Tag Archives: library funding

Advocacy, School Media Specialist

Victory for Washington school libraries

Yay!! We always like to read good news about libraries, and this is a very positive article from ilovelibraries.org about school libraries!! Check it out, and celebrate with our Washington state colleagues!

“OLYMPIA – The Washington Library Association (WLA) is celebrating Governor Jay Inslee’s signing of SSB 6362 on March 21st, which added a line item to the bill allocating \$20 per student statewide specifically for library materials. The line item is being heralded as an important addition to the McCleary school funding order that the Washington State Legislature passed this past January that allocated another $1.2 billion dollars for K-12 education.

Washington Library Association 2018 Board President Craig Seasholes and Executive Director Kate Laughlin were on-hand for Governor Inslee’s signing ceremony, recognizing the effort and input that WLA put into getting this line item into the bill’s language, and were joined by educators and library advocates from across the state for the event.

Said Laughlin, “It might seem like a little thing, but getting that dedicated line on the funding bill is huge. This means that school libraries now have a place from which to negotiate in the future. Previously, they weren’t even invited to the table.”

Read more about the McCleary School Funding Order, and SSB 6362.“

Advocacy

Library Election Results from EveryLibrary

Election MG 3455

Tuesday was a pretty good day for libraries in the elections! Regardless of any other political ideas you have, we all celebrate library funding – and it’s wonderful to see libraries being supported by their communities!

Here is the information from the EveryLibrary report. Read through it and rejoice in our successes!

“Yesterday was a great Election Day for the library communities thatEveryLibrary backed! Seven out of 9 of our libraries passed their measures. From Rochelle Park, NJ., where the town will now have a permanently funded municipal library, to Kitsap Regional Library in Washington where $3.5 million in new annual operating funding will take that county system to the next level, libraries were strong on the ballot. Here are the preliminary vote results from November 7, 2017 for each of our communities:

WIN – Moniteau County (MO) – a vote to establish a new library district and a vote to establish basic funding for unserved parts of the county, including the town of California, following a judge’s invalidation of the previous district in February. This is our second campaign in Moniteau County.

WIN – Hiawatha (IA) Public Library – a $1.7-million bond vote, as part of a $4.7-million funding plan for a new, larger library with $2 million in fundraising and a $1 million contribution from the city.

LOSS – Clearview Library District (CO) – a $25-million bond to build a new library and re-invest in the education, arts and culture, and business development work of the library.

WIN – Rochelle Park, N.J. – The town of Rochelle Park did not have a municipal library and has no access to interlibrary loan or other key library resources. A wonderful group of local residents is campaigning to set up a library with guaranteed funding of .3 mills, the “baseline funding” for libraries in the state.

LOSS – Greensburg-Hempfield Area Library (PA) – a 1-mill dedicated levy to put the library budget on stable footing and avoid severe cuts now and closure soon. 3 of the 5 needed municipalities failed to pass the measure.

WIN – Kitsap (WA) Regional Library System – an $0.08-cent levy increase ($3.45 million annually) for operations, collections, programs, services and staffing across this county-wide system.

WIN – Dallas (TX) Public Library – an $11.5 million dollar bond package to build two new libraries and make facilities improvements across the entire system. This is one line item (Item E) in a larger city bond package, but must pass on its own. The team at the Friends of the Dallas Public Library spearheaded this campaign.

WIN – St. Clairsville (OH) Public Library – a vote to establish a new district library and permanent levy funding. This was one of the few remaining libraries in Ohio that only runs on state aid.

WIN – Henrietta (NY) Public Library – a $10 million dollar bond as part of a $12.5 million dollar project to build a new library in the heart of the town.

With these campaigns, EveryLibrary has now helped bring 72 libraries to the ballot and helped secure over $255 million in stable tax funding for these libraries. Since our start in 2012, we have been singularly focused on ensuring that libraries have the resources they need through voter-approved measures. As the only national organization dedicated to building voter support for libraries, we need your help to do it again in 2018.

Next year, we expect to support 20+ libraries places as “red” and as “blue” as the UP of Michigan, in the front range of the Rockies, and in the Bay Area in California. Because of our donors, we provide all our assistance to library leaders and local Vote Yes committees pro bono and for free. If you believe like we do that “any library ballot measure anywhere should matter to every library everywhere,” please take the next step and set up a monthly donation today. Your monthly contribution will let us get to work with our 2018 libraries tomorrow.

Thanks so much for your support.

John Chrastka
Executive Director

P.S. I’m proud of all our libraries, but very happy that Rochelle Park won. There is something very satisfying about helping to set up a new library in 2017….”

 

Advocacy, Programs, Resources

Library Advocacy Efforts Gain Steam

Advocacy Logo
At CMLE we are all about advocacy of all types for libraries!! Keep talking to people about the work you do, and the value you bring to your community! People will be pleased and impressed by it all. Check out our advocacy resources, and you can always check in with us to talk about advocacy ideas!

(From Publisher’s Weekly, by Shannon Maughan)

A look at some ongoing federal, state, and local campaigns

The past decade has seen a distinct expansion of library advocacy across the country, largely in response to budget cuts. As a result, librarians at all levels have been organizing and raising their voices to demonstrate the value of their positions and their libraries in the community. In light of continued tightening of funding, including steep cuts proposed by a new president, the battle cry of librarians has become even louder. We checked in on a few of the most recent efforts.

Appropriations Push

May was a particularly busy month on the library advocacy front. To kick things off, on May 1–2 a record number of librarians—more than 500—took part in the American Library Association’s National Library Legislative Day (and double that number participated online). During their time in D.C., librarians discussed issues and legislation affecting them with ALA’s Washington Office and met with representatives on Capitol Hill. Copyright, net neutrality, and privacy were among other topics on the table. An early bright spot of the event was the May 1 announcement of the federal budget for fiscal year 2017 (ending September 30), which increased federal library funding by $1 million.

But the bigger budget debate at the event was President Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2018 budget, announced March 16, in which he called for the elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the grant-making agency that serves as the primary source for federal funding to libraries. Ahead of the 2018 budget, the ALA had already drafted its annual “Dear Appropriator” letters urging Congress for full funding of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) at $186.6 million and Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) at $27 million. In light of the newly proposed threat to funding, advocacy efforts shifted into a higher gear. Continue reading Library Advocacy Efforts Gain Steam →

Advocacy

Corporate champions urge all Senators to support FY18 library funding

District Dispatch

Posted by: Adam Eisgrau to ALA’s District Dispatch

If you’re part of or connected to the library world in any way, you know that the President’s “skinny budget” released in mid-March proposed eliminating the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the small and respected federal agency that administers bulk of federal library funding. It also “zeroed out” virtually all such appropriations anywhere in the federal government, including programs authorized by the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and the Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) program.

Happily, however, Congress just added $1 million to the IMLS FY 2017 budget in the omnibus spending act signed into law last week. Moreover, it specifically directs that $600,000 of that $1 million be used for LSTA-authorized purposes. It did so after one-third of the entire House of Representatives signed separate “Dear Appropriator” letters in support of slightly increased FY 2018 funding for LSTA ($186.6 million) and level funding for IAL ($27 million).  Two similar bipartisan letters are now circulating in the Senate, where both programs also historically have enjoyed the support of approximately one-third of all Senators. ALA’s Fight for Libraries! grassroots campaign for FY 2018 LSTA and IAL funding is aiming to increase that base of support to 51 Senators – a majority of all members of that chamber.

Continue reading Corporate champions urge all Senators to support FY18 library funding →

Advocacy, CMLE

Contact your Senator’s Office by 5/19 to Support Libraries

Capitol-Senate

Let’s do some advocacy together! Join us for the CMLE Postcard Party in the Park, May 18!

From ALA/YALSA:

“All federal funding for libraries will disappear if Congress accepts Trump’s proposed FY18 budget.  Congress is working on their own version, and we need them to put back in the federal funds for libraries.  Here’s how you can help:

  1. Just 20 U.S. Senators have already signed on to letters of support for federal funding for libraries.  Please find out if your Senator has supported libraries by checking this sortable online tracker
  2. If they have signed on to both FY18 letters, send them a brief thanks.  If they have not, then please call, email, write, fax or Tweet the office of your U.S. Senators. Ready to use messages are here, but you will be asking them to:
    1. Sign on to the Dear Appropriator letter that Sens. Reed and Collins are circulating, which calls for $186.6 million in funding for the Library Services Technology Act (LSTA).
    2. Sign on to the Dear Appropriator letter that Sens. Reed, Grassley and Stabenow are circulating in support of $27 million for Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL).
  3. Check out these other ways you can take action to support libraries
  4. Encourage family, friends, patrons, contractors, vendors, coworkers, etc. to do the same!

Thank you,

-Beth

P.S. if you call your Senator’s office and the line is busy, use Resistbot instead  It’s easy!

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

@yalsa_director

Take action to support funding for teens and libraries: http://bit.ly/2oaiVZD