Congress passes FY 12 budget bill; includes funding for libraries

Both the Senate and the House have now passed an Omnibus Appropriations Bill and the President is expected to sign it this week. The bill provides funding for libraries, including:

• $28.6 million for literacy, at least half of which must go to low income school libraries.
• $185 million for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).

For more details, see the District Dispatch post.

Again, many thanks to everyone who contacted members of Congress to ask for support of library funding! Votes for the Appropriations bill followed party lines among Maryland’s members of Congress. In the Senate, Mikulski and Cardin both voted for the bill and in the House Cummings, Edwards, Hoyer, Ruppersberger, Sarbanes and Van Hollen voted for the bill. Please feel free to thank these members of Congress for their support of libraries with a phone call or using Capwiz!

House passes Omnibus Appropriations Bill with provisions for school libraries, Senate expected to do the same on Saturday

On Friday, the House passed the Conference Report for an Omnibus Appropriations Bill, which included funds for school libraries.  Thanks to Senator Jack Reed, who had funding included in the Appropriations Bill for Literacy, including a competitive Grant Program for school libraries.

Many thanks to all the school library supporters who called their Representatives over the past two months! The House kept Senator Reed’s program in the Bill and it is now going to the Senate.  They are expected to pass it on Saturday.

Senate Appropriations Committee passes appropriations bill with funds for school libraries & LSTA

On Wednesday, the full Senate Appropriations Committee passed the Labor, Health & Human Services, Education FY 2012 Appropriations bill. The bill includes funding for school libraries and LSTA. See the District Dispatch posting for details.

Again, please thank Senator Mikulski, who voted for the bill, for her support of libraries in this bill. You can either call her office at 202-224-4654 or use Capwiz to send a message.

Subcommittee passes bill with funds for school libraries & LSTA

Good news! The Labor, Health & Human Services and Education Subcommittee voted on its FY 2012 appropriations bill.  The bill passed and includes funding for school libraries and LSTA. See the District Dispatch posting for further details.

9/21/2011 UPDATE: Many thanks to everyone who contacted the Senator!  Mikulski did vote for the bill.  (Votes were along party lines.) Feel free to thank Senator Mikulski for her support via a phone call or using Capwiz!

Action Alert! Contact Mikulski to increase LSTA & ILTSL funding

On Tuesday, the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee will vote on funding for the Library Services & Technology Act (LSTA) and Improving Literacy Through School Libraries (ILTSL) program. Apologies for the late request, but there is still time to contact Senator Mikulski, who serves on this subcommittee, and ask for her support. Personalize your message by telling how these funds help you and/or your library. For more information on how LSTA funds are used in Maryland, see this document.

Mikulski did sign a Dear Colleague Letter in support of LSTA and ILSTL funding for FY 2012 in June.  (See the earlier Legislative Panel’s blog post.)  However, this vote will be for specific funding amounts. See the message below from the American Library Association Washington Office for more details, including how to use Twitter to send a message to subcommittee members.

Thanks in advance for any advocacy efforts!

 

Maryland Senators sign on to LSTA & ILTSL letter!

Senators Mikulski and Cardin have both signed onto the Dear Colleague letter in support of funding for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries (ILTSL) program.  The American Library Association Washington Office confirmed their signatures in their District Dispatch posting.  (For background information on the request, see the Legislative Panel’s blog posting.)

Thank you to everyone who contacted Maryland’s Senators to ask for their support!  These grassroots efforts have certainly made a difference!  Don’t forget to contact the Senators to thank them for their support.  This can be easily done using Capwiz.

Action Alert! Contact Senators to sign onto LSTA & ILTSL Dear Colleague letter

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6/10/2011 Update:  Both Senators have signed onto the letter.  Please feel free to thank them.  See the Legislative Panel’s blog posting for more details.

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Please contact Senator Mikulski and Senator Cardin asking them to sign onto a Dear Colleague letter in support of FY 2012 funding for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries (ILTSL).  Signatures are needed by close of business on Wednesday, June 8^th, so please call soon.  This effort is being led by Senators Jack Reed and Olympia Snowe.  Senators should contact Elyse Wasch in Reed’s office or Matthew Hussey in Snowe’s office to sign onto the letter.

When you ask the Senators to sign on, it may help if you describe at least one valuable service that your library provides the community or a success story about a library patron.  Examples include access to computers and data services to aid job searchers, support for small businesses with marketing data and other resources or teaching digital literacy to people of all ages including K-12 students.

For Maryland, LSTA funding amounts to approximately $3 million and is used to fund AskUsNow, the Summer Reading Club and staff training grants, as well as special projects in local libraries across the state.

Here are the phone numbers for the Maryland Senators’ offices:

• Senator Mikulski – 202-224-4654
• Senator Cardin – 202-224-4524

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide!

School Libraries’ funding at risk for FY 2012

The House Education & Workforce Committee is scheduled to markup HR 1891 on Wednesday.   This bill would repeal a number of Department of Education programs that have been called “ineffective or unnecessary.”  This would include the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries (ILTSL) program, a source of federal funding exclusively for school libraries, despite the fact that it has been labeled successful in two separate evaluations.

Thank you for any advocacy efforts to get members of the House to sign on to the Dear Colleague letter in support of ILTSL.  Maryland has no members on the House Education & Workforce Committee, so there is no further action to take at this time.  For more information, see the District Dispatch posting.

Action Alert! Contact House to sign Dear Colleague Letters for LSTA & ILTSL

Please contact your representative in the House asking them to sign onto two Dear Colleague Letters—one for Library Services & Technology Act (LSTA) and the other for Improving Literacy Through School Libraries (ILTSL)—to support their funding in FY 2012.  For background information, as well as a pre-written letter, see the Capwiz Action Alert.  (The Action Alert also includes information about including an effective school library program in the reauthorization of Elementary & Secondary Education).

Congressman Ruppersberger has already signed on to these letters, so feel free to contact him to say “thank you.”

ALA & ARL send letters of support for Statistical Abstract

The American Library Association (ALA) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) have sent a joint letter to the House and Senate Appropriations Committee asking to support funding for the Statistical Compendia Branch that compiles the Statistical Abstract and other resources. The Reference & User Services Association (RUSA) also sent a letter. For more information, including links to all of the letters, please see the District Dispatch posting. If you would like to contact your elected officials to ask for support, a Capwiz Action Alert is available.