My first library visit was at the Park Slope library in Brooklyn. Sixth Avenue if I remember correctly when I went Holy Family grammar school.

John Park Slope Brooklyn

Great place for free services. Keep it going.

Steven New York, NY

A library is the home for my imagination

Salaar Ozone park

Libraries are the hubs of communities- whenever I first moved into a neighborhood, my first stop was to visit my local library to see what it had to offer for myself and the members of my family- I was never disappointed!

Emily Manhattan

The library has been a place for me where i am able to do to the past by reading books like Ancient history, art and other subject matter. The library hold help make learning fun. The library is one of the blessing of being a human being.

Monse Bronx

A place to bring all of my children who span a wide range.

Cecily Bronx

Libraries matter in our contemporary times because it reperesents a counter balance to the deluge of misinformation which prevents citizens in a democratic or any society from making progressive decisions.

Abayomi Former beneficiary of the Brooklyn and New York city library system. Presently applying to become a librarian in your library system. Thanks for the opportunity to support libraries.

Libraries taught me that no matter what you're interested in - there is a book for you!

Jillian Queens