[Libs-Or] Are you ready for another fun OLA Legislative Day?

[Laura Kimberly]

Are you ready for another fun OLA Legislative Day?  
We will be gathering at the State Capital on Tuesday, February 11, 2025 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. to meet with our Legislators.  Early in the day we will have an orientation session.  Books for Legislators to choose to have sent to one of their local libraries will be available at the State Library of Oregon in room 102.  Legislators love to pick out books for their libraries so we need lots of them!  If you would like to donate books for Legislative Day, you can send them to:
State Library of Oregon
Attn: Arlene Weible
250 Winter St. NE
Salem, OR 97301

Now is the time to call your Senator and Representatives' offices and schedule an appointment for anytime on February 11.  Appointments are usually in 10-15 minute slots. The OLA Library Development & Legislation Committee will provide you with issue briefs and talking points soon. You, a part of the professional library community, are the best people to talk with our state legislators and their staffers about library issues. 
After you've made your appointments, please use this spreadsheet to document the appointment time. There is one tab for Senate visits, and another for House visits: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14hXY68kF-MRwlE5uZ6pkt-6R0p6CqgLzlR4S6iYqzAY/edit?usp=sharing.  The link to the spreadsheet is also available on the committee’s webpage:  https://www.olaweb.org/ldlc  If you are unable to attend in person we hope you will plan on contacting your Legislators through email or by phone and let us know this on the spreadsheet.

Don't know who are your state legislators?  Look it up with the Legislator Lookup tool: https://geo.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/lookup/index.html?appid=fd070b56c975456ea2a25f7e3f4289d1
You might want to coordinate your visits with others in your Legislative districts.  It can be good to bring along Board Members or others in your community interested in these kinds of library issues.  The Legislator’s offices easily accommodate 3 visitors, so keep this in mind.

Thank you in advance for your efforts to reach all of our State Senators and Representatives to let them know what matters to libraries, librarians, and our communities!

If you have any questions about OLA Legislative Day please contact: Kate Lasky (klasky at josephinelibrary.org) or Laura Kimberly (l.kimberly at newportlibrary.org) or Star Khan  (skhan at lincolncity.org) or Jeremy Skinner ( jeremy at cplib.net).