Category Archives: Advocacy

Advocacy, Books, Children's services

Accio Books! How Wizard Activists are Building & Saving Libraries All Over the World

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Article from Book Riot website: “This guest post is by Katie Bowers. Katie is the Campaigns Director at the Harry Potter Alliance where she helps turn fans into heroes. She enjoys reading, travel, and most importantly, button makers. Follow her on Twitter at @CornishPixie9.”

“In spring, the air changes. It gets warmer, and sweeter, and for the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA), it becomes filled with flying books! Summoned by our members (known as wizard activists), the books collected and donated during Accio Books — our annual literacy & library advocacy campaign — help build libraries and ignite a love of reading for children around the world.

Since 2009, wizard activists have donated over 315,000 books to communities in need. Some of the libraries we’ve built are permanent institutions — lending libraries like those at the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda, the Bedford-Stuyvesant New Beginnings Charter School in New York City, and Borderline Books in Leiden, The Netherlands. Other libraries we’ve brought into being are what we call Apparating Libraries. The library appears overnight, popping up in places like the Brightmoor Community Center in Detroit, Michigan and Operation Breakthrough in Kansas City, Missouri. As young people and their families visit the pop-up book giveaway and filled their bags to the brim with free books, the library slowly disapparates and the books become part of the young people’s personal collections.

These personal collections provide a great advantage to kids, particularly over the summer when students often lose the academic gains they have made over the school year. Research has found that kids with books in the home do better academically, and reading just four to six books while school is out can help prevent the summer slide. That’s why in 2017, the HPA is summoning books to Words Alive, an organization that provides literacy and education services to over 5,000 children and families in Southern California. HPA chapters and members right now are raising thousands of books for Words Alive, who will host an apparating library and give the books away to young people and their parents to build their own magical home libraries.

On top of donating to Words Alive, many wizard activists will choose to donate locally. With HPA chapters in 35 countries around the world, this means that Accio Books will have a global impact. Young people in Orlando will be able to find a new favorite book at UCP of Central Florida, a school for children with disabilities where the Central Florida Slug Club helped build a library in 2016. Rohingya refugees will feel welcomed at a small lending library, currently being developed by Kovalen, our local chapter in Malaysia. At Good Shepherd School in Masaka, Uganda (a school that our local chapter, Masaka HPA, helped build), students can check out books from around the world in a library stocked by last year’s Accio Books campaign. Across the globe, our chapters are pretty amazing — you can find out more about them, and even help their program win a grant at A Community Thrives.”

Read the rest of this article here!

Advocacy, Communication

Build relationships to advance advocacy

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From the ALA District Dispatch:

“A crowd gathered this week outside the El Pueblo Library in South Tucson where Congressman Raúl Grijalva (D) and other library advocates to discuss the possible effects of President Trump’s proposed budget cuts — including the elimination of the IMLS —on libraries in Arizona and nationwide. A statement by ALA Julie Todaro was read at the event, in which the American Library Association thanked Rep. Grijalva for his leadership in fighting for library funding.

A statement by ALA Julie Todaro was read at the event, in which the American Library Association thanked Rep. Grijalva for his leadership in fighting for library funding.

Manager of the El Pueblo Library Anna Sanchez was among those who spoke: “Public libraries play a significant role in maintaining and supporting our free democratic society. They are America’s great equalizers, providing everyone the same access to information and opportunities for success.” Continue reading Build relationships to advance advocacy →

Advocacy

ALA gears up for renewed net neutrality fight

“CHICAGO – This week Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai announced plans to roll back net neutrality provisions. The Commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to begin the process at its May 18 meeting.  The American Library Association (ALA) and its divisions are organizing to protect and preserve the open internet.

Net neutrality is the principle that internet service providers (ISPs) should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking specific services or websites. Net neutrality is essential for library and educational institutions to carry out our missions and support freedom of speech, educational achievement, research and economic growth. The internet has become the primary platform for learning, collaboration and interaction among students, faculty, library patrons, local communities and the world.

The ALA has been on the front lines of this battle with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Congress, and the courts for more than a decade, working in coalition with other library and higher education organizations, as well as broader coalitions of net neutrality advocates. Last week, ALA President Julie Todaro penned an op-ed for the Hill reminding Washington how critical an open internet is for access to information and the communities we serve.

Librarians and library workers know that even subtle differences in internet transmission speeds can make a great difference in how a user receives, uses and shares digital information. We must ensure the same quality access to online educational and noncommercial content as to entertainment and for-profit offerings. Without net neutrality, we are at risk of maximizing profits for commercial ISPs and large content providers, and degrading internet access and choice for all.

The ALA and its divisions are preparing the next steps and strategies to maintain hard-won protections. Members can join the effort by blogging, tweeting and sharing why an open internet matters to you, your library and your community. In addition, several net neutrality allies are beginning to collect signatures and deliver them to Chairman Pai. Here are just two:

Advocacy

Advocacy Alert: #SaveIMLS

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“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.”

Advocacy, Check this out:

The fight for library funding is on in the U.S. Senate

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Posted by: Kevin Maher, from the ALA’s District Dispatch

“The Fight for Libraries! has moved to the United States Senate. Today, two “Dear Appropriator” letters began circulating in the Senate, one seeking $186.6 million for Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and the other $27 million for the Innovative Approaches to Libraries (IAL) program for FY 2018. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Susan Collins (R-ME) are again championing funds for LSTA, while Sens. Reed, Grassley (R-IA) and Stabenow (D-MI) are leading the fight for IAL. For more information about each program and the appropriations process, visit our previous posts on this topic or watch our most recent webinar. Continue reading The fight for library funding is on in the U.S. Senate →