We are fortunate in Maine to have two attendees at this White House
Conference on school libraries. . State Librarian Gary Nichols
([log in to unmask]) has been invited and as noted previously on
MELIBS, Marilyn Joyce, Library Media Specialist at Brewer High School
([log in to unmask]) is a member of the Advisory Committee.

-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Hofmann [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2002 9:40 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [AASLAFFILS:725] Advocacy Call to Action


A Call to Action

American Association of School Librarians (AASL)*

and

LM_NET (The Library Media Network)

To School library media specialists everywhere!

Now is the time to act! As many of you know, there will be a very special
event taking place at the White House on June 4th. Sponsored by First Lady
Laura Bush, the purpose of the meeting is to raise awareness of the crucial
role of school library media programs and professionals to school
leaders--especially superintendents and principals.

We need to do our part on the local level to take advantage of this
incredible opportunity.

We urge you to do the following:

1. Schedule a formal meeting with your school principal to talk about the
upcoming White House event. If you can't do this before the event, then do
it afterwards.

The focus of the meeting should be on:

(1) the Information Power Mission--"to ensure that students are effective
users of ideas and information."

(2) the roles and functions of the library media program:

- learning and teaching

- information access and delivery

- program administration.

(3) vision and plans for the future.


We want you to emphasize the outputs of your program--the services and
teaching that you do.

For example, Mike Eisenberg describes these outputs as

- teacher of information and technology literacy

- advocate for reading

- manager of information resources, systems services

Describe the specific actions on how these are being carried out in your
particular school.

2. Write an accompanying memo to the principal outlining the above with
supporting evidence.

3. Send a one-page, 2-sided handout to teachers and parents describing the
mission-functions-actions-vision-plans of the library and information
program.

4. (optional but recommended) Convene a group of building-level
teacher-librarians to meet with the district administration and do 1-2
above.

This is a unique opportunity to tell our story! Let's do it!

Tools to help you in your local efforts can be found at:

www.ala.org/aasl/advocacy

www.ischool.washington.edu/lm_net

*The American Association of School Librarians is a division of the American
Library Association