ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 13, Number 35 June 8, 2004 In This Issue: CONTACT YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS AND ASK THEM TO COSPONSOR HR 2674: LIBRARIAN EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 2003 Public libraries and schools across this nation are experiencing a dire shortage of librarians. The average age of a librarian in 2002 was 45 years old and 47% of all librarians are expected to reach retirement age by 2008. To help address this serious attrition, Representative Xavier Becerra introduced the Librarian Education and Development Act of 2003 (HR 2674) in the House of Representatives. The Librarian Education and Development Act amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide for certain types of student loan forgiveness for librarians in low-income areas where public schools have a combined average of 30 percent or more of their total student enrollments composed of children counted as disadvantaged under title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The American Library Association strongly supports H.R. 2674 and encourages you to contact your Member of Congress in the House of Representatives and ask them to cosponsor HR 2674, the Librarian Education and Development Act of 2003. ACTION NEEDED: Contact your Member of Congress and ask them to please cosponsor H.R. 2674, the Librarian Education and Development Act. Use ALA's Washington Office Legislative Action Center at to identify and fax or email your Members of Congress. You can also call your Member of Congress directly using the U.S. Capitol switchboard at: (202) 225-3121. Current Cosponsors of H.R. 2674 (12): Rep. Danny Davis, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, Rep. Michael Doyle, Rep. Bob Filner, Rep. Martin Frost, Rep. Bart Gordon, Rep. Raśl Grijalva, Rep. Maurice Hinchey, Rep. Tom Lantos, Rep. Jim McDermott, Rep. Major Owens, and Rep. Ciro Rodriguez ****** 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.