“Last month, library supporters across the country called on their Representatives to sign annual letters of support to the Appropriations Committee urging $186.6 million in federal funding for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and $27 million for the Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) in FY 2018. As a result, a record one-third of the entire House of Representatives signed those critical letters!

Now it’s time to keep that rally going in the Senate where our bipartisan champions have delivered their “Dear Appropriator” letters supporting LSTA and IAL to their fellow Senators. That means it’s up to you to:

• Use the ALA Legislative Action Center to contact the offices of both of your U.S. Senators by email, tweet or phone (or all three!).
• Ask them to “sign the FY18 LSTA and IAL Dear Appropriator letters.“
• Ask everyone you know who values libraries to take action, too. Your staff, governing and advisory boards, volunteers, vendors, Friends, foundation members and patrons all can help keep LSTA and IAL funding from being eliminated or slashed.
• Check up on your Senators! Use our easy tracking tool and, if you don’t see your Senator listed as a signator of the LSTA and/or IAL Dear Appropriator letters, ask them again to sign on right away.

Able to do a bit more? Check out Fight for Libraries! to tell us your story of how federal funding makes a difference in your library so we can tell strategically retell it to Members of Congress, and participate in National Library Legislative Day online on May 1.

Send an Email  Make a Call  Send a Tweet

Need more background information? Visit our previous posts on this topic or watch our most recent webinar.”