Legislative Day Draws More Than 500 Advocates
Representing 49 states, more than 500 librarians, trustees, and library advocates delivered a message—federal support for libraries pays big local dividends—to their senators and representatives in Washington, D.C., May 4 during the 30th annual National Library Legislative Day.
Sponsored by the American Library Association, the District of Columbia Library Association, and several state library associations, the annual trek to the offices on the Hill is designed to be what ALA Washington Office Executive Director Emily Sheketoff characterized as “advocating for things that are of use to your communities back home.”
State delegations lobbied legislators on several key issues: appropriations, copyright, the USA Patriot Act, and privacy. Specific requests included an appeal to fund the Library Services and Technology Act at $232 million—$12 million more than the administration has proposed—and the Education Department’s Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program at $100 million.
Delegates also sought cosponsors for the Digital Consumer Media Rights Act (H.R. 107), which would alter the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act to keep educational use fee-free, and for the bipartisan Security and Freedom Ensured (SAFE) Act (S. 1709), which would protect the privacy of reading records by amending the USA Patriot Act.
“All over the U.S., librarians are standing up above and beyond the call of duty,” Rep. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) noted at a reception closing the daylong event, where he and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) were recognized with the Friends of Libraries USA Public Service Award for their efforts to scale back the USA Patriot Act. “Terrorism is serious business,” Sanders said. “But we can and must combat terrorism without undermining the Constitution of the United States and the rights that have been granted to a free people.”
Posted May 10, 2004.
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