A small continent of Minnesotans visited our nation’s Capitol this National Library Legislative Day, May 2-3, 2016. Jim Weikum, ALS Director and former Minnesota Library Association Legislative Chair, led the group. Also attending NLLD were Judith Schotzko, a SELCO Board Member, and Skip Levesque, the President of the Friends of the St. Michael – Albertville – Hanover Library in GRRL. Skip is the recipient of the first Minnesota Association of Library Friends NLLD grant.
These NLLD advocates asked their Members of Congress in the House and Senate to increase funding for library services, approve a new Treaty to provide electronic materials to the blind worldwide, protect the privacy of email and other electronic communications, and to support legislation that will afford the public broad and free access to government information.
Statewide documentation shared with Congressional staff included recent news from the Minnesota Department of Education on Federal funding for libraries.