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From: "Ted Wegner, American Library Association" <twegner@alawash.org> Date: March 7, 2012 12:06:30 PM EST To: Mary Chelton <mchelton@optonline.net> Subject: Call Your U.S. Senators About Childhood Literacy and LSTA Funding Reply-To: "Ted Wegner, American Library Association" <twegner@alawash.org>

On Monday, we sent out an action alert urging members to contact their U.S. Representative to ask them to support two important “Dear Colleague” letters benefitting libraries.

Today, we have an equally important ask for your two U.S. Senators. Please call both of your senators and ask them to support two separate “Dear Colleague” letters that very closely reflect the ones making rounds in the House of Representatives.

The first letter, found here, supports funding for the Innovative Approaches to Literacy Grant in FY13. This grant is crucial because at least half of it would go to low-income school libraries to help update their books and materials.

You can find additional talking points for this letter here.

The second letter, found here, supports funding for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) in FY13. LSTA is the primary source of funding for libraries in the federal budget.

Please go to the Legislative Action Center (LAC) to find talking points and information on how your senators can sign on to these letters. You will also be able to find the office phone numbers for your two senators. The deadline to sign these two letters is March 26 so please call before then.

Thank you to all who have already made the call to your U.S. Representative. It is not too late to make the call if you haven’t yet. Now, you can use the LAC to call your senators and representative in the same sitting. It only takes a matter of minutes to speak out for libraries!

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