Update on ALA Resolution Brings Results

A Republican Congresswoman from Tennessee has stated that she intends to bring legislation to the House requiring that the Library of Congress retain the subject headings "alien" and "illegal alien" because changing them to "immigrant" and "undocumented immigrant" is legally and factually untrue. (Don't ask me to explain that statement as I can't.) The report went on at length about using the term illegal since that is what they are. She is against the movement to be politically correct in this situation. The bill was introduced as H.R. 4926 and was referred to the House Committee on House Administration. It may not go any further but we'll keep our eyes on it and see what happens.

Your tax dollars at work!

Virtual Library Legislative Day - You can Advocate for Libraries Too

As part of National Library Legislative Day 2016 (NLLD), we are offering library advocates unable to attend in person the chance to participate through Virtual Library Legislative Day (VLLD)!   

This year, we’re teaming up with the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) to help expand our efforts and take advantage of the momentum started by the nearly 400 library supporters who plan to attend NLLD. Their Chapters’ members are pledging their time to make calls, send emails, tweet, and otherwise raise awareness about library issues during the week of May 2nd. To date, the HPA has received pledges for nearly 500 actions from their members!

We think we can do our wizarding friends even better.

Over the next few weeks, please ask everyone in your circles -- members, followers, patrons, fellow library staffers, and listservs -- to join us! Once they register for VLLD, we’ll follow up by sending them talking points and other handy resources they can use to advocate easily and effectively.  We’ll be including a link to a webstream of the National Library Legislative day program, live from Washington, on the morning of May 2^nd. They’ll get to hear our keynote speaker, former Congressman Rush Holt, and listen in on this year’s issue briefing.

I’ve attached a few graphics that I’ll be using to promote VLLD on social media this year. There’s also a handy resource toolkit for librarians who may want to get younger advocates involved. Please feel free to use them as you like! You can also find out more by visiting the United for Libraries and the Harry Potter Alliance webpages, or by subscribing to the Action Center.

Please feel free to contact Lisa Lindle, Grassroots Communications Specialist for ALA Washington, if you have any questions.

ALA Resolution Brings Results

In January, the ALA Council passed a resolution asking the Library of Congress to change some subject headings. Various libraries had already tried going through the appropriate steps and the request had been turned down. Now, the Library of Congress has announced that it is changing those subject headings as a response to constituent requests. The Policy and Standards Division (PSD) of the Library of Congress, the group that maintains the Library of Congress Subject Headings, now acknowledges that the term "Illegal Aliens" has become perjorative. The term will be cancelled and replaced by two new headings - "Nonciticzens" and "Unauthorized Immigration".  Other terms that use "illegal aliens" as part of a subject heading will also be revised. All revisions will appear on a Tentative List and will be approved no earlier than May 2016. Bibliographic records will be revised shortly after the change is accepted.

LSTA and IAL may be on the cutting block again this year

The following is sent from Emily Sheketoff, ALA's Associate Executive Director in the Washington Office.

Help Our LSTA / IAL Library Champions Help Us Now! It's that time of year again when Congressional cost-cutters sharpen their budget knives and go looking for under-supported federal programs to slash or discontinue. Last year, now Speaker of the House Paul Ryan proposed completely eliminating IMLS and with it over $200 million in funding for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL). Both of these programs are potentially on the chopping block this year and it's up to you to help save them.   Library champions in Congress are now circulating "Dear Appropriator" letters to their colleagues urging members of the powerful Senate and House Appropriations Committees to fully fund LSTA and IAL (See the letters here).  Please take just five minutes to contact your Representative in the House and both of your U.S. Senators and ask them to sign these letters (one each for LSTA and IAL in each chamber of Congress). Your help, and these funds, make a huge difference in what libraries and librarians can do for their patrons in every corner of the country. These "Dear Appropriator" letters carry tremendous weight with the Appropriations Committee. The more Members of Congress who sign them, the more likely LSTA and IAL - and the millions of Americans they help every year - are to survive and thrive. Time is short! Please, contact both your Senators and Representative now.  Send an Email  Make a Call  Send a Tweet

Harry Potter Alliance

While wandering around the exhibits at ALA in January, I came across a booth for a group called the Harry Potter Alliance. You may already know about them, especially if you are in public libraries, but I had not heard of them before. The HPA is a group that is working to make young people into activists. They take Harry Potter fans and get them working on issues such as equality, human rights, and literacy. They claim that their weapon is love - who can't support a group like that. So what has the group done? Here are a few of the accomplishments they list on their page:

• Raising over $123,000 for Partners in Health and sending five cargo planes of life-saving supplies to Haiti.
• Donations of over 250,000 books across the world through HPA's Accio Books campaign (love the campaign name!).
• Partnership between Walk Free and over 400,000 HPA fans convinced Warner Brothers to change the sourcing of their Harry Potter chocolate line to be 100% UTZ or fair trade.

At ALA, the Harry Potter Alliance handed out pamphlets on getting youth organized to participate in National Library Legislative Day. Getting support for our libraries at the national level is important and who better to push our message home than our youth. Libraries Transform everyone but we have great power to transform young people. Let's help them tell their stories to our national leaders. They don't have to go to Washington to do so, there is a Virtual Library Legislative Day that they can participate in through their phones, e-mail, and Twitter.

Find out more about the Harry Potter Alliance at http://www.thehpalliance.org/
Find out more about Virtual Library Legislative Day at http://www.ala.org/united/advocacy/virtuallegday

There is currently no HPA chapter in South Dakota - is it time we created one?

Librarian of Congress News

Late last year, the long-time Librarian of Congress announced his retirement. SDLA, along with many other state library associations sent a letter to President Obama urging him to nominate a degreed librarian for the position. Today comes the announcement that President Obama listened to us and has nominated Dr. Carla Hayden to the post. Dr. Hayden has been a librarian at the Chicago Public Library and, most recently, has been the CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. If confirmed, she will be the first woman to hold the role of Librarian of Congress and the first African American to hold the post. Check out this video from President Obama's Facebook page introducing Dr. Hayden.

The letter sent to President Obama was also sent to our senators as the Senate will have to confirm the Dr. Hayden. I heard from a staff member of one of our senators that they are keeping our recommendations in mind but had not yet heard a nomination. Hopefully, our Senators will support this nomination.

Resolution on Replacing the Library of Congress Subject Heading "Illegal Aliens" with "Undocumented Immigrants"

This resolution came about because some librarians who help those our subject headings currently call illegal aliens recognize that those words can be offensive. In many other subject heading lists the term has already been changed from "illegal aliens" to "undocumented immigrants". There was discussion in Council about whether this resolution was appropriate for us and encouraged those who brought it to pursue the appropriate channels through the Library of Congress first. The person who introduced the measure did so on behalf of some of the librarians that she represents and didn't have all the facts the first time. When she came back to us and explained that the Library of Congress had turned the request down because they were using the terms in the criminal code, Council agreed to hear the resolution again. We did pass it knowing that official channels had been tried already. We do feel that the language "illegal aliens" is offensive and encourage LC to change the heading. Here is the resolution.