Illinois Library Advocacy Day, Wednesday, April 9, 2003 - Join your fellow librarians and plan on going in mass to Advocacy Day from RPLS. Join us in the caravan or meet us there. We will send out information about the time of departure, when  we set up our appointments with the legislators. The online registration form is available. The event is free, though arrangements can be made for a box lunch for $8. The RPLS Staff will be staying for the box lunch and welcomes the opportunity to meet with our member librarians. Your attendance at this event is important. Call Doris at 429-2586 ext 18 or email dorism@rpls.ws, if you have any questions. The most important thing you can do is be prepared to tell your story to legislators of how state grants, Per Capita and others, and system services have helped your library.

National Legislative Day, Tuesday, May 13, 2003 - Make your reservations by April 11, 2003.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR ILLINOIS ADVOCACY DAY 4/9/2003: Illinois Advocacy Day offers all of us the opportunity to talk to our legislators about the importance of libraries in Illinois. If you are wondering why you should participate, I've included below the email that Ann Adkesson, Director, Barkley PLD and RPLS Board President, sent to the general listserv last year after Legislative Day. I think she says it all.

The Following Is An Editorial Comment: At the risk of sounding too preachy, I would like to make a few comments about the importance of ILA’s legislative day that was held yesterday in Springfield. Believe me, politics is one of my least favorite things, but I do think it is very important that we make our presence known in Springfield and around the state with our legislators. Although overall attendance yesterday’s legislative day was higher than previous years, RPLS’s turnout was very poor, in my opinion, especially considering how CLOSE many of us are to Springfield!

I have been attending these lobby days in Springfield for several years, and have heard the legislators say time and time again how important it is to be able to put a face with an issue. This year, of course, the “issue” is to encourage library funding at the same levels as in the past – i.e. no cuts to the State Library’s budget, or to the various state-funded grant programs.

The reason I am writing this is to express my disappointment at the low number of RPLS librarians that were in Springfield to support library legislation and funding. I don’t know how many librarians were there from other systems, but I do know that being one of the largest systems (in terms of membership), we had only 3 or 4 librarians and 1 trustee from member libraries, along with 6 RPLS staff members.
Has your library benefited from any of the state-funded grants in recent years? If you are a fairly new DRA member, chances are you joined the consortium with funding from a state “Live & Learn” grant. If you have updated your computer equipment, hired an expert, attended “Lighting the Fire” workshops, remodeled or built a new building or participated in literacy programs, chances are you received all or part of your funding from state-funded grants. Schools and public libraries are, of course, eligible to receive per capita grant funding every year. ALL THESE FUNDS MUST BE APPROPRIATED EVERY YEAR BY THE STATE LEGISLATURE. The legislators need to know how crucial these funds are to the daily operation of Illinois libraries.

Next year when the registration information comes for ILA Legislative Day, please take a moment to reflect on the impact of any grants your library may have received from the state and the support you have received from our system (workshops, training, DRA, etc.) and give back a couple of hours to lobby with the rest of us in support of libraries in Illinois. It is, after all, one of the cornerstones of our freedom.

Ann Adkesson, Library Director
Barclay Public Library, Warrensburg

If you would like to become more knowledgeable about legislative issues before participating in Legislative Day, take a look at the resources available on the right hand column of this page.

To find State Information:

Illinois General Assembly

http://www.legis.state.il.us

To find your State Representatives:

Illinois State Board of Elections

http://www.elections.state.il.us/

Click on "Find Districts/Officials" and you will be linked to a page where you can search for your legislators by District Number, Officials Name, or your address.

To find information on current legislation in the Illinois General Assembly:

ILA Legislative Chart

http://www.ila.org/advocacy/chart.htm 

Click on "Recent Bills", "House Bills", "Senate Bills", "All Bills" or the "Printable Chart."

To find information on Federal legislation of interest to libraries:

ALA Washington Office

http://www.ala.org/washoff/

Click on the issue of interest to you.

If you want to learn more about Library Advocacy:

ILA Publications

http://www.ila.org/advocacy/advocacy.htm 

Click on "Download the Brochure" to obtain the sixteen page brochure.

ALA's Campaign to Save America's Libraries also has some excellent resources.

http://www.ala.org/pio/csal_toolkit.html

Additional information about Illinois Library Advocacy is available on the ILSDO website.

http://www.illinoislibrarysystems.info