LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT & LEGISLATION COMMITTEE

PURPOSE

The Library Development and Legislation Committee (LD&L) is responsible for recommending legislative policies and agendas to the WLA Board of Directors. No other entity within WLA may speak for the organization on matters of legislative policy; however, all units and leadership are strongly encouraged to stay abreast of legislative developments and communicate their opinions to LD&L and the Board.The Library Development & Legislative Committee meets bimonthly to discuss current legislative issues and goals.

You can help build library legislative advocates by communicating key WLA legislative issues in ways that make sense to your unit's membership. For example, the Intellectual Freedom Roundtable can highlight bills that may have an impact on intellectual freedom, or WAAL can share information on bills affecting academic libraries.

Not every legislative issue will affect all types of libraries, but we need every member to advocate for all libraries!

ACTIVITIES

Hosts a program at the WLA Annual Conference where member concerns and opinions are sought.
Recommends an annual legislative agenda and positions on specific issues to the WLA Board.
Periodically schedules meetings of library stakeholder organizations in the state to help accomplish legislative goals.

If new issues arise unexpectedly, the WLA President, in consultation with the LD&L Chair and Executive Director, may take positions on behalf of the association.

2022 LD&L Chair
Pete Loeffel

RESOURCES

Positioning the Library for a Post-pandemic Sustainable Future

Budget Request Documents

Overview of WLA Priorities
One-page summary document.
Additional aid for Public Library Systems
Requesting an additional $2.5 million in FY22 and $4 million in FY23, resulting in a total of $20,013,100 for library system aid in the second year to help local libraries innovate and increase their ability to respond to emerging community needs.
Cost to continue funding for Library Service Contracts
Requesting modest increases to maintain core library services for the four statewide library service contracts (Cooperative Children’s Book Center, Wisconsin Talking Book and Braille Library, and inter-library loan access to Milwaukee Public Library and UW-Madison collections).
New state funding for Recollection Wisconsin

Requesting a new line item in the amount of $150,000 in FY22 and $300,000 in FY23 to ensure the state’s one-of-a-kind archival materials are preserved and made digitally accessible to anyone in the world.