Hi gang, Many of you who live in Arkansas already know about the plan brought forth by the Governor's Office to TOTALLY eliminate state aid to Arkansas public libraries. Already, there has been a public outcry in response to this cut, and the Joint Budget Committe has restored just 30% of the state aid for public libraries. More information can be found here: http://www.cals.lib.ar.us/whatsnew/stateaid.htm http://www.asl.lib.ar.us/PublicL/staidpts.htm I just talked to Mrs. Lacy, head of the Jackson County Library, and she said that for the Jackson County Library, the cut in state aid represents a loss of about $20,000 for the upcoming budget year (July 2001 through June 2002.) Many other smaller county libraries, she continued, are in even more desperate need of state funding, and some may be forced to close their doors. Please consider doing the following: (1) If you live in Arkansas, please continue to contact your elected officials about restoring additional funding to the state library system. (2) The Jackson County Library has been of wonderful benefit for those of us doing genealogy. The Library routinely does genealogy lookups free of charge. If you have benefited from the library, please consider a donation to the library to help it continue its top-notch services. The "unofficial" library webpage is: http://www.rootsweb.com/~arjackso/lib_info.htm . Thanks so much for your time, Mark Williamson, Memphis, TN ARJACKSO listkeeper [email protected]