The Lafayette Parish Library Board of Control was not satisfied with censoring a voting rights program and failing to respond to the concerns of the citizens. Their assault on our free public library system continues with a proposal to discontinue free access to library resources for patrons in adjacent parishes.
After discussing a plan to exit the Bayouland Co-op agreement, which shares access to audiobooks, e-books, and other digital resources with seven local parishes, several board members are now considering a scheme that would charge library membership fees to any patrons not residing in Lafayette Parish, effectively privatizing what should be free and open to all.
This would also cause many Lafayette residents to lose access to Bayouland Co-operative Libraries and those materials.
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We are outraged at this attempt to censor access to important information and stifle the free exchange of ideas—the very thing libraries are designed to do!
This is not the first time that the board has overstepped their bounds and shown that they do not understand the very thing they were created to govern. Previously, they denied a grant to buy books and host events on the history of voting rights, they have responded to community outrage by bullying the library director into retirement, repeating outright lies about their own actions, and attacking the university professors slated to speak.
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EveryLibrary is proud to work with hundreds of concerned local community members to ask you to take action regarding our grave concerns with respect to the recent actions of the Lafayette Public Library Board of Control, and to ask that the Council, with the authority you hold to appoint and remove members of the board, take immediate action.
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