Larra Clark
ALA Press Officer
312-280-4393
lclark@ala.org

A message to American Library Association members:

Happy National Library Week!

Started in 1958, National Library Week is a time intended to raise awareness and celebrate the contributions of libraries and library staff. 

This year, the American Library Association (ALA) and ALA Allied Professional Association also are inaugurating National Library Workers Day on Tuesday, April 20.  It's a perfect time to talk with your users, advocates, elected officials and media about value of libraries and library workers.

Across the country, the ALA Public Information Office has been reaching out to talk radio and other media outlets to talk about the opportunities libraries provide and the challenges they face right now - particularly with funding cuts. 

With your help, we can take these messages further. This week, we invite you to call the talk show you usually listen to and remind the host and listeners that this is National Library Week and a great time to visit their library.

Some other messages you might want to share are:

Overall

• Libraries are places of opportunity.  Because they offer free access to all, they bring opportunity to all.  Your library has books, videos, magazines, computers, online access, special collections and more - all for the asking. There's something for everyone @ your library. Visit your library today.
  
• In an age of information overload, we need the expert guidance and assistance of librarians now more than ever.  Librarians are the ultimate search engines.
  
• You can't have good education without good libraries, and you can't have good libraries without good staff.  Celebrate your library staff this week!

Library funding

• The American Library Association this week launched a study that showed libraries in 41 states have been affected by state funding cuts.  At least $50 million has been cut from library budgets in the past 10 months, at least 518 library operating hours have been lost and at least 661 library staff positions, full time and part time, have been eliminated.
  
• At the same time, library staff knows that when the economy is down, library use is up. More than 1.1 billion people visit public libraries annually, and they check out more than 1.7 billion items.
  
• The tools we need to grow are now at our library, but we must act swiftly to make sure they'll be there tomorrow.  I hope other listeners will support their libraries and library staff by voting for library referenda, donating time or money and talking with their friends and families about libraries.

To learn more about library funding cuts, please visit www.ala.org/libraryfunding.

Please send an e-mail to PIO (pio@ala.org) to let us know how it goes and to share any other National Library Week success stories!