[ISLMA-Share] Good News for a Change!

[Email list for the Illinois School Library Media Association]

Just received the following from Audrey Church, President of AASL--

Friends,

It seems that for the past month I have been asking you to “do” something
on a regular basis—Invite a Legislator to Your Library; Get Out the Vote!;
Contact your Representatives to Save IMLS Funding.



I am very happy to share the following from ALA President Julie Todaro:



*Hello library advocate leaders and thank you for all of your efforts to
dramatically increase the number of Members of the House of
Representatives this year signing our "Dear Appropriator" letters of
support for IAL and LSTA. Last year, our signer totals stood at 124 and 88
for those programs, respectively.  *


*I could not be more pleased to tell you that as of the close of business
on Tuesday, all of us -- working as a team led by Emily and especially Adam
and the ALA Office of Government Relations -- had convinced 146 Members of
the House to support IAL funding in FY 2018 and 144 Members to back LSTA.
(See whether and how your Representative supported IAL and/or LSTA
with our **sortable online tracker
<https://airtable.com/shruwZPRyL5f2CbQS/tbl3v3Ts6KMDMSyJ1>** tool.)  *


*Those totals, which are for the first time bipartisan on both letters,
represent a 18% increase in support for IAL and a phenomenal 64% increase
for LSTA over last year! Put another way, effectively one-third of the
entire US House of Representatives has told the
House Appropriations Committee in writing that they support
BOTH IAL funding at $27 million and LSTA appropriations of $186.6 million
in FY 2018! *



So, sincere thanks for all that you do—for AASL, for school libraries, and
for the students we serve!



Audrey



********************************
Audrey P. Church, Ph.D.

Professor and Coordinator, School Librarianship

President, American Association of School Librarians, 2016-2017

Author, *Tapping into the Skills of 21st-Century School Librarians*
<https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475818895/Tapping-into-the-Skills-of-21st-Century-School-Librarians-A-Concise-Handbook-for-Administrators>,
Rowman & Littlefield, 2016



Department of Education and Special Education

Longwood University

201 High Street, Hull 232

Farmville, VA  23909

Phone:  434-395-2682

Email:   <churchap at longwood.edu>churchap at longwood.edu

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Illinois Congressmen who signed letters for Innovative Approaches to
Literacy (all Democrats)--Danny Davis, Robin Kelly, Raja Krishnamoorthi,
Daniel Lipinski, Bobby Rush, Janice Schakowsky, and Bradley Schneider.


Illinois Congressmen who signed letters for LSTA Funding (all
Democrats)--Cheri Bustos, Danny Davis, Bill Foster, Raja Krishnamoorthi,
Daniel Lipinski, Michael Quigley, Bobby Rush, Janice Schakowsky, and
Bradley Schneider.


There was discussion at the ILA Public Policy Committee that a couple of
Republicans had been approached and staff indicated that they might sign.
As you can see by the list they did not.


Thank you to those who took the time to contact congress! We did pick up a
couple more than last year. If your legislator did not sign after you
contacted them, drop them an email and tell them you were disappointed not
to see their name here.


Lou Ann Jacobs

ISLMA Legislation Chair
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