- Washington Update: from left, Ken Gordon, Stephanie Vance, Ken Wiggin, Emily Sheketoff
The ALA Washington Office Update this morning offered Midwinter Meeting goers an opportunity to connect in person with Washington Office staffers. Lynne Bradley, director of the Office of Government Relations noted that on the Hill, traditional library issues are still on the agenda, but with a new twist. Appropriations will be extremely competitive in the current economic climate, and it’s important for librarians, with more voices than ever, to make the case for libraries as the best bang for the buck. Copyright, access to government information, and broadband and telecommunications remain high on the lobbying agenda. ALA Associate Executive Director for the Washington Office Emily Sheketoff said there is great expectation that legislators will work collaboratively and get America back to work. Former Colorado State Senator Ken Gordon, one of three panelists for the session, told stories gleaned from his 16 years in the Colorado Assembly to illustrate his belief in what it takes to preserve American democracy: education. The people are sovereign in America, and if we don’t supervise our public officials, they will fail, he said. The American people have failed to do that over last 50 years, he noted, and any assumption that “dysfunctional Washington is done” simply because Barack Obama is president “is far from the truth.” Despite the optimism he shares because Obama got elected, he still urged the audience to remember that “he is an employee, as are the legislators.” Gordon expressed dismay at the number of people who do not even know the names of their representatives in state government. “If you have an employee and you don’t even know their name, they are not going to pay attention to you,” he asserted, and “what fills that gap is special interests.” Since the Reagan administration there has been less money spent on public education, he said. “We’ve stopped teaching Americans how to govern themselves” and young people have accepted the idea that the purpose of America is to get rich. “Obama will not be able to do what you want him to do as long as levers of power are money levers and not people levers,” Gordon concluded, and “people must participate.” Ken Wiggin, chair of the ALA Legislation Committee, cited the speech given by Obama at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, in which he exhibited an exceptional understanding of the role of libraries in American democracy. “But he can’t do it by himself,” said Wiggin, pointing out that economic stimulus or “recovery” money is going to go to state and local government, where “libraries have to be on their radar.”
Advocacy guru Stephanie Vance told a stunned audience that there are 147,000 organizations lobbying in Washington and that every American’s share of the national debt is $30,000. But the new people in Washington “are enthusiastic about some of the things we are enthusiastic about,” and that’s how to be at the table, “you achieve it through citizen advocacy.”
Up to 500,000 email messages go to Congress every year, Vance observed, and “the communications that matter most are the communications from you, the people in their district. Now is the time to start applying that power. Persistently but politely get on their radar screen.” Gordon said, not jokingly, “I Urge you to be much more disagreeable in the way you speak to legislators.” He also offered a piece of practical advice for how to get citizens to advocate: “Give them a phone number, an e-mail address, this is more effective.” His point: Make it easy for people to speak out. Vance noted that ALA has all sort of advocacy tools that can be used in exactly that way. Gordon suggested that librarians ask young people to vote on things you are going to do in the library. Early attendance reports for the ALA Midwinter Meeting, issued yesterday, show registration levels down at this meeting by about 10% from last year in Philadelphia, although they may be adjusted upward before the close of the conference. Total advance registration was 7,191 added to 182 on site. Exhibitor registration was 1,703, just 87 people less than 2008, for a grand total of 9,076 in Denver as compared to 10,740 in Philly and 10,355 in Seattle in 2007.