League of Women Voters of St. Tammany

RESOLUTION ON PUBLIC LIBRARIES

offered by the League of Women Voters of Louisiana

at the 2024 LWVUS National Convention

Sunday, June 30, 2024 ● Washington, DC

WHEREAS libraries serve not only as vital hubs of access to information, resources, and programming but also as crucial civic spaces for people to come together to learn, debate, organize, and enjoy a wide range of intellectual, cultural, civic, and recreational opportunities;

WHEREAS libraries provide internet access and a range of online resources that contribute to digital equity, both in ordinary times and in situations of emergency and disaster, when they serve as crucial lifelines;

WHEREAS libraries are crucial places for citizens and voters gather to access tools and practice the skills of democracy, including through opportunities to participate with professional library staff, library boards, and local governing authorities in setting library policies and programming;

WHEREAS libraries have been subject to censorship efforts targeting groups on the basis of age, gender, race and other status, along with calls for defunding and/or privatization that threaten their status as public institutions and public resources;

Therefore, be it resolved that public libraries are essential institutions for strong, viable, and sustainable democracies and that access to materials, resources, and programming provided by public libraries is a civil right, which should be enjoyed by all and distributed equitably in our communities.