Legislation and Advocacy

• ALA’s Advocacy Efforts
  • National Library Legislative Day (NLLD)
  • Know Your Stimulus
  • Connecting with Local Governments
  • Tracking Legislation Affecting Libraries
• Take Action for America’s and Your State’s Libraries
• Take Action for Libraries
• I Love Libraries 
• See also Save Libraries in Your State

ALA’s Advocacy Efforts    

The following are links to several of ALA’s library advocacy efforts: Advocacy for Libraries, Advocacy University, Advocating in a Tough Economy Toolkit, Issues and Advocacy, and Tools for Advocacy. See also ALA’s Office for Library Advocacy.

Take Action for America’s Libraries through ALA’s Issues and Advocacy pages.    

National Library Legislative Day (NLLD)    

Visit here for information on National Library Legislative Day, May 9-10, 2011.

Know Your Stimulus    

The ALA Washington Office has designed  Know Your Stimulus, on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), to be a one-stop source with resources on how to ensure libraries benefit from the package and the most up-to-date information on the stimulus. This resource page includes a State-by-State Impact for the ARRA. See also the Chapters Resource wiki for its information on this issue related to state chapters and economic recovery. See also How libraries can benefit from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, written by Emily Sheketoff, executive director, ALA Washington Office. This article appears in the May 2009 issue of American Libraries.

Connecting with Local Governments    

Beginning this fall ALA has been taking the library value message directly to local government officials, and soon to school administrators, the decision makers on majority of funding received by public and school libraries. See also Showing Library Value to Local Government, from the Advocating in a Tough Economy Toolkit.

Tracking Legislation Affecting Libraries    

The Chapter Relation Office (CRO) supports ALA’s library advocacy efforts by tracking state and federal legislation affecting libraries and by working with the Office for Library Advocacy, the ALA Washington Office, I Love Libraries, other ALA units, and other groups, such as the Freedom to Read Foundation, Media Coalition. For additional information, visit Legislation on the CRO wiki.

In addition, be sure to sign up for the Washington Office’s District Dispatch Blog for news and alerts.

If you are not a member of ALA or an ALA Chapter and would like to advocate for libraries, sign up for our Take Action e-mailing list. 

Take Action for America’s and Your State’s Libraries    

Capwiz•XC is Capitol Advantage’s leading online legislation and advocacy tool that continues to help ALA, chapters, and Ilovelibraries send constituent messages to congressional and state legislators.

To take action on federal legislation affecting libraries and to take action for libraries in your state, visit CRO’s Take Action for Libraries page. (Although Virginia and Ohio have opted not to participate in Capwiz, their links will direct you to their legislation and advocacy pages.) See also Save Libraries in Your State (CRO) and I Love Libraries.org.    

To insert this widget—created and made available by the South Carolina Library Association—into your website, visit Save Libraries in Your State. To see how it works, input your zip code and press go.

Chapter Relations Office staff are actively involved in I Love Libraries.org, a Web site designed for the people who use and love libraries, and for taking action on their behalf. Part of their responsibilities is developing the I Love Libraries Take Action page.

Want to share ILoveLibraries.org with the world? Download our badges for your website!

Become a fan of I love Libraries on Facebook. HTML Code to Create I Love Libraries on Facebook Badge.

Send comments and questions regarding this page to Don Wood, Chapter Relations Office.