Iowans visit their representatives in Washington, DC
State Librarian Mary Wegner and others attend ALA's Library Advocacy Day rally.
Top row left, Lochhaas, Wegner, S. Henricks, Fry; bottom row, Stewart, G. Henricks
As part of this year's American Library Association's (AL) annual conference, attendees participated in a Library Advocacy Day rally on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
Attending the the rally on Tuesday, June 29 with State Librarian Mary Wegner were Susan Henricks (director, Carnegie-Stout Public Library, Dubuque) and her daughter Genevieve (University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign library student), Alison Galstad (director, Coralville Public Library) and her daughter Evelyn, Greer Fry (member of Friends of the Library, Cedar Rapids), Duncan Stewart (University of Iowa library), Lynne Carey (Ames Public Library), and Katie DeVries and Sherry Lochhaas (University of Iowa library school students). Later, Wegner and several in the group visited the offices of Iowa's congressmen and senators.
- Alison and Evelyn Galstad
ALA reported that 19,513 attended the conference and some 1,600 showed up for the rally. The group explained to Iowa's elected representatives the importance of federal funding through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). Federal funds are used to support statewide programs that benefit most Iowa libraries including the SILO Locator and interlibrary loan; the summer library program; continuing education for librarians and trustees; Iowa Publications Online; the Iowa Center for the Book; EBSCOhost and other databases; and more.
