Learn strategies for speaking up about library issues at Library Advocacy Now! Training

Contact: Marci Merola


PR Specialist – Advocacy


312-280-2431


mmerola@ala.org

For Immediate Release


May 20, 2005

Learn strategies for speaking up about library issues at Library Advocacy Now! Training

CHICAGO - Librarians can learn how to speak up about some of the most challenging issues facing libraries today at a Library Advocacy Now! Training on Saturday, June 25, from 2-4 p.m. at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Chicago, Ballroom A-B, during the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference.

The session, entitled “Google? Library closings? The USA PATRIOT Act? Access? Funding?: Speaking Up About the Hard Issues,” will feature an overview of challenging issues that libraries face at both the local and national levels. Attendees will learn to develop, reframe and refine key messages, techniques for dealing with tough questions and strategies for making sure the compelling library message is heard at the local, state and federal levels.

Speakers include Patricia Glass Schuman, chair of the Library Advocacy Now! subcommittee; Pat Smith, executive director, Texas Library Assn.; Jan Sanders, director of the Spokane (Wash.) Public Library; Kathleen Imhoff, executive director of the Lexington (Ky.) Public Library; Erin Haggerty, government relations specialist, ALA Washington Office; Marci Merola, ALA's public relations specialist, advocacy; and Deborah Davis, manager, Campaign for America's Libraries.

For more information on ALA's advocacy efforts and tools and resources for advocating locally, visit the Issues & Advocacy page of ALA's Web site at
www.ala.org/issues&advocacy.