News from Illinois Library Association

Issue: # 16

April 20, 2009

Official Commemorative State of Illinois Barack Obama License Plates Are Now Available to Everyone

Illinois Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White and the Illinois Library Association (ILA) are pleased to announce that the official Barack Obama Illinois license plate is now available for purchase to everyone. These special event license plates, which read "Illinois Salutes President Barack Obama," are unique commemorative plates and until April 17, 2009, had been only available to owners of Illinois vehicles.

The plates have been on sale for the last sixty days and have already become the most popular special event plate in Illinois history. They were created to commemorate and celebrate the election of Illinois Senator Barack Obama as U.S. President, our nation's first African American president. The proceeds will help support the ILA's activities including iREAD, the summer reading program for Illinois youth. The plates make an excellent gift for family and friends and can now be purchased in multiple sets by anyone.

"ILA is delighted to partner with our State Librarian in this wonderful opportunity," said ILA President Donna Dziedzic. "Libraries are more important than ever in this period of economic instability and more and more people are using them every day. Moreover, study after study have proven that the economic impact of libraries is greater than the amount invested in the libraries' operations and, in fact, libraries are economic engines in their community."

"Libraries are the cornerstones of our communities," said Illinois Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White. "I am committed to working with libraries across the state to help them serve their patrons and communities at the highest level. The iREAD program represents an important effort to encourage our young people to read."

In 2005, the then U.S. Senator Obama keynoted the opening general session of the American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago. He praised librarians as guardians of truth and knowledge, and thanked them for their role as champions of privacy, literacy, independent thinking, and most of all reading. President Obama has referred to libraries as "our windows to a larger world."

The cost of these unique Obama collectables is $50/pair and are available for purchase at www.ila.org/obama.

Information about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Funds From the Blog "Capitol Fax"

"About $1.8 billion of the federal money is being used to balance the state budget, not to increase funding for schools. The rest (about a billion) will go to schools via existing federal programs for poor districts and the disabled.

Look, I was pleasantly surprised that states like Illinois were allowed to skim stimulus money ostensibly earmarked for education and use it instead to balance their budgets. We desperately need every federal dollar we can get to avoid an even bigger tax hike or deeper budget cuts.

But $3 billion is definitely not 'heading to Illinois to fund education,' even if the party line is that we're actually using the money to avoid cuts in our education budget. That would not have happened. Don't be silly."

Despite this news, ILA will continue to ask for funding for libraries. In fact, ILA has an appointment with Carolyn Brown Hodge, the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor, at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 23, Illinois Library Day. We plan to discuss Illinois Library Shovel-Ready Projects and the $374 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's (ARRA) State Fiscal Stabilization Funds for the governor's discretionary use. This funding is flexible and the control rests in the hands of the governor on how the funding is allocated in the state. It is those funds that we are hoping the governor will allocate to repair and modernize library buildings and to keep our doors open or extend hours, hire staff, purchase materials to meet the increasing needs, etc.

Our intentions are to ensure our elected officials are aware of our needs and we will continue to advocate for library funding in good and bad times. ILA will continue to inform the library community about our discussion with our elected officials and ongoing efforts to obtain additional funding.

In the News

Schaumburg Township District Library: Poor Hygiene Might Get you Tossed
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Book Taken from Library during Civil War Returned by Lake Forest Man

Sincerely,

Robert P. Doyle
Illinois Library Association

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