Through hard work and collaboration the “School Libraries Collection Development Grant” is now a law; however, it is not yet funded. AkASL needs to mobilize members, principals, parents, school board members,etc. to try to get the funding ($1.1 million ) into the Governor’s budget.

We all need to start a letter or postcard-writing campaign addressed to the —
Governor c/o Karen Rehfeld, Director of the Office of Management and Budget,
P.O. Box 110020, Juneau, Alaska 99811-0020 –
Phone (907) 465-4660, Fax (907) 465-3640.

Copies of letters should go to —
Commissioner Larry LeDoux,
Commissioner of Education and Early Development,
P.O. Box 110500, Juneau, AK 99811-0500

Any letters could also be copied to one’s local legislators.  It would be good to get several hundred messages going. The conversation topics to get our law funded are the same as the ones we used to get SB119 passed into law. The substance of these messages should repeat briefly the need for the program (check the AkASL website for talking points click here and then urge the Governor, Commissioner, and legislators to make this important long-term investment in 21st century materials for our 21st century Alaska students.

The funding of SLA Chapter 55 will enable school libraries to replace materials such as almanacs with statistics years out of date, encyclopedias with incomplete or inaccurate entries, atlases with incorrect political boundaries, health books with outdated or misleading information, nonfiction books too old to include advances in science and technology, folklore or picture books which are culturally insensitive, sports books featuring teams which no longer exist and the many wonderful library books which are literally falling apart from many years of use.

Contact legislators to make sure that they understand that there is a school library portion to what used to be SB119.  The public library portion was tacked on relatively late in the game, but put up top in the legislation.  Legislators were confused about the two different sections and judging from legislators questions and answers at a recent Anchorage forum, they still are.

The school library portion is Sec. 3 Chapter 55 SLA 2008.  The official title for the school library section is “Public School Library Collection Development Grant,” and in the Alaska statutes, it is AS14.56.360-375.   You can read or print out the law as enrolled here.

The Governor’s budget is being formulated right now.

Karen Emmel
Steller Librarian