================================================================= ALAWON Volume 6, Number 52 ISSN 1069-7799 July 9, 1997 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (97 lines) ESEA TITLE VI, INNOVATIVE EDUCATION PROGRAM STRATEGIES -- ACTION NEEDED CORRECTION: IMLS CONTACT INFORMATION _________________________________________________________________ ESEA TITLE VI, INNOVATIVE EDUCATION PROGRAM STRATEGIES -- ACTION NEEDED The House Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Subcommittee markup scheduled for July 8 has been postponed until Tuesday, July 15. Representatives Rod Blagojevich (D-IL) and Michael Castle (R-DE) are circulating a "Dear Colleague" letter to be sent to Rep. John Porter (R-IL), chair of the Subcommittee asking for funding for ESEA Title VI--the block grant that provides for school library materials as one of the choices for funding. According to Rep. Blagojevich's aide, Deanne Benos, the letter will be sent on Friday, July 11. ACTION NEEDED: School library supporters have a small window of opportunity to call their Representatives and ask them to sign on to the "Dear Colleague" letter by this Friday, July 11. Please make your call (U.S. Capitol switchboard 202/224-3121) to your Representatives immediately so there will be a long list of names on the letter to Rep. Porter. For Democrats the contact in Rep. Blagojevich's office is Deanne Benos at 202/226-7367; for Republicans the contact in Rep. Castle's office is Angela Goodhart at 202/225-4165. This is a clear demonstration of bi-partisan support for school library materials, and school librarians in Illinois and Delaware should thank these Representatives for their support and action. Thanks for your help! BACKGROUND ESEA Title VI (the former Chapter 2 school block grant) includes school library materials as an eligible use of funds. Some 40 percent of these funds are used for this purpose and are desperately needed in order to have sufficient amounts of up-to-date materials. Such library resources support the improvement of reading skills and provide reference and research materials keyed to the curriculum to enhance the critical thinking skills of students when and where they are engaged in learning during the school day. According to the "Dear Colleague" letter to Rep. Porter, stagnating support for new books is limiting public school libraries to spending to $7 a year per student -- less than half the cost of a single hardcover book. Although library reading programs are becoming increasingly central components of Congress' national educational reform policies, the President's budget fails to fund ESEA Title VI. The Administration is opposed to the flexible block grant nature of the program. _________________________________________________________________ CORRECTION: IMLS CONTACT INFORMATION In ALAWON v6, n51 (June 30, 1997) we reported that Diane Frankel, director of the new Institute of Museum and Library Services which now administers the LSTA program, emphasized that there are ample opportunities for libraries in the new National Leadership Grants. Draft guidelines for these grants are available for public comment. Also, numerous staff positions, including IMLS Deputy Director, are open. The correct contact information for IMLS, according to Tania Said, public information officer, is as follows: "Please let your readers know that they should contact library programs at 202/219-2293 or the IMLS director's office at 202/606-8536. If they are interested in IMLS positions they should contact personnel at the National Endowment for the Humanities at 202/ 606-8415. More information is available from our website at http://www.ims.fed.us or the general e-mail address imsinfo@ims.fed.us." _________________________________________________________________ ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc @ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. Visit our Web site at http://www.alawash.org. ALA Washington Office 202.628.8410 (V) 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F) Washington, DC 20004-1701 800.941.8478 (V) Lynne E. Bradley, Editor Deirdre Herman, Managing Editor Contributors: Mary Costabile All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================