PLA Blog

ALA Legislative Day: What to Know Before You Participate
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM EDT
Free online webinar presented by the ALA Washington Office

On Wednesday, April 16, advocacy “guru Stephanie Vance will host the Washington Office’s second Advocacy Webinar. (The first webinar was a huge success.)

The webinar comes just as National Library Legislative Day (NLLD) approaches, when our advocacy skills need to be honed to a razor sharp edge. Librarians, friends, trustees and enthusiasts from across the country will be participating in NLLD on May 13 and 14, 2008. Some will be coming to DC to meet with their Members of Congress, while others will be participating in Virtual Library Legislative Day by calling and writing their elected officials from the safety of their own offices.

How can you best prepare for and be effective in these communications? How can you be sure legislators and their staff will hear your message and pay attention? What kinds of federal policy issues should you talk about?

Space is limited, so reserve your Webinar seat now.

OK, so it’s more than a day. But really, it takes more than a day to pack in this much legislative action!

National Library Legislative Day (NLLD) is a two-day event in which people who care about libraries participate in advocacy and issue training sessions, interact with Capitol Hill insiders, and visit congressional member offices to ask Congress to pass legislation that supports libraries.

A $20 registration fee covers 3 whole days of congressional collaboration, including:

• The Lobbying 101 pre-conference
• A briefing day at the Holiday Inn on the Hill
• A Congressional Reception
• A day of congressional visits on the Hill

NLLD is an excellent opportunity to lobby for your local library with your national representatives! For more information, visit the ALA Washington Office online. The registration deadline is April 4, 2008.

The ALA Washington Office in conjunction with the White House Conference on Library and Information Services Taskforce (WHCLIST) are offering an interesting award opportunity for a library supporter — who isn’t a librarian — to attend National Library Legislative Day (NLLD) May 13-14, 2008.

If you know someone who isn’t a librarian and is willing to advocate for libraries, you should encourage them to apply, or recommend them yourself, and they may be awarded $300 to help cover the costs of participating in NLLD in Washington, DC.  Information on criteria and how to apply are available on the NLLD web page.  Nominations are due April 18, 2008.