Desktop News - Issue 162 - Special Edition

Desktop News - Special Edition
Issue 162 Special Edition	Monday, May 24, 1999	01:26:46 PM
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Hello NOLA members! This year marked the 25^th year of the annual ALA Legislative Day held on May 3-4, 1999, which urged over 500 participants to "Tell Your Library Story and Make Friends for Libraries." The NOLA group consisting of myself, Millie and Melissa were part of the eleven person Ohio delegation. Let me tell you that it was a very exciting event!

The first day consisted of a day of briefings sponsored by ALA which relayed the "nuts and bolts" of the numerous issues and concerns. They included intellectual property, universal service, appropriations, education and government education. ALA does a marvelous job of preparing Issue Briefs which gave background information and precise "Action Needed" by the Legislator. Specific information regarding Ohio’s libraries were provided in packets that were prepared by the State Library. There was so much information to be aware of but little time to prepare to be concise yet informative. Each of us from NOLA took an issue or two to memorize for our short presentations. Millie’s issues were database protection, copyright and distance education and public access to information; Melissa would cover LSTA and other funding, as well as the Elementary and Secondary Act Reauthorization. I would tackle Universal Service (E-rate) and the Filtering concern.

The next day, we were off and running (well, let’s say hiking) towards Capital Hill and the Congressional office buildings. We had appointments with the offices of Representatives Steven LaTourette, Thomas Sawyer, Sherrod Brown and James Traficant; we actually met at length with Representative LaTourette. Representative Traficant greeted us warmly but was unable to meet with us. The packets proved to be especially helpful to the legislative aides for Representative Traficant, Sawyer and Brown who sat down with us, listened to us intently, took notes, asked questions and thanked us warmly for coming.

It was gratifying to find out that we did not have to "sell" anything too hard during our visits. Looking at the piles of information that I saw at each office reminded me of the information overload that we librarians are always talking about! One aide took out a folder a few inches thick marked Library, showed us a letter from another legislator to support one of the issues we had come to talk about and asked for more information! The one issue that was foremost on the legislator’s minds a week after the Littleton shooting was Internet filtering. It is important that libraries keep their policies current and continue to be aware of their local community.

It is from the local community, the home district, that the legislators really appreciate visits. I was happy to hear at least for those few moments that libraries held a special place on Capital Hill, Frankly, I have never been called a "Library Diva" before, but I also have never ridden in a station wagon cab with an American flag adorning its roof either.

NOLA Regional Library System 4445 Mahoning Ave Warren, OH 44483	Phone: (330) 847- 7744 Fax: (330) 847- 7704 Email: [email protected]
Copyright � 1999 by NOLA Regional Library System. Send comments to Webmaster. Revised: 05/24/99 01:26:46 PM URL: http://www.nolanet.org/tdn/issue162.htm