If you didn’t already know that we are really excited about libraries, and love to talk about them, then: Hello! Welcome to your very first day with CMLE!! We’re into libraries here, and we hope you are too!

The Minnesota Library Association (MLA) organizes Library Legislative Day each year. This year, it is Tuesday, March 6.

Check out this MLA/ITEM Legislative Legwork Committee site – new this year with a TON of great info!! If you have ever wanted to know even the smallest detail of what it’s like to go to Legislative Day (spoiler: it’s fun!), it is here!

If you would like to attend Legislative Day, CMLE members can apply for scholarships to cover the costs of finding a sub, traveling, or other costs associated with your attendance. We will give you a scholarship for this event, even if you have already received one this year or are planning to attend something else. Legislative Day is important to libraries, and we want to support you in attending!

BUT!!!! AND!!!!

What if you can’t make it to this very good event? No worries – the MLA/ITEM site has you covered there too!

There is a bunch of information about being part of Virtual Library Legislative Day activities! You can participate all week long, from your desk, at night after the kids go to sleep, in the morning while you wait for coffee to brew – whenever is best for you!

CMLE knows we have members who are not able to attend, but want to advocate for their libraries and for their library systems. We will host an in-person event at our Headquarters on Tuesday, March 6. From 9:00 to 3:00 that day we will be in our Headquarters (570 1st Street SE – next door to Target), advocating for libraries. Join us!!

• We will provide postcards, a computer, a phone, pens – all the tools for communication.
• We will have information on the 2018 MLA/ITEM Legislative Platform and the 2018 Key Messages.
• We will have email and physical addresses of legislators.
• We may possibly also have Lady Grey in house, to provide support and encouragement. (She’s a big library supporter!)

What will happen?

• Send an email to your legislator. Get a cookie.
• Call to support one of the bills. Get a cookie.
• Tweet to legislators. Get a cookie.
• Write out a postcard to a stakeholder for us to mail. Get a cookie.

You are seeing how this works, right?? We are unashamedly buying your library advocacy efforts in the hopes that you will get some experience in quickly sharing the message of “Yay Libraries!” with stakeholders – and that you feel comfortable doing so!! Advocacy is just telling people about libraries; and really – that’s always fun!

(Note: there will be other rewards for people who are not currently eating cookies, and want to support libraries. We support your healthy choices!)

People like libraries. They (generally) want to help us! It’s just our job to tell them what we need.

REGISTER TODAY!!!!

Be sure that MLA and ITEM know you are on the job and ready to advocate! Whether you go to the in-person event (it’s really fun!!!!!), or attend the CMLE Virtual Event, or participate virtually on your own – numbers matter. Let everyone know that you are ready to support libraries in Minnesota!!

You know that we are big fans of library advocacy work! We love to talk about libraries, and all the neat things libraries do every day. Advocacy is just telling that stuff to our stakeholders and funders, to be sure they know all the important details about our work.

Libraries stand alone in the service we provide. We give books to people. We give them research articles. We give them access to computers and other technology. We give them our expertise in working with information. We give them programs. We give them training. We get them ready for college. We teach them how to do research. We train them to know the real meaning of “fake news.”

The value of libraries can be calculated qualitatively: the quality of the materials and services we provide is phenomenal. The “how does this feel?” test will generally blow the positive end off the charts: libraries “feel” great, most people like us, and even just hearing about the assorted stuff we do is enough to impress most people.

But our quantitative value is also pretty darn impressive! There have been a bunch of studies calculating the ROI (Return On Investment) of libraries. These are most frequently done on public libraries, but my moderately-expert opinion on this is that the general results would likely carry over to all types of libraries. These public library studies show that for every $1 invested in public libraries, value returned varies from a “mere” $2.97 in Suffolk County, New York, to $10.18 in Florida public libraries.

The Minnesota Library Association (MLA) organizes Library Legislative Day each year. This year, it is Tuesday, March 6.

Want more info about this? Check out this MLA/ITEM Legislative Legwork Committee site – new this year with a TON of great info!! If you have ever wanted to know even the smallest detail of what it’s like to go to Legislative Day (spoiler: it’s fun!), it is here!

If you would like to attend Legislative Day, CMLE members can apply for scholarships to cover the costs of finding a sub, traveling, or other costs associated with your attendance.  We will give you a scholarship for this event, even if you have already received one  this year or are planning to attend something else. Legislative Day is important to libraries, and we want to support you in attending!