Illinois Library Association
Vol. 5, Issue:  7| February  11, 2012
ILA Executive Board Determines Positions on Key Bills
Yesterday, the ILA Executive Board reviewed more than 48 library bills and determined the association's position on the key or most controversial bills.  Since the Illinois General Assembly began the spring session a little later this year, legislators have just begun to file new bills and many other bills relevant to the Illinois library community are likely to be introduced in the following days. 

Considering that both the ILA Public Policy Committee (PPC) and ILA Executive Board met this week and their next meetings are in about a month, the ILA Quick Response Team might be called into action to address any new bills requiring immediate attention.


Please here click to see the complete list.  (Click on See All Current Legislation at the bottom in small type for the full listing including ILA's positions.)  

  

The following highlights just four bills:    

  

SUPPORT Senate Bill (SB) 3169

Senate Bill 3169, sponsored by Sen. Sue Rezin (R-38, Peru), addresses the issue of borrowing privileges by persons residing in homeless, emergency, or other local shelters.  ILA supports access for all patrons residing in their local service area and will be recommending and working with Senator Rezin to amend the proposed legislation.  Both PPC and the ILA Executive Board believed that a statewide mandate to extend the privileges fails to recognize widely varying shelter situations in local communities and usurps local control.  ILA will be recommending that SB 3169 be changed so that each board of library trustees shall have a policy regarding the privileges and use of the library for persons residing at a homeless, emergency, temporary, or other shelter within the library's public service area.  Provides that a library shall make reasonable accommodations for persons living in a shelter who do not have a usual form of identification, but who can verify residency at the shelter.

 

OPPOSE Senate Bill (SB) 2862 and House Bill (HB) 4608 

Senate Bill 2862, sponsored by Sen. Martin A. Sandoval (D-12, Cicero), and House Bill 4608, sponsored by Rep. Jack D. Franks (D-63, Woodstock) and Rep. Kent Gaffney (R-52, Wauconda), would reduce the revenues available to local taxing districts in tax capped counties.  Where property assessments are declining, the bills would prevent any increase in the aggregate tax levy extension even though the costs to provide services continue to rise with inflation.  This same legislation was defeated in 2011 in the Illinois House of Representatives by a vote of 34 to 73.

 

OPPOSE House Bill (HB) 5301 

House Bill 5301, sponsored by Rep. Le Shawn K. Ford (D-8, Chicago), would require every person who accesses a computer for a fee, and even some school and library users, to show identification and allow personal information to be recorded before using the Internet.  This requirement would have a tremendous chilling affect on persons accessing First Amendment protected information through the Internet, and is inconsistent with constitutional principles.

ILA will continue to monitor and inform the Illinois library community of any developments in the Illinois General Assembly impacting libraries and our key concerns.  Most importantly, we will call upon you to take action at the appropriate time.  Thank you for interest and support!
ILA Executive Approves Consolidation Principles

As ILA E-Newsletter readers might remember, ILA successfully sought Richard McCarthy's (Gail Borden Public Library District trustee) appointment to the Local Government Consolidation Commission to ensure the interests of Illinois public libraries and their constituents were represented during the Commission's deliberations, and reflected in the Commission's recommendations.   

 

Yesterday, the Illinois Library Association's Executive Board approved the following guiding principles regarding consolidation:

  1. ILA strongly supports each of the goals outlined in the Commission's charge.  Consistent with these stated goals, ILA supports the preservation and enhancement of local control through independent library trustees.  ILA agrees that the total number of governmental units in Illinois should be reduced, and unnecessary services should be eliminated.  ILA also agrees that local governments should have greater flexibility to cooperate and increase efficiency.
  2. Any public library consolidation effort must also include the objective of providing statewide public library service.  The increased efficiencies and lowered costs from consolidation should be applied to ensuring that every Illinois resident has access to quality public library service.
  3. Consolidation will be most effective if achieved through incentives to merge, rather than mandated dissolution of libraries by Springfield. There are many significant benefits that will result from the ability to specialize, share staff, as well as integrate facilities and resources. State law should reward consolidation by making it easier to create a merged entity and ensuring that the merged entity has the same or better access to resources and funding.
  4. Library laws should be streamlined, updated, and made uniform among the various types of local libraries.  Specifically, public libraries should have funding options that are uniform throughout Illinois.
  5. Libraries play a fundamental role in the intellectual life of society, and free access to information cannot be infringed.  Therefore, governance of libraries should remain independent, and where appropriate, independent control should be enhanced.
ILA Candidates for 2012

The ILA Nominating Committee has announced the candidates for election in the spring of 2012.

 

For vice president/president-elect (three-year term beginning July 1, 2012 -- June 30, 2015):

 

ILA Vice President/President Elect

Su Erickson, Robert Morris University, Aurora

Jocelyn Tipton, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston

 

Board of Directors (three-year term beginning July 1, 2012 -- June 30, 2015). A candidate from each pairing will be elected in accordance with the ILA bylaws as amended at the 1998 ILA Annual Conference; a total of four directors will be elected to serve three-year terms on the ILA Executive Board.

 

Director-at-Large:

Anthony Glass, Eureka College

Carol Reid, Heartland Community College, Normal

 

Director-at-Large:

Amber Creger, Chicago Public Library

Susan Westgate, Bartlett Public Library District

 

Director-at-Large:

Jeremy Dunn, Chicago Public Schools

Becky Robinson, Galesburg Senior High School

 

Director-at-Large:

Ann Lee, Dow Jones and Company, Chicago

Leora Siegel, Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe

 

ALA Councilor

Allen Lanham, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston

Denise Zielinski, Joliet Public Library

 

Any ILA member wishing to be added to the ballot by petition may call the ILA office for information.  Nominations by petition for an elective office shall be proposed in writing by at least one hundred (100) personal members of the association and delivered to the executive office by March 1, 2012. Candidates for director nominated by petition shall be added to the slate and placed in the paired candidate group that most clearly matches the affiliations of the petitioner as determined by the nominating committee. Petition candidates for vice president/president-elect will be added to the presidential slate as requested.  The polls will open electronically April 1, 2012. In addition, paper ballots will be sent to persons requesting one.  The return deadline is thirty (30) days after the ballot is postmarked.  The electronic polls will close April 30.

 

Serving on the nominating committee are Deirdre Brennan, Halle Cox, Karen Egan, Joyce L. Fedeczko, Tina Hubert, Theodore C. Schwitzner, and Gail Bush, chair.

Polish American Librarian Association Annual Meeting and Open House
February 19, 2012

Keynote Address:  Polish-American Author & Teacher Brigid Pasulka

A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True

 

Lunch Buffet and Informal Networking

Getting to Know PALA with President Aldona Salska

Presentation of the First Vera May Barnes Zubrzycki Scholarship

 

Performance by the Children of Lajkonik

Polish-American Folk Dancers

 

Admission is free.  Membership in the Polish American Librarians Association is $25.

In the News

Library-related stories appearing in local news media are reflected in this section of the ILA E-Newsletter.  The intent is to alert and inform the Illinois library community about issues and events that are considered significant by the general media.
District 34 Officials Lay Out $3.2 Million in Proposed Budget Cuts
To continue reading about this story, please click here.
  
Cherry Valley Library Needs Help Furnishing Expansion
To continue reading this story, please click here. 
 
Former Polish Leader Lech Walesa Tours Lincoln Presidential Museum
To continue reading this story, please click here

  

Galesburg Library Board Again to Ask for Help Acquiring Properties
To continue reading this story, please click here.

Winnetka Library Board to Choose Replacement Director
To continue reading this story, please click here

      

If your library has a newspaper story with link, send it to us at [email protected] for possible inclusion in the next ILA E-Newsletter.  Thanks.
Sincerely,
 

Robert P. Doyle
Illinois Library Association
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CALENDAR

February 20, 2012
Deadline for April issue of the ILA Reporter.

Guidelines for Submissions to the ILA Reporter.


February 20, 2012
22nd Presidents' Day Legislative Breakfast, Arboretum Club, Buffalo Grove, Ill.

March 13-17, 2012

Public Library Association Conference, Philadelphia, Pa.

March 16, 2012
Illinois Association of College and Research Libraries Conference, Doubletree Hotel, 1909 Spring Rd., Oak Brook, Ill.

March 24, 2012
Trustee Forum Workshop, President Abraham Lincoln Hotel, Springfield, Ill.

April 9, 2012
Youth Services Workshop, RAILS, Rockford

April 11, 2012
Youth Services Workshop, Illinois Heartland Library System, Edwardsville, Ill.

April 12, 2012
Youth Services Workshop, Champaign Public Library

April 13, 2012
ILA Executive Board meeting, Bloomington

April 13, 2012
Youth Services Workshop, Arlington Height Memorial Library

April 18, 2012
Illinois Library Day, Springfield, Ill.

April 24, 2012

National Library Legislative Day, Washington, D.C.

May 4, 2012
Reaching Forward Conference of Library Assistants, Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, Ill.

October 9-11, 2012
2012 ILA Annual Conference, Peoria
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