If you have not heard funding and access to the Library of Virginia is in jeopardy thanks to the Legal Genealogists blog post yesterday. Today I received an email spelling out exactly what needs to be done. If you want to help, PLEASE do. The Library of Virginia needs your help this week to get its budget amendments through the Senate Finance Committee. It is a repository beyond compare and one which is need for research from a variety of fields.
To be clear, without full funding, this is how the LVA will be effect:
.... Without a private papers specialist, new private papers (from newly donated bible records to private historical documents collected from the public and scanned as part of the CW150 or WWI centennial projects) will remain unavailable to researchers. LVA has been unable to put Virginia’s vital records from 1853-1896 (and some to the 1930’s) online, largely because it has not had the staff to prepare and issue RFPs or negotiate and manage a contract with a vendor like Ancestry to scan, digitize and index the records.
Senate Finance will be coming out with its budget by Sunday of this week (February 5). Please send a letter TODAY if possible, to Senate Finance Members asking them to fully fund LVA’s two relatively modest budget requests...
You do not need to be a resident of the state of Virginia to help. Write, call, send a carrier pigeon, but let the legislature know that we need this funding for the library to go through.
Please concentrate messages to Senator Tommy Norment (Williamsburg/James City County), Dick Saslaw (Falls Church/Alexandria), Emmett Hanger (Augusta/Staunton/Waynesboro) and Frank Ruff (Mecklenburg-Danville) becasue they have not came out in support. Also, the Education Subcommittee of Senate Finance are the key people to contact. Those persons are Senators Norment, Newman, Howell, Saslaw, Hanger, Ruff and Dunnavant.
Please preserve Virginia’s history and make it accessible to researchers!
The members of the Senate Finance Committee in block email are as follows:
district03@senate.virginia.gov; district24@senate.virginia.gov; district32@senate.virginia.gov;district35@senate.virginia.gov; district18@senate.virginia.gov; district23@senate.virginia.gov; district15@senate.virginia.gov; district07@senate.virginia.gov; district04@senate.virginia.gov; district27@senate.virginia.gov; district40@senate.virginia.gov; district26@senate.virginia.gov; district39@senate.virginia.gov; district12@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Thomas K. Norment Jr: (804) 698-7503 district03@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Emmett W. Hanger, Jr: (804) 698-7524 district24@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Janet D. Howell: (804) 698-7532 district32@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Richard L. Saslaw: (804) 698-7535 district35@senate.virginia.gov
Senator L. Louise Lucas: (804) 698-7518 district18@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Stephen D. Newman: (804) 698-7523 district23@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Frank M. Ruff, Jr: (804) 698-7515 district15@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Frank W. Wagner: (804) 698-7507 district07@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Ryan T. McDougle: (804) 698-7504 district04@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Jill Holtzman Vogel: (804) 698-7527 district27@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Charles W. Carrico, Sr.: (804) 698-7540 district40@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Mark D. Obenshain: (804) 698-7526 district26@senate.virginia.gov
Senator George L. Barker: (804) 698-7539 district39@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Siobhan S. Dunnavant: (804) 698-7512 district12@senate.virginia.go
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