Library Legislative Day 2023

One of the first signs of spring on Beacon Hill is when busloads and train cars full of library supporters converge on the State House for Library Legislative Day to advocate for the budget lines that fund library services across the Commonwealth.

This was the first in-person event since 2019, and it ended up being the day after a snowstorm that hit the western part of the state hard and probably prevented a lot of people from making the trip to Boston. We were lucky on the South Shore and got mostly rain!

My library director and I rode in on the T and met I up in the Nurses Hall with public, academic, and school librarians, library affiliates, trustees, and state officials for coffee and pastries before the program of rousing speeches and calls to action began.

We visited personally with the state representative and one senator whose districts include our public library. After we talked of how great libraries are and how the public library serves all residents, we moved on to the FY24 budget and library funding, and each pledged their continuing support. Afterwards, each kindly offered us a tour of their respective chambers, so we received a private viewing of both the Senate Chamber and the House Chamber!

The Senate Chamber was beautiful, recently renovated.

The Senate balcony (not open to the public) has a great view of Boston Common!

On our way to the Senate Chamber, we passed by the Senate Reading Room but I didn’t get to peek inside! The hallway walls were lined with pictures and mini bios of famous women from Massachusetts.

The House Chamber hadn’t been renovated recently, but still looked pretty nice!

But as Library Commissioner Debby Conrad said when she spoke, Library Legislative Day is the beginning, not the end, of advocating for libraries. Funding from the state budget is relied on by public libraries in just about all of the cities and towns in Massachusetts, but also by school libraries; library networks; residents who are vision impaired; and the Boston Public Library (the library of the Commonwealth) which provides library services including ebooks and other digital resources to all Massachusetts residents; and the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners itself, which makes sure the funds are distributed fairly and are actually used for library services throughout the state.

Each year, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners prepares a legislative agenda – the “ask” that we need to ask our legislators to support – and sets the priorities for each year. This year’s includes an “Unfair E-books Pricing” bill. If passed, libraries will be able to better meet the demand for e-books and e-audiobooks, and reduce wait times for library copies. Now that’s something everybody wants, right?

Check out the MBLC 2024 Library Legislative Agenda.

Not sure how to contact your legislator and what to say if you call?

The Massachusetts Library Association and Massachusetts School Library Association have information for advocates, but if you want to know exactly what to say or if you want to send quick emails that are already written for you, there is a website for that. And it’s not just for Massachusetts, so you can contact your legislators in whatever state you live in.

Other ways to advocate for libraries, in your own state and on the federal level:

ALA’s “Advocacy Academy”

Take Action for Libraries

Unite Against Book Bans

Sunday Salon is to encourage conversations about books and book-ish things. The weekly link-up and Facebook group are hosted by the busy bee Deb Nance of Readerbuzz. Sunday Salon has a long history in the book blogging community, but this is my very first Sunday Salon post.