ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 13, Number 19 March 24, 2004 In This Issue: Join us for the 30th National Library Legislative Day Celebrate 30 years of library advocacy at 2004 National Library Legislative Day! 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 2, 3 & 4, 2004. 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 2, 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 Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, Room A5, District of Columbia Public Library . Please RSVP to cbowman@alawash.org or alawash@alawash.org if you are planning to attend this session. Monday, May 3 is the briefing day at the Holiday Inn on Capitol Hill, 415 New Jersey Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001. Rooms must be booked by March 31, 2004. 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. A list of additional accommodations is available on the legislative day web site at www.ala.org/washoff/legislativeday.html. On Tuesday, May 4, 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 from 5-7 p.m., where participants can mingle with legislators and their staff members. 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 Bernadette Murphy at bmurphy@alawash.org or call 1-800-941-8478. If you would like to make a contribution to help support legislative day events, please go to the web site and download a contribution form. Instructions on how to make a contribution are included on the form. Stay tuned to ALAWON for further information on legislative day events. ****** 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; Carol Ashworth, Camille Bowman, Don Essex, Joshua Farrelman, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Carrie Lowe, Kathy Mitchell, Carrie Russell. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.