Network with fellow Chapters colleagues with this assortment of social networking tools made possible by the ALA Chapter Relations Office and ALA!:
The ALA Chapters Resource Wiki promotes communication and assistance among ALA and the ALA Chapters.
ALA Chapters on Facebook promotes communication and assistance among ALA and the ALA Chapters.
The ALA Chapter Relations Office on Twitter promotes communication and assistance among ALA and the ALA Chapters.
The ALA Student Chapters group on Facebook facilitates communication and assistance among the student chapters and ALA. See also ALA Student Chapter fan page. If your Chapter is not on here or you need to update some information, contact Don Wood, ALA Chapter Relations Office.
The ALA Student Members Wiki facilitates communication among student members and ALA.
The American Library Association Student to Staff Participants group on Facebook promotes communication and assistance among ALA and the student-to-staff participants. See also ALA Student to Staff fan page.
See also ALA Read Write Connect and ALA Weblog Service.
Join us in Boston for these two shouldn’t-be-missed events sponsored by the ALA Office for Library Advocacy:
Surviving in a Tough Economy: An Advocacy Institute Workshop, Friday, January 15, 2010, 1:30 - 5 p.m., Boston Public Library- McKim Lower Level, 700 Boylston St., Boston, MA 02116
Hear success stories, get the latest tips, and learn how to better advocate for your library in this difficult financial time. Advance ticket: $25; Onsite ticket: $50 Event Code: OLA1
2010 Midwinter Advance Registration ends December 4, 2009
Advocacy on the Front Lines: How to Make a Difference from Where You Sit, Saturday, January 16, 2010, 1:30 - 3:30 p.m., 2010 ALA Midwinter Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, Location TBA
Do you think advocacy is just for the higher-ups in your organization? Everyone can – and should – have a role in advocating for their library and the profession. Learn how advocacy can be made easy: Join ALA President Camila Alire and guests in a discussion on Frontline Advocacy, an initiative designed to motivate, encourage and train the library community to seize opportunities to promote the diverse professionals, resources and services of libraries of all types.
This panel discussion is sponsored by the Camila Alire Presidential Initiative Workgroups in cooperation with the ALA Office for Library Advocacy, Governance Office and Office for Literacy and Outreach Services.
On June 29, 2010, at 11 a.m., library advocates from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., will meet at Upper Senate Park on the U.S. Capitol grounds to participate in Library Advocacy Day (LAD).
Register now to attend!
LAD will feature guest speakers, photo ops, and a chance to cheer on libraries! After the rally, participants will meet with their elected officials and their staffs. The states with the most people will be featured front and center, which means they are the ones that will be in the majority of pictures. Make sure your state is the most represented so your group can be in the most pictures!
Let your National Library Legislative Day (NLLD) coordinator know you plan to attend. (See note below.)
For information on state lobbying days, contact your State Chapter. (If you’re not a member of your State Chapter, please join!)
Note: National Library Legislative Day (NLLD) usually occurs at this same time of year. For 2010 only, Library Advocacy Day will take its place, instead.
Advocacy University is ALA’s initiative geared to providing tools, training and resources to library advocates to achieve real advocacy goals in real situations at the local level. Go there now and learn about these wonderful resources to help you in your advocacy work:
Advocacy University is brought to you by the American Library Association’s Office for Library Advocacy. For questions or comments, please contact OLA.
Become a Facebook fan of I Love Libraries now!
I love Libraries is the American Library Association’s (ALA’s) website for the public, designed to keep America informed about what’s happening in today’s public, school, academic, corporate, and institutional libraries.
Ilovelibraries.org is produced by the ALA Office for Library Advocacy, and it’s brought to you by ALA staff from all corners of the association, who come together to volunteer their time and brilliance. Ilovelibraries.org is truly a labor of love!
As soon as you become a fan, start recruiting your friends and colleagues to become fans, too!:
And don’t forget: You, too, can write for I Love Libraries!
Ilovelibraries.org is ALA’s Web site for the general public, a place where those outside of the library community learn more about the excitement and vitality of today’s libraries, and in the process become active advocates for improving libraries of all types. It includes feature stories on what’s happening in today’s libraries, book reviews; ways for viewers to tell their library story and links to advocacy software which allows users to contact members of Congress.
We are encouraging members of the library community to use this Web site as a vehicle to tell the library story. New articles are posted on Ilovelibraries.org every two weeks. Here’s the who, what, when, where, how, and why!:
- QUERIES: Do you have an idea for an article but aren’t sure it’s a good fit? . Please send queries to ilovelibraries@ala.org.
- STYLE:
- Informal, but informative. Factual articles must be inviting and readable, with all statements backed by responsible research and interviews. Authors are responsible for accuracy in the article, including all names
- Submit a separate cover page stating the author’s name, title, a brief descriptive title of the proposed article, and an abstract summarizing the content of the article.
- The Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed.) may be used in styling articles for publication and consulted for capitalization, abbreviations, etc.
- Write in a clear, simple style. Use the active voice whenever possible. Avoid overly long sentences. Break up long sections of text with subheadings. All nouns, verbs, pronouns, and modifiers in the subhead should be capitalized.
- If you have specific urls that you would like to appear in your article, please be sure to list them fully and correctly.
- Editors may revise accepted articles for clarity, accuracy, and readability, consistent with publication style and intended audience. Ilovelibraries is under no obligation to publish articles received.
- FORMAT: Electronic submissions in Word format are preferred and should be sent to ilovelibraries@ala.org.
- PHOTOGRAPHS: Photos and images are preferred in gif or jpeg form. Please include captions for each photo and/or image submitted.
- LENGTH: Feature articles should run between 500-1500 words. Library Showcase articles should run between 300-500 words.
- PAYMENT: ilovelibraries.org does not offer honoraria for submissions.
- EXCLUSIVE SUBMISSION: Please indicate if article has been or is being considered for publication elsewhere.
- RIGHTS: Submission of an article grants the American Library Association the exclusive and perpetual rights to publish, use, edit, adapt, modify, excerpt and/or copy the article for any and all purposes in any and all media currently in existence or hereafter without further compensation to the writer.
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: We will acknowledge your article when we receive it. We make decisions to accept or reject articles as quickly as possible. The review process usually takes between six to eight weeks, but sometimes longer when we receive larger volumes of articles.
- PUBLICATION DATE: On acceptance, an estimated date of publication may be provided to the author.
- EDITING: On accepted articles, the editors reserve the right to make editorial revisions, deletions, or additions which, in their opinion, support the author’s intent. When changes are substantial, every effort is made to work with the author.
ALA provides a number of ways to connect and network with others and a number of ways to stay informed! Below are just a few of the resources available to you, so be sure to visit ALA Read Write Connect, ALA Blogs, and ALA Weblog Service for additional choices!
AL Direct is an electronic newsletter sent to ALA personal members and others who wish to subscribe. It is a weekly supplement to American Libraries magazine that provides summaries and links to news, announcements, and other information of interest to library and information science professionals. Subscribe to AL Direct.
ALA provides ALA Connect, a common virtual space for members to engage in ALA business and network with other members around issues and interests relevant to the profession. New on ALA Connect is MentorConnect, an informal mentoring network implemented within ALA Connect that allows all ALA members to participate and only requires that you actively choose to join the network in order to begin serving as a mentor or seeking a mentor.
Chapters promote general library service and librarianship within their geographic areas, provide geographic representation to the Council of the American Library Association, and cooperate in the promotion of general and joint enterprises with the American Library Association and other library groups. Visit the Chapters Social Networking Page to find many ways to connect .
District Dispatch is the official blog of the ALA Washington Office. You can view press releases, library related legislation, updates from OGR and OITP, and virtually all vital information from the Washington Office. Subscribe to the District Dispatch RSS (Rich Site Summary/Really Simple Syndication) feed. RSS is a relatively new technology that streamlines all your updates from a variety of blogs and news sources into one easy-to-read location. Luckily, there are myriad helpful explanations online for what RSS is, how it was developed and all of its other aspects. Subscribe and start receiving District Dispatch updates immediately and consistently. Of course, you are still welcome to subscribe via email. If you use Microsoft Office Outlook, then you are in luck. Microsoft has already supplied users with a step-by-step guide to rss subscription in Outlook. Through Outlook, you can receive RSS updates in the same program as your email. Non-outlook users have several options. Mashable has created “The Ultimate RSS Toolbox,” which lays out other RSS feed aggregators and how they work.
Ilovelibraries.org is website for the public, designed to keep America informed about what’s happening in today’s libraries. Subscribe to I Love Libraries Newsletter.
Join the Privacy Revolution!
We live in an age when knowledge is power. New technologies give us unprecedented access to information. They also facilitate surveillance, with the power to collect and mine personal information.
People enjoy the convenience of having information at their fingertips. But most people don’t realize the trade off. For example, citizens turn a blind eye to the fact that online searches create traceable records that make them vulnerable to questioning by the FBI, or that government agencies can track their phone calls, airline travel, online purchases, and more.
In this environment, convenience and fear trump the fundamental right of privacy. And privacy has become so amorphous an idea that many citizens have resigned themselves to an inevitable erosion of rights.
In an information age, it’s vital to protect the impulse to be curious, read, and learn. Yet people seem resigned to the loss of their privacy rights because they see no recourse.
We aim to spark a national conversation on privacy. Join us!
Add your voice to those who are calling for change.
Take charge of your privacy now.
With many opportunities available to libraries through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the library community must continue its efforts to educate its elected officials on the benefits of investing in libraries–focusing now on the state level.
Implementing the law will no doubt be complex, so the ALA Washington Office has created its Know Your Stimulus page as a one-stop source with resources on how to make sure libraries benefit from the package and the most up-to-date information on the stimulus. As information becomes available, the ALA Washington Office will post updates on this Stimulus News page (e.g., how funding will be distributed and how to apply).
Links on the Know Your Stimulus page includes:
- Programs (State Stabilization Funds, Broadband Funding, Other Programs)
- Broadband (Stimulus Funding for Broadband, Resources)
- Legislation & Regulations (Public Law, Legislative Summaries, Notices, Rules, Memos)
- Oversight
- Grants and Awards (Procedures, Announcements, Grants.gov)
- Advocacy (How to advocate for ARRA funding)
- News (Press Releases, News Stories)
- Links (agencies)
- FAQ
For additional help on the state level, see also ALA Office for Library Advocacy and ALA Chapter Relations Office.
Enroll at Advocacy University and find the resources, courses, and tools to help you, as library advocates, make the case at the local level.
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Advocating in a Tough Economy Toolkit
The following resources and tools, including news clips, op-eds, and statistics to help library supporters make the case for libraries in these times.
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Coalition Building
This new website is your tool to help you create and build successful advocacy coalitions.
Coming Soon:
- Making Budget Presentations
- Advocacy at the Frontlines: An Initiative of 2009-2010 ALA President Camila Alire