ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 12, Number 26 March 21, 2003 In This Issue: Strong Grassroots Participation is Crucial for National Library Legislative Day 2003 Success! National Library Legislative Day 2003 is your opportunity to visit Capitol Hill to discuss legislation that is important to libraries. The legislative day events provide an important opportunity for each participant to educate newly elected and returning Senators and Representatives about all the terrific programs at your library and on issues that are important to the larger library community. Your Congressional representatives want to know about how libraries and library programs impact the lives of their constituents - and who better to tell them about the continuing importance of libraries than a strong group of library advocates? Who, When and Where? National Library Legislative Day events will be held in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, May 11, 12 & 13, 2003. Participants in legislative day events include librarians, trustees, friends of libraries, library school faculty and students, and other library advocates who speak to members of Congress about the significant contributions libraries make in their communities. Your grassroots support is crucial to the success of our legislative day events. On Sunday, May 11, there will be a pre-conference event sponsored by the Association of Library Trustees and Advocates (ATLA), the District of Columbia Library Association (DCLA), and the American Library Association's Washington Office. The event, entitled "Introduction to National Library Legislative Day: Why Your Participation is Important; What to Do and How to Do It," is designed to provide tips for first time legislative day participants on how to make an impact during Hill visits and to help with the organization of presentations to your legislators. The session will be held at the Van Scoyoc Conference Room, 101 Constitution Ave., Suite 600 beginning at 3:00 p.m. Please RSVP to cbowman@alawash.org or mcostabile@alawash.org if you are planning to attend this session. Monday, May 12 is the briefing day at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001. We encourage legislative day attendees to stay at the Hyatt in our reserved room block. You can go to our website and book your rooms online at www.ala.org/washoff/legislativeday.html or call 800-233-1234. Rooms must be booked by April 14, 2003. Be sure to mention the National Library Legislative Day event to receive the discounted room rate. If you book rooms after the deadline, you will not receive the discounted rate. In addition to the briefing day event, there will be a free reception for all Legislative Day attendees on Monday evening, May 12, to launch the "Gates Portal Program." The reception will be held in the Great Hall at the Library of Congress beginning at 6:30 pm. Each legislative day participant will receive a personal invitation to this event, so register early with your state coordinator. On Tuesday, May 13, National Library Legislative Day events will begin with a short briefing and send-off for participants, followed by visits to congressional offices. The ALA Washington Office will prepare background materials for participants to distribute during the congressional office visits. We urge you to develop handouts with state and local library stories and statistics to distribute as well. National Library Legislative Day will conclude with a wrap-up session for state coordinators to discuss the day's experiences, followed by the Congressional Reception, where you can mingle with legislators and staff members you met earlier in the day. The registration fee for National Library Legislative Day is $15.00 per attendee. If you are interested in participating in this year's events, please contact your state legislative day coordinator listed on our web site at www.ala.org/washoff/legislativeday.html. If you need more information or have questions about legislative day, please email Camille Bowman at cbowman@alawash.org or call 1-800-941-8478. If you would like to make a contribution to help support legislative day events, send a check to Peggy Flynn, NLLD Committee Treasurer, 4750 Chevy Chase Dr., Apt. 401, Chevy Chase, MD 20815-6416. Please make the check payable to 'National Library Legislative Day ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Camille Bowman, Mary Costabile, Don Essex, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Jennifer Hendrix, Carrie Russell, Claudette Tennant. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.