From a 3-21-17 posting by Carl Harvey, II on the LM_NET listserv:
Thanks to Beth for the great reminder we have to make sure our legislators
at the national level understand the importance of school librarians. AASL
President Audrey Church made a challenge to all school librarians this week
to invite legislators to your school library during this upcoming recess.
April is National School Library Month, so its the perfect time! Even if
they don't come, just the invitation helps to put school libraries on their
radar. You can find her challenge and directions for tracking the
invitations at the KQ blog: http://knowledgequest.
aasl.org/invite-legislator-library/
Let's make sure all 100 Senators and 435 Representatives get an invite!
Carl's reference is to Beth Yoke of YALSA who wrote:
By now, we hope you’ve already contacted your members of Congress to tell
them to oppose the elimination of IMLS. If you haven’t, read the details
in my March 16 blog post<http://yalsa.ala.org/blog /2017/03/16/how-you-can-save-federal-funding-for-libraries-help-teens/>
and take action. Here’s what you can do next: invite one of your
Representatives or Senators to visit your library, or bring some of your
teen patrons and library advocates to the Congressperson’s local office to
meet with them, so your elected official can see up close and in person the
many ways that libraries, with support from IMLS, help students. Congress
will be on break from April 8th through April 23rd. This is the perfect
time to extend the invitation to visit or schedule a meeting. If you’ve
never done this before, don’t sweat it. YALSA’s District Days wiki page<
http://wikis.ala.org/yalsa/index.php/District_Days> has everything you
need to extend an invitation and plan a great visit or meeting. When
you’re visiting their local office, or showing them around your library, be
sure to talk about the ways that your students benefit from resources
funded by IMLS. To find out how your library benefits from IMLS, visit
their State Profiles page<https://www.imls.gov/grants/grants-state/state-profiles>, and read up about how IMLS funds are used in your state.
