Executive Director
Young Adult Library Services Association
The White House budget that was released today calls for eliminating the Institute of Museum & Library Services (IMLS), the only federal agency charged with providing support to the nation’s hundreds of thousands of libraries and museums. ALA and YALSA need your help to ensure that IMLS is saved, because without libraries teens will not have the resources and support they need to succeed in school and prepare for college, careers, and life. Here’s what you can do right now:* Use the sample messages in this document to contact the offices of your members of Congress
* Encourage your friends, family, and colleagues to do the above as well
Don’t know much about IMLS? Here’s a quick overview: through IMLS, every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. territories receive funding to support their state’s libraries and museums. In FY14 the total funding IMLS distributed to states and territories was $154,800,000. In addition, IMLS offers competitive grant opportunities that individual libraries and museums can apply for. In FY14 they awarded 594 grants (from 1,299 applications) totaling more than $54,700,000. Visit the IMLS site to see how much funding your state receives from them.
Want to take further action to support teens and libraries? We salute you! Check out the free online resources we have to make speaking up for teens and libraries easy.
-Beth
Beth Yoke, CAE
Executive Director
Young Adult Library Services Association
50 E. Huron St. Chicago, IL 60611
1.800.545.2433 x4391
fax: 312.280.5276
byoke@ala.org<mailto:byoke@ala
@yalsa_director