The group met 2-3 times this reporting period.
Recent Activities
First Activity
We continued our conversations about best practices, communications, alignment with other PLA committees and next steps to reach some milestones in our committee work for the year.
Continued action items for us:
• Please share your examples of successful partnership and advocacy efforts for peer learning and help plan what and how to share more widely with PLA community. We are initially focusing on the following four areas of work: K-12 student and family support, digital equity and access, economic/workforce recovery, and community partnerships. Once we have your updated input and content, we’ll format and share as a PLA/ALA e-news segment or with public libraries online.
• Continue a discussion on the priority areas listed above to position libraries with newly elected officials all with guiding principles of equity, diversity and inclusion.
We have offered to partner and be of assistance to the ALA Committee on Legislation and the ALA Committee on Library Advocacy (COLA) as they move forward policy information at the state and federal levels. We continue to investigate as to whether a joint committee meeting (or committee liaison) would be helpful to leverage everyone’s work and move us forward.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Awareness, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice
Second Activity
• Library sharing- what’s top of mind
• BALA update, including op-eds and other outreach
• Other federal policy advocacy, including new broadband funding and advocacy for libraries in prospective American Jobs Plan (including workforce development and digital equity)
• ALA conference
• Committee appreciation and next steps
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Awareness, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice
What will your group be working on for the next six months?
Our committee is welcoming new members and a new staff liaison. We'll be reviewing our work for 2021, aligning with the legislative teams, and looking ahead to 2022.
Does the group have any policy recommendations, ideas with financial impact, or other items to bring to the PLA Board for discussion or action
Not at this time.
Do you have any suggestions for future products or resources (excluding conference programs) to be developed based on your group’s work?
We are working on this right now and will submit in our next report.
Are there other PLA/ALA committees your group might collaborate with to benefit the work of all?
The ALA Committee on Legislation and the ALA Committee on Library Advocacy (COLA). The Advocacy and Strategic Partnerships Committee (as we have seen during our current advocacy for BALA) is an important supporting partner to these other two committees.
Have there been any issues related to meeting participation/attendance for any of the group’s members?
No
Is there anything PLA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
Not at this time. Thank you!
Submitted by Susan Hempstead on 10/07/2021