This year, it’s time to bring the message home! ILA and the System Directors are asking library staff and trustees across Illinois to make appointments on April 16 to meet with their legislators in their local offices. By visiting locally, you can impress upon legislators that libraries are a local issue!

The goal is to make as many visits as possible on April 16, the Friday of National Library week. (If you are unable to visit your legislators on that day, ILA has designated the following Monday, April 19, as an alternate date). These visits are coordinated in partnership with the nine Illinois library systems, so be sure to coordinate with your library system to arrange the specifics of your visit.

Alliance Library System (contact Lee Logan)
DuPage Library System (contact Denise Zielinski)
Lewis & Clark Library System (contact Judy Rake)
Lincoln Trail Libraies System (contact Jan Ison)
Metropolitan Library System (contact Alice Calibrese)
North Suburban Library System (contact Alan Minarik)
Prairie Area Library System (contact Inara McGroarty)
Rolling Prairie Library System (contact Bev Obert or Peggy Durst)
Shawnee Library System (contact Joe Harris)

Things to remember when planning your meetings:

• There is strength in numbers. Communicate with other librarians in your legislative district and visit your legislators together. This will save your legislator time, and if you forget some vital fact, your neighbor will remember it!
• Work with your neighbor libraries to host a legislative event. Invite your legislator and neighboring librarians, trustees, and interested citizens.
• If you don’t know who your legislator is you can get the information on CapWiz.

On Monday, April 12 at 10 a.m. there will be a web-based briefing session featuring Kip Kolkmeier, ILA Lobbyist, to provide you with an opportunity to learn about library issues prior to your personal meetings.

Take a minute today to visit budget.illinois.gov and leave a comment expressing your support for continued funding of the Illinois library systems and the library per capita grants.

Our friends at the Responsible Budget Coalition have assembled some facts and talking points for a general message on budget management:

• “The budget is broken. Illinois is 49th of 50 states in education funding, dead last in state employees per resident and according to a new report has underfunded human services by $4.4 billion since 2002. Clearly the problem is NOT too much spending. Please raise revenue to fund these essential services.”
• “Public services are needed more than ever by families struggling in the recession. More cuts are the wrong approach—they will cause more harm in lost services and lost jobs. At this time of need, Illinois needs to step up, reform taxes, save services and jobs.”
• “More than 30 states have raised taxes to keep pace in this recession. Illinois has the nation’s lowest income-tax rate and a narrow sales-tax base—we’re out of step and falling further behind. We need tax reform to invest in our communities, not more cuts to public services and jobs.”
• “We’re all hurting from this broken budget—teachers being laid off, child care cut, libraries closed, universities raising tuition through the roof. We need leaders who will be honest about the need for tax reform to stop these cuts. We elect leaders to fix tough problems, not defend a broken status quo. Please pass HB 174 to raise revenue now.”

Although these are not library-specific, feel free to use them as a starting point for your own message. The Responsible Budget Coalition has also set up their own communication form to get the message to the governor.

With the budget address less than a week away, it’s important that we get word to the governor NOW that he needs to keep libraries and library systems adequately funded in the upcoming budget.

Join the Illinois Library Association in showing just how important your library is!

On Wedensday, February 10, libraries across Illinois will be participating in Snapshot Day: A Day in the Life of Illinois Libraries. On this day, libraries of all types — public libraries as well as those at schools, colleges, and universities — will be gathering statistics that show just how in-demand libraries are. In addition, you’ll be able to fill out a very brief survey about your library visit, and even provide testimonials about how much you love your library. Libraries will also be encouraged to take pictures to create a photo record of just how popular the library is!

At the end of the day, the data and testimonials will be collected and compiled, and the Illinois Library Association and its members will begin sharing this information with elected officials at all levels, from the village board to the governor, to make sure they know just how valuable libraries are in Illinois today.

So the next time you’re at your library, encourage them to participate in Snapshot Day, and then return to the library on February 10 to make sure you’re counted!

Feel free to download this image and post it to your website, linking to SaveIllinoisLibraries.com, or you can use the following code:

<a href="http://www.saveillinoislibraries.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.saveillinoislibraries.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/saveillibs_badge.jpg"></a>

Thanks for your help in getting the word out!