The Illinois Library Association has announced its first round of legislative meet-ups for the upcoming Illinois General Assembly session. The meet-ups will be held in mid-February, with three of them in the Chicago area and one in the St. Louis area. South Suburban Breakfast-will be held in Tinley Park on Friday, February 13 West Suburban…
Category: Library Organizations
Non-HSLI associations, consortiums, and systems for libraries/librarians
Overview of 2014 Advocacy Events
Here is an overview of recent and upcoming advocacy events at the state and federal levels. Illinois Legislative Meet-Ups-During February, meetings with legislators were held in four locations, including Lockport, Oak Brook, and Edwardsville. These meetings grew out of the annual Presidents’ Day breakfast, which is held in the northwestern suburbs. The meet-ups were intended…
Legislative Action Agenda
The Illinois Library Association has released its 2015 Action Agenda. The main items are library funding, intellectual freedom and privacy, access to library services, and increasing the effectiveness of Illinois libraries. Below are the specific goals for each item. (I’ve put in bold the items that will probably have the biggest impact on hospital and…
Story on Open Access in IACRL Newsletter
Below is an article I wrote that appeared in the Spring edition of the IACRL Newsletter. The article covers open access, which continues to affect many aspects of librarianship, mainly because of librarians’ role in providing users with the tools for accessing scholarly articles, and also because of the increasing number of scholarly articles that…
LSTA Story in IACRL Newsletter
Below is an article I wrote for the Fall issue of the IACRL Newsletter, which was just released. The article covers LSTA, the Library Services and Technology Act. LSTA is the only federal legislation that focuses exclusively on libraries, making it a crucial source of funding, in addition to a barometer of the level of…
ILA Positions on Legislation
For anyone participating in the upcoming legislative meet-ups, here is an updated version of the “talking points” that focuses on specific legislation (first story in ILA e-newsletter). “ILA Executive Board Determines Positions on Key Legislative Bills” The state budget remains the primary concern, especially in retaining full funding for the Secretary of State’s per-capita grants…
ILA Legislative Meet-Ups REMINDER
This is just a reminder that the ILA’s legislative meet-ups are happening soon. If you are planning to attend, the schedule is below. Even if you missed the registration deadline or your elected officials are not covered by one of the meet-ups, you can still schedule your own meeting with them. South Suburban Breakfast in…
Action Needed on Filtering Legislation (Illinois SB2784)
Please note this important legislative alert from the Illinois Library Association. The alert concerns Senate Bill 2784, sponsored by Illinois State Senator Kwame Raoul (Democrat, 13th District-Chicago), which creates the “Internet Screening in Public Libraries Act”. A direct link to the legislation, which was introduced on January 30, is here: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/billstatus.asp?DocNum=2784&GAID=12&GA=98&DocTypeID=SB&LegID=78649&SessionID=85 The main objection to this…
Articles From ILA Newsletter of December 23, 2013
When you have a chance, please take a look at the following two articles from the latest edition of the Illinois Library Association’s newsletter. “For Illinois Senators, An Odd Public Friendship” This article discusses the unusual bipartisanship between Illinois’s U.S. Senators, Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk. (Such bipartisanship is uncommon in “split delegations”, or sets…
Illinois Library Association Call for Proposals
The 2014 ILA Annual Conference will take place at the Prairie Capital Convention Center, Springfield, IL, on October 14 -16, 2014. They are now soliciting program proposals: Call for Proposals The 2014 ILA Annual Conference theme, Kickstarting Connections, Creativity, Community, focuses on how libraries align ideas, passion, and commitment to cultivate connections and create imaginative approaches, methods,…