The ALA Urges Action
/The ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Team has requested action to fund libraries:
“As early as next week, President Biden is expected to submit an outline of his proposed budget spending requests for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, which includes federal funding amounts for libraries. We need your help starting NOW until the final budget is signed in order to ensure that libraries are fully funded in the next fiscal year.
Today, ALA has launched our annual FY2022 #FundLibraries Campaign, and we encourage you to bookmark this page and browse the provided resources that can be shared amongst your library community. Included is the one-page introduction to federal library funding, state-by-state library factsheets to share with your elected officials, and a handy visual guide on the overall federal appropriations process.
Because things are a bit different this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent passage of the American Rescue Plan Act, the Dear Appropriator letters have begun circulating this week in both the House and Senate, a few weeks later than in previous years. These letters are circulated to all Members of Congress by library champions in the House and Senate to rally colleagues in support of library funding before the appropriations budget is negotiated. The FY2022 budget will include the designated amounts that the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) will be able to grant to libraries through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), along with the Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) grant program through the U.S. Department of Education, which supports school libraries and other literacy-related organizations. For FY2022, we are asking congressional appropriators to include funding of at least $206 million for LSTA and $50 million for IAL.
Will you contact your members of Congress and ask them to sign onto the Dear Appropriator letters?
We also encourage you to start the momentum on social media and urge your elected officials to support strong funding for libraries. On ALA's #FundLibraries Campaign page, we have included downloadable graphics for you to use with your posts to better increase their overall visibility. Here is a sample tweet that you can customize and share:
The past year has shown how important libraries are for community success and recovery. @[your members of Congress], please #FundLibraries and ensure that no community has to go without library services.
Thank you so much for your continued advocacy, and we look forward to working with you this year to ensure that libraries are fully funded in FY2022!”
RF encourages library stakeholders to join in this effort!