20 February, 2011

Books In Peril

When I heard the news that Borders was heading into bankruptcy and closing 200 stores, including the one on University Avenue here in Madison, I was ambivalent. Part of me was happy to see a chain store go away but another part of me was sad to see a book store close. Any book store. Plus I hate to see the staff lose their jobs.

But the die has been cast and I can only hope that the 40 or so people facing immanent unemployment find new jobs and that locally-owned bookstores attract some new business.

While Borders suffers its fate, I am disheartened to read that the Wisconsin Book Festival is also facing the prospect of going the way of the dodo.

The Wisconsin Humanities Council, which organizes the festival, has been sending e-mails around that say that "The Book Fest's future is at risk". (I cannot find a webpage with this info and only have a printout of one such e-mail.) A bit shy of 50% of the Festival's budget comes from the federal government. Obama's proposed budget slashes funding for the National Endowment for the Humanites and I wouldn't be surprised if the bill passed by the House yesterday morning cut its budget even further, if it didn't legislate it out of existence altogether.

And so the e-mail pleads with Festival supporters to contact their federal legislators urging them to support the humanities and restore federal funding.

It would be a great shame if this, the Festival's 10th incarnation, were to be its last.

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