Category Archives: Advocacy

Advocacy, CMLE

We’re Having a Postcard Party in the Gardens!

Clemens Gardens

We love libraries! (You know that already)

And we want everyone else to hear about all the great things libraries do!

Advocacy for your library is more than just emailing legislators when budget time comes around (though, it is also that – so please email your legislators to tell them libraries are important!). It means making connections with stakeholders, and letting people know on a regular basis about the great things you are doing. (Check out the Minnesota Loves Libraries site for some great ideas!)

We are here to support our members, so we are holding a postcard party! (Okay, and we are getting spring fever and want to go spend some time in a beautiful, riverside garden!)

We will meet as a group in the Munsinger Clemens Garden (exact location will be decided as we get closer to the big day), chat, have lunch/snacks, and enjoy the scenery. And we will provide postcards for you to use to address to your legislators, your stakeholders, and any other people who need to hear some news from your library!

This fun event will be scheduled for the week of May 15; and we want you to vote on the date that will work out best for you. This will be a drop-in/drop-out event, with people coming and going as fits into your schedule. CMLE staff will be there from 11:00 to 1:00 on the designated day. (If there is a crowd, we will stay to be sure everyone gets a chance to get your postcards!)

Right now we are thinking about this as a lunchtime event; but if an evening event (in addition to this) would work better for your schedule, please let us know.

Come out, join us in having fun, enjoying the sunshine, flowers, and river, and making some good connections with people in your community!

What day will work best for you? (required)

 

Advocacy, CMLE, Communication, Resources, Services

Reminder: CMLE Library Snapshot Day Will Be April 27

“Snapshot Day Library Snapshot Day provides a way for libraries of all types across a state, region, system or community to show what happens in a single day in their libraries. How many books are checked out? How many people receive help finding a job? Doing their taxes? Doing their homework? This initiative provides an easy means to collect statistics, photos and stories that will enable library advocates to prove the value of their libraries to decision-makers and increase public awareness.”

On this day, we want all our libraries (and anyone else – we love all libraries!) to take a few photos during the day, to show the work you do. It does not need to be anything especially exciting, or fancy-looking; just show the work that library people are doing.
Continue reading Reminder: CMLE Library Snapshot Day Will Be April 27 →

Advocacy, Training

Appropriations webinar announced for National Library Week

Appropriations, Budgets, and Continuing Resolutions: what you need to know about the Congressional Appropriations Process

Confused about the $1 trillion Federal Appropriations process? Does talk of the FY 17 budget, FY 18 budget, the President’s “Skinny” budget, Continuing Resolutions and Omnibus budgeting leave you a tad confused? You are not alone!

Aissa Canchola of the Penn Hill Group

Aissa Canchola of the Penn Hill Group

To help answer some of these questions, ALA is hosting a webinar on April 13, 2017, 2:30pm eastern to provide an overview of the Federal budget and appropriations process, its impact on libraries throughout the country and the importance of front line advocacy efforts on behalf of libraries.

Join the ALA Washington Office Appropriations expert Kevin Maher and the Penn Hill lobbying group’s Aissa Canchola for an hour-long discussion of the ABCs of the budget process in Washington. These budget experts will help explain how Congress can be working on last year’s budget AND this year’s budget at the same time, what the President’s proposal to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services could mean for more than $213 million in federal library funding and how Congress is expected to proceed in the coming weeks and months.

The stakes are high this year and all federal library funding is on the chopping block after the President effectively proposed eliminating these important programs. Your calls, emails, tweets to Members of the House of Representatives in support of the annual “Dear Appropriator” letters for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) program proved highly successful this year, but we’re only at the start of a year-long FY 2018 appropriations. What’s next on the funding front?

You will walk away from this session with a clearer idea of how Congress’ budget and appropriations machine works and, perhaps most importantly, how YOU can get involved in saving critical library funding for LSTA and IAL.

Here is your chance to hear from the experts and ask questions of how it all works (or doesn’t). No registration is required – just join us on YouTube on April 13, 2017 at 2:30pm eastern and use the #SaveIMLS to ask a question.

 

Advocacy

Take Action for Libraries Day to launch during National Library Week

ALA, library community, advocates, call on nation’s leaders to safeguard IMLS funding

CHICAGO – Libraries of all types are part of a delicate ecosystem that supports the transformation of communities and lives through education and lifelong learning. From the cradle to the grave, libraries provide invaluable resources that serve as a lifeline for billions of users for access to technology, early and digital literacy instruction, job-seeking resources, social services and small business tools.

During National Library Week April 9 – 15, The American Library Association (ALA) will launch Take Action for Libraries Day, a national library advocacy effort observed for the first time on the Thursday of National Library Week, April 13.

In response to President’s Trump proposed budget cuts, this year’s Take Action for Libraries Day will highlight the library community’s efforts to safeguard funding for the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which serves as a critical funding resource for every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. territories to support libraries and museums. IMLS funding helps support literacy programs for youth, small business service centers, services for veterans and technological resources and services like 3-D printers.

Continue reading Take Action for Libraries Day to launch during National Library Week →

Advocacy, CMLE, Communication

Celebrate First Annual CMLE Library Snapshot Day!

Geraldine Fain, daughter of Harry Fain, coal loader, browses in free library supported by the company. Librarian... - NARA - 541514You do a lot of neat things in your library . We love to see them.

It’s just that great combination of ideas that helped to create Library Snapshot Day! This is a national program, but without a specific Minnesota date – so we have set April 27 as our day.

“Snapshot Day Library Snapshot Day provides a way for libraries of all types across a state, region, system or community to show what happens in a single day in their libraries. How many books are checked out? How many people receive help finding a job? Doing their taxes? Doing their homework? This initiative provides an easy means to collect statistics, photos and stories that will enable library advocates to prove the value of their libraries to decision-makers and increase public awareness.”
Continue reading Celebrate First Annual CMLE Library Snapshot Day! →