<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_quote">I'm sharing this with you from the American Library Association. Some of you may have seen it already, but I would like to pass it on in case. </div><div class="gmail_quote">Thank you,</div><div class="gmail_quote">Elsa Loftis<br><div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div class="m_-253478125291468730WordSection1">
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<span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#505050">Dear Library Advocate,</span><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#505050">The time is NOW! If you’re a librarian, a library worker, anyone who cares about libraries, does business with a library, or if you depend on your library for accurate
information, then <a href="http://www.ala.org/advocacy/advleg/federallegislation/fight-for-libraries" target="_blank">
your Congressperson needs to hear from you – and at least five more people that you mobilize – TODAY</a>! At least $210 million in federal library funding is on the budget-cutter’s chopping block. Our champions in Congress need your help to save it and the
Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the agency that distributes most of those funds to every state in the country.
<a href="http://www.ala.org/advocacy/advleg/federallegislation/fight-for-libraries" target="_blank">
Everything you need is at ALA’s Legislative Action Center now</a>.</span><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#505050">As detailed in the
<a href="http://ala.informz.net/z/cjUucD9taT02NDE5NjUxJnA9MSZ1PTEwMzY0ODc5NTgmbGk9NDIyMzcxNzg/index.html" target="_blank">
ALA Washington Office blog</a>, the President of the United States effectively proposed eliminating all federal library funding and closing IMLS – the small, respected agency that administers $183 million of those funds through the Library Services and Technology
Act (LSTA). He also asked Congress to wipe out $27 million for Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL), which school libraries use to buy books and other materials for the nation’s poorest children. But our library champions in Congress have mobilized to fight
back and they need your help to succeed.</span><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#505050">Today, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ3) wrote to every Member of the House of Representatives asking them to support LSTA, and Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX30), Don Young
(R-AK), and Jim McGovern (D-MA2) circulated a similar letter asking support for Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL). Both letters urge their House colleagues to sign letters to the Appropriations Committee supporting library funding. The first so-called
“Dear Appropriator” letter asks the Committee to fully fund LSTA in FY 2018 and the second does the same for IAL.
</span><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#505050">We know from many past funding fights that these Representatives’ requests of their colleagues simply will not be enough.
<strong><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Members of the House need to hear from their constituents before the April 3rd deadline.</span></strong> Please call your Representative and ask them to sign both the LSTA and the IAL “Dear Appropriator”
letters our champions have circulated, otherwise the powerful Appropriations Committees will not make LSTA and IAL a priority, dramatically increasing the odds that they will be cut or eliminated next year.
</span><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#505050">ALA’s
</span><span class="m_-253478125291468730MsoHyperlink"><b><i><a href="http://www.ala.org/advocacy/advleg/federallegislation/fight-for-libraries" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Legislative Action Center</span></a></i></b></span><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#505050">
has everything you – and five of your friends, patrons, relatives, employees and customers – need to identify your Member of Congress and to tell him or her by email, tweet or phone to sign the LSTA and IAL “Dear Appropriator” letters to protect those critical
programs in the FY 2018 federal budget.</span><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<strong><i><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#505050">We MUST save federal library funding and IMLS! If not you and your fellow library lovers, who? If not right now, when?
<a href="http://www.ala.org/advocacy/advleg/federallegislation/fight-for-libraries" target="_blank">
Please, act right now</a>! </span></i></strong><em><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#505050">
</span></em><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#505050">To read my full statement about the President’s draconian budget proposals, please
<a href="http://ala.informz.net/z/cjUucD9taT02NDE5NjUxJnA9MSZ1PTEwMzY0ODc5NTgmbGk9NDIyMzcxODM/index.html" target="_blank">
visit ALA's website</a>.<br>
</span><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#505050"><img border="0" width="200" height="128" style="width:2.0833in;height:1.3333in" id="m_-253478125291468730Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D2A3B8.F39FC5D0" alt="Julie Todaro signature"></span><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#505050"><br>
<br>
Julie Todaro<br>
ALA President</span><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"> <u></u><u></u></span></p>
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</div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">Elsa Loftis<div>OLA President 2016-17</div><div><br><br><i style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="2">I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.<br>-Jorge Luis Borges</font></i><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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