Bonus Podcast: Library Legislative Week!


Welcome to a special bonus podcast episode!

This week we want to get you ready for Minnesota Library Legislative Week! It runs from Feb. 25 through March 1 – so you have plenty of time to be a part of this important work. If you are not in Minnesota, stay with us; these issues will likely be similar to those in your state, and we would love for you to be part of your state’s Legislative Day or Week activities!

 

If you are new to advocacy, that’s fine! Advocacy is best done as a team sport – we are stronger when we all work together, so you will not be left alone in your advocacy for libraries.

 

All of us, as a library community, need the support of our state legislators to provide funding to libraries. It comes in a variety of ways, goes to different groups, and is aimed at solving assorted library needs. It’s all important, and we literally need every dime we can get so that we can keep moving forward in serving our communities.

But we know that a lot of people do not have a complete grasp of all the details, and it’s hard to start advocating for libraries when you are confused about what exactly is happening. We are here to help! We will walk you through the basic issues, and direct you to all kinds of resources to give you knowledge and confidence to be a good advocate.

 

(NOTE: Legislation is always fluid, until the final approval. You can watch changes happen to make bills and ideas more responsive to the needs of the community and the parameters of funding. Some of these will change as the next couple of months proceed. After recording this episode, the platform shifted slightly to put the regional library systems funding ask together with the funding ask for broadband access. It’s still okay to mention them each – but the funding will be one pile, instead of the two we discuss here.)

The Issues:

First, let’s talk about the issues the library community is advocating for this year. There are four things we will ask for, and we want you to be ready to talk about all of them.

 

Our first issue is:
Increasing funding for library systems in Minnesota

 

This is a two-part issue. We will start with multitype library systems.

 

If you have heard our podcasts, you know we often introduce ourselves as being from CMLE, or the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange. You may not have given that much thought, but – what does that mean? Who are we? What do we do in the library world?

We’re so glad you asked!

 

We are what is called a multitype library system. There are seven different multitype systems across the state of Minnesota. We help to provide support to all the school libraries, public, academic, and special libraries across our system. In the case of CMLE, that means we cover twelve counties and over 300 libraries. It’s a lot!

 

Different libraries need different kinds of support, and each multitype system works to serve their communities in different ways to make that happen. Here are a few things we do at CMLE for our library members:

  • We provide these podcasts filled with all kinds of training information.
  • We visit our members to see how they are doing, and to share their information across our other members.
  • We help to write policies and procedures
  • We help to find and write grants.
  • We provide scholarships to let our members go to conference and training.
  • We provide mini-grants so our members can get needed materials for their libraries, or to try new programs.
  • We work with members on their strategic plans, and on their short-term projects.
  • We send out a weekly newsletter, filled with content we write about our members and the neat things they are doing, about library news, and about programs and books libraries can share with patrons.
  • We are active on social media, and would love to see you there.
  • A lot of our members are working alone, or with a very small staff; we work to build a sense of community to let everyone know they are part of the team so they have other library people to rely on when they need help.

 

Multitype library systems in Minnesota have not received a funding increase in over ten years.

Take a moment to think about that.

You just heard that list of things happening in ONE multitype system; multiple that by all the things happening in seven systems covering the entire state, and you can get a sense of how tough it is to make good things happen. While a lot of the work a multitype system does is behind the scenes, it is important in helping to keep libraries in Minnesota operating.

 

Let’s boil this down to numbers. What is the library community asking for here?

Multitype systems have received $1.3 million a year for the last decade. That sounds like a lot, and it is. But that money gets shared seven ways – none of us receives quite enough to get everything accomplished.

This year, we are asking for an increase to $2 million to share across the seven systems.

With this money, we could provide more assistance to our members in the form of more scholarships, more money for programs, more resources to share across libraries. We could have more staff time to devote to helping our members with their planning and other behind-the-scenes work, so they can focus their limited time and energy serving their patrons.

 

 

So this is your first takeaway, the first thing to mention when you talk to a legislator, when you send an email, when you write a postcard to a legislator:

Multitype systems ask for
a funding increase to $2 million.

 

Now let’s look at the second part of that ask for library systems: the Regional Library Systems. These are the public library systems that cover the state. There are twelve of these systems.

When you go to a public library, and are able to share in the resources of not only what that specific building can provide, but also the resources of public libraries across the state – thank these regional systems for making that happen! They work across cities and counties, to be sure everyone in their system has access to materials. It is a lot of work, and they have also had no funding increase in over a decade. These twelve systems also receive one pool of money, and they share it across the state. Their current pool is $13.57 million.

 

The next takeaway is funding for the second type of library system:

Regional systems as for
a funding increase to $16.57 million.

 

Funding for these two system types is all part of one “ask” from the legislators. We are breaking it down here for you to make it easier to understand what is being requested, and what that money will do for libraries in Minnesota.

 

You can see that as we break these ideas down, they don’t seem so complicated! Advocacy is important, and as we talk about these issue you can see how valuable it will be to your legislators for you to share your perspective from a library!

 

 

Let’s go on to Issue Two:
Create Grant Pool for Library Media Specialists.

 

The Minnesota Library Association (MLA) The Minnesota Library Association is an association of library supporters, representing all types of libraries by helping them accomplish together what none can do alone. They serve the interests of members by facilitating educational opportunities, supporting strong ethical standards, providing legislative assistance, and fostering connections between the library community and various constituencies.

Information and Technology Educators of Minnesota (ITEM) is Minnesota’s professional organization for all school library media specialists, technology coordinators and specialists, technology integrationists, and anyone else interested in application of information and technology to learning.

 

These organizations are banding together to ask for support to fund a grant pool that will enable school districts that face a shortage of licensed media staff to have access to them.

Many of our members are schools – more than 200 of them here in CMLE alone, and it’s tough work. It is even harder when someone is appointed to the library, but does not have a background in all the different things libraries can do for their communities.

 

 

This takeaway to tell your legislators is:

Create Grant Pool for Library Media Specialists

  

 

Are you still doing okay? Advocacy work isn’t scary! Your voice is important – legislators want to do a good job in representing their district and the state, and they need information from the people affected to tell them what is important.

 

We’ve covered our first two issues to share with your legislators. The last two are very quick and easy.

 

Issue Number Three:
Legacy funding

Legacy funding in Minnesota brings all kinds of great things to communities! “In 2008, Minnesota’s voters passed the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment to the Minnesota Constitution to:

  • protect drinking water sources;
  • protect, enhance, and restore wetlands, prairies, forests, and fish, game, and wildlife habitat;
  • preserve arts and cultural heritage; and to
  • support parks and trails; and to protect, enhance, and restore lakes, rivers, streams, and groundwater.”

It’s the third part of the Legacy fund that applies to libraries: Preserve arts and cultural heritage.

 

We talked about public library systems (or regional systems) a few minutes ago. These twelve systems have more than 350 public libraries across the state. These public libraries can benefit from a portion of the Legacy Fund. Through State Library Services, each regional library system is eligible to receive a share of the annual $2.2 million Minnesota Regional Library System Legacy Grant. Click on the Legacy funding website to see all the amazing projects it is funding in your area. No matter where you live in Minnesota, your community has been improved by Legacy funding!

Our third takeaway you can ask your legislators for:

Inclusion of library funding in Legacy appropriations in House & Senate bills at the same level as in previous biennial budgets.

 

 

We are nearly done – and you are nearly ready to go do some great advocacy work for libraries!

 

Issue Number Four:
Broadband funding

This issue is important at both a state and federal level, but today we are focusing on the state needs. The American Library Association recognizes broadband funding as a vital library issue:

“Affordable, high-capacity broadband internet access is critical to the mission and operation of every modern library. Broadband in library facilities is used by patrons to access digital collections, e-government services, and legal information, distance learning, telemedicine, and many other essential community services. Libraries not only offer public access to the internet, devices and digital collections, but library workers themselves are continuously developing new digital content, e-learning services, and other tools that depend on unfettered access to the internet. Library staff also help users to access the internet as a way to create and distribute their own digital content.” You can read much more about this on their website.

In Minnesota, the state allocates funds to public libraries to help provide this incredibly vital service to everyone in the state. We want to be sure legislators understand the value here, and that they continue to fund this for public libraries.

 

So, our final ask for this Library Legislative Week is:

Annual funding for broadband for public libraries (RLTA) at $2.3 million per year.

 

 

Now that you are ready to talk about these issues – what do you do next??

You tell people about them!!

(Yes, that seems obvious. It’s still important to push ahead on it!)

 

Legislators need to hear about these topics – and they need to hear it from you. As someone who works in libraries. If you have not reached out to your legislator before, it can seem intimidating at first. But we promise: they want to hear from you. They will be pleased that you contacted them! They may not always do just what we want; but hearing from you is an important part of the job. Do your part, and talk about libraries!

 

How do you talk to your legislators?

You have so many choices:

  • Attend the in-person Legislative Day activities on Tuesday Feb 26. This is happening at the state capital building in St. Paul. We have more information about that in a minute.
  • Visit the CMLE office, and send a special Legislative Week postcard! We have designed postcards with these issues printed right on them. You can send them to your own legislator – we’ll even pay the postage and drop it in the mail for you! We will have snacks, postcards, pens, addresses – everything you need.
  • Send an email to your legislator. Always give a home or work address, so they know you are one of their constituents. Legislators everywhere are overworked, and always have more things to do than they can accomplish – but they want to hear from their voters! (If you don’t make a point of that, they may just toss your message thinking it is junk mail.) Check out the templates we link to here to help you get started.
  • Call their office in St. Paul or in your home district. You can follow one of the scripts we link to here, or just talk about your interest in the four takeaways we have discussed. Be concise, be polite, and be sure to get your “ask” across.

 

You can spend happy hours on the Minnesota Library Advocacy website, learning all there is to know about advocating for libraries! And, it’s not necessary to do that unless you want to. They have very handy links to anything you might want. We suggest you look at this information:

 

Want a little more practice? You can watch some Minnesota videos right here to help guide you through any advocacy process! Tips and Tricks from Senator Frentz is especially helpful! He provides you with the basics of chatting with your legislator so you both have a good experience.

 

As a little bonus, if you want to have some Minnesota Library Advocacy swag – it’s available on Zazzle! Check out our link, and enjoy showing your love of libraries!

 

Conclusion:

Thank you so much for staying with us to work on advocacy skills for Minnesota libraries! We love libraries, and we know you do too. If we don’t work together as a team to keep funding flowing to these different topics, we could lose library services and support across the state. No one wants that to happen.

Remember: you cannot rely on a mythical someone else to do this for you. Legislators need to hear YOUR voice!

 

You have the knowledge. You have the tools. You have the skills. We are all counting on you!

 

Come by CMLE’s office the week of Feb 25, and we will give you all the help you need to be an advocate. (Yes, that includes snacks!)

And, as a bonus for CMLE members only: apply NOW and we will give out scholarship of up to $50 per person to reimburse you for expenses you incur in traveling to St. Paul for Legislative Day on Tuesday, Feb. 26. This is in addition to any scholarships or mini-grants we have already given to you this year. Apply today!

We want to make it as easy as possible for you, and we are here to support you!!

 

Let’s advocate together, and help to keep Minnesota libraries strong and vibrant!