Library Group Says Staff Being Censored

(Updated, Tuesday 3:43 p.m. with correction on date of rally).

Advocates for Fairfax County’s public libraries, who will be rallying at Wednesday’s Board of Supervisors’ 2016 budget hearing, say the library staff is censoring its employees.

While library budget cuts have been in the news for more than a year, the group, Fairfax Library Advocates, now says library administration is also preventing staffers from speaking freely about changes in the system on an employees-only blogs.

Fairfax Library Advocates said in an email to supporters:

There is no room for censorship in a public library system.

Despite this commonly held belief, library staff themselves are being censored here in Fairfax County. Staff have traditionally been encouraged to share any and all news about our library system with each other on the “FCPL In The News” site. Recently library administration has censored stories and comments that may seem negative toward the current administration. This is wrong and fundamentally against our basic beliefs in regard to freedom of thought and opinion.

Fairfax Library Advocates have joined a coalition dedicated to advocating around budget issues. Invest in Fairfax is a broad coalition of businesses, non-profits, human service providers and advocates dedicated to the proposition that Fairfax County, Virginia is an excellent place to live. Libraries are an essential part of Quality public services in Fairfax County. The members of the Invest In Fairfax Coalition believe that Excellence is at risk in our community.

The FLA is gathering in Rooms 2 and 3 between 4 and 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Fairfax County Government Center, 12000 Government Center Pkwy, Fairfax. Several members will be speaking to the supervisors in support of quality libraries and services in Fairfax County.

The group also has a petition supporters can sign.

The Advertised Fairfax County Budget for 2016 includes $27,612,745 for public libraries.  The 2015 budget included an adopted budget amount of $27,828,497, but an additional $2 million was later allocated. Read a detailed explanation of the 2016 library and parks budget on Fairfax County’s website.

Questions? Contact [email protected].