Kim Cooper, Save LAPL co-creator, reports a good turnout at yesterday's rally downtown, the purpose of which was to convince the Planning and Budget Committee not to slash the public library's budget by $2 million. Yesterday was open meetings; today's budget committee meetings concerning the library are closed.

Kim estimates "4 librarians and 7 members of the public spoke on behalf of the library, and about as many arts producers on behalf of Cultural Affairs. There was one whole row of people clutching library books in support of the cause, which was very good to see."

Kim passed along to Chicken Corner some interesting points from the discussion:

In the last year, 14.7 million people visited Disneyland and 16 million used LAPL.

The LAPL budget is the same as ten years ago--despite 6 more libraries in the system now and much higher use.

The proposed $2 Million cut translates to 100,000 new books divided among 72 libraries divided among twelve months = 114 new books per month for each library, to serve an average of 55,000 people.