Following a devastating mid-year budget cut in 2023, which saw branches having to close on Sundays, NYC libraries were hit with additional proposed cuts totalling $58.3M in the City’s FY25 budget. This was the largest potential cut seen in a decade, and if enacted would have meant the loss of universal six-day service, as well as reductions in materials, programs, and maintenance spending.
The City's three libraries—Brooklyn Public Library, The New York Public Library, and Queens Public Library—needed a public engagement campaign to work alongside our government relations efforts that would bring together library advocates and supporters, prominent surrogates and allies, and our elected officials and partners in City Hall to publicly oppose these cuts and guarantee the future of library services.
By using a multi-platform public engagement campaign across social media, email, on-the-ground engagement at our local branches, and strong earned media placement, our goal was to encourage everybody from local library patrons to celebrities and politicians to contact NYC officials and let them know that New Yorkers would not stand for the devastating proposed budget cuts.
At a time when public libraries and the freedom to read are under attack across the country, our public engagement campaign spotlighted the critical role libraries play in our communities and we received an outpouring of love for libraries and all that they do. New York City's public libraries executed a months-long advocacy campaign that included leveraging all our public channels to generate attention and support.
As a part of this broader effort with our long-standing partners at Queens Public Library and the Brooklyn Public Library, The New York Public Library’s goal this year was to re-energize our supporters with a markedly different approach that took this serious issue and reframed it using memes and a casual tone to grab the attention of the public and reach a wider audience than ever before by going viral on social media. NYPL has traditionally had a more serious presence on social media, so we knew that our first foray into meme culture had potential to grab attention. We had to be as strategic as possible in our rollout of meme content to ensure that any content designed to grab attention also contained a clear message about fighting budget cuts.
In addition to the tactics we’ve deployed in past budget advocacy efforts—a robust email campaign, engagement at our local branches, and strong media placements—this innovative approach to NYPL’s social media spread our message to a national audience, engaged high-profile supporters like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sarah Jessica Parker, and tapped into the public’s deep love of libraries. By taking popular meme formats and giving them a wholesome public library twist, we delighted and energized followers both old and new. NYPL also engaged with several influencers for the first time, ranging from local NYC icons like @newyorknico to library advocates like @mychal3ts.
Several of our memes went viral, with one notching more than 7M views. Our hashtag, #NoCutsToLibraries, trended nationally and locally on our June Day of Action held with BPL and QPL, with 5.9K posts and 21.3K engagements as library lovers across the internet amplified our message. At the same time, with the backing of a donor from NYPL’s Board of Trustees, we were able to run a one-day multilingual ad campaign in 5 New York papers on the Day of Action that asked New Yorkers to write to their elected officials.
In June, NYC public library funding was fully restored in the FY25 budget. We credit the many New Yorkers who stood with libraries. The NYC City Council's Libraries Chair lauded NYPL’s memes as "iconic."
Notable achievements include:
