"You as a school library media specialist are too important to too many children to let budget reductions that impact your program just 'happen.' Get active, ask for support, and heed the words of Dylan Thomas – 'Do not go gentle into that good night.'" - Doug Johnson
Hello All,
As Congress continues to work on appropriation bills for FY 2012, we want to make sure they keep school libraries in mind. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted out of committee a bill that included $30 million for literacy, at least half of which must go to school libraries. But the fight for this money is not over. In order to keep support for school libraries going, we are scheduling another Twitter Bomb for Thursday, Dec. 8, at 3pm EST.
Please tweet the following message at both of your senators and your representative. Below is an example of the tweet directed at Rep. Denny Rehberg of Montana:
@DennyRehberg Keep $30 mil for #literacy and school #libraries in this year's federal funding!
To find out if your Congressional representatives are on Twitter and what their handles are, visit this website:http://classic.tweetcongress.org/officials/states.
If you find that your representative is on twitter, click their image on the left and that link will take you to his/her acct.
Once on your representative’s page, click the silhouette icon, and enter the message in the field below the ‘Follow’ button.
If your representatives aren’t on Twitter yet, please tweet the message out anyway, to keep the echo chamber going.
Our last Twitter Bomb resulted in over 1000 tweets and elicited a response tweet from Sen. Barbara Mikulski indicating her support for school libraries in ESEA. Let’s make this one even bigger."
Our last Twitter Bomb resulted in over 1000 tweets and elicited a response tweet from Sen. Barbara Mikulski indicating her support for school libraries in ESEA. Let’s make this one even bigger."
Update on SKILLs ACT
On October 20, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee completed their mark-up (vote on) the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). ESEA was passed by the committee but a key amendment supporting school libraries was withdrawn due to lack of support.
ALA is asking for your help in gathering support for school libraries by sharing stories with the Washington Office about outrageously out of date school library materials and the consequences of under-funded school library programs. These stories will help influence members of the Senate if a school libraries amendment is re-introduced to ESEA on the Senate floor (which will likely happen).
These are the types of stories thety are looking for:
• Out of date school library materials, books or otherwise, (i.e. books referring to the USSR in the present tense)
• Stories about under-staffed school libraries, or school libraries with no staff
• Specific consequences from the lack of funding for a school library program
Twenty years ago, stories like these were powerful enough to gain libraries a strong advocate in Senator Jack Reed (D-RI). Now, Sen. Reed wants to know the state of school libraries to help sway his colleagues much like he was 20 years ago. Time is running out to get school libraries into ESEA; your stories can make a difference. Email your stories to the ALA Washington Office by writing Ted Wegner (twegner@alawash.org) and Jeff Kratz (jkratz@alawash.org).
The resources on this page are desgined to help NCSLMA members fight for and maintain library services and positions that impact North Carolna's young people. Keeping in mind that the best form of advocacy is to provide quality, far reaching services that impact student learning, the resources on this page are divided into two sections.
- Advocacy Resources From NCSLMA and Its Members.
- Advocacy Resources From AASL, ALA and other National Programs.
Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet to combat a tough economy and the drastic cuts to education that have followed. However, by providing quality, impactful services and embedding themselves into the instructional programs at their schools, North Carolina's school librarians can (and do!) draw a clear and distinct line between themselves and student learning. The purpose of these resources is to help North Carolina school librarians draw that line.
NCSLMA Advocacy Resources:
NC Advocacy "On The Map" Initiative
University Teaching Fellows Initiative NC Authors/NC Advocates NCSLMA Lesson Sharing Center "Librarians are Ready" Flyer (PDF) Proving Your Worth - from the 2010 NCSLMA Conference (PPT) How to Build an Elevator Speech (PPT) Elevator Speeches (PDF) The Top Ten Reasons (Excuses) that Prevent School Library Advocacy (PDF) Marketing L4L (PDF) NCSLMA Strategic Advocacy Plan 2011-12 | National Advocacy Resources:
ALA Our Authors/Our Advocates
AASL Crisis Toolkit AASL Advocacy Toolkit ALA Take Action for Libraries, By State Doug Johnson's 4 Rules of Library Advocacy 21st Century Learner Poster Available at ALA Store 21st Century Learner Bookmarks Available at ALA Store The Role of School Librarians in Promoting the Use of Educational Technologies (from ISTE) |
Contact Us | ©2011 North Carolina School Library Media Association
Website created and maintained by the NCSLMA Executive Board
NCSLMA - 514 Daniels St., #130 Raleigh, NC 27605
Website created and maintained by the NCSLMA Executive Board
NCSLMA - 514 Daniels St., #130 Raleigh, NC 27605
