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Day in the District
Library Legislative Day in the District will take place on Friday, January 26, 2007, and Friday, February 2, 2007. Day in the District provides an opportunity to meet with Legislators and their staff in their local offices and inform them about the important role libraries play in the lives of their constituents.
Often legislators are not aware of the broad range of services provided by libraries and the number of lives we touch every day. Day in the District provides a wonderful opportunity for you to establish a dialogue with legislators and their staff, to highlight the services that are important to residents of the communities you serve, and to discuss issues and challenges you face in providing those services.
This year over 1/3 of the members of the Assembly and over 1/4 of the members of the Senate are brand new! Day in the District is the perfect opportunity to introduce them to all of the great things your library is doing and help ensure their support.
Our network of legislative contacts is hard at work setting up appointments.
To register for an appointment with your legislator go to the Library Legislative Day in the District Online Database at: http://www.legiday.net.
At the login screen enter:
Account Name: member
Password: member
After you hit enter you will be taken to a new screen. Click on "legiday" to enter the database. This will take you to the Home Page for the Day in the District 2007.
Click on "Legislators". This will take you to a listing of all legislators in the database. Legislators are listed in district order by default. By clicking the headers of the columns you can sort the list by individual field. Also note there are other navigation tools in the header of list of legislators, e.g. alphabetical shortcuts and links to individual legislative houses.
For each legislator, click on either "View" or "Sign Up" to the left of the legislator's name to bring up a screen with the legislator's appointment information. You will then be prompted to enter your name and contact information. NOTE: If you are a member of CLA, CSLA, or CALTAC the database will automatically retrieve the contact information on record for you.
IMPORTANT #1: Always click the on-screen buttons to post information. Simply hitting the Return or Enter key on your keyboard may not work.
IMPORTANT #2: Always click the | Log Out | link when you are finished. If you leave the screen idle for more than 5 minutes you will be automatically logged out. The database can accommodate only 100 simultaneous users.
IMPORTANT #3: It can take some time for the Legislative Contact to set up the appointment. If the database does not yet list an appointment date and time with your Legislator please keep checking.
As you plan your participation in Day in the District, here are some things to keep in mind:
- The focus of Day in the District is on fostering dialogue between local libraries and the legislators who represent the communities served by those libraries. Unlike Library Legislative Day in Sacramento we do not present formal position papers at Day in the District. Please come prepared to talk about your library and how you are making a difference in the lives of the Legislator’s constituents.
- You may wish to bring brief handout materials, such as a brochure or newsletter, that highlight the services provided by your library and can be left behind for future reference by the legislator or staff.
- Trustees, Commissioners, Board members, Friends, parents, students or other supporters are encouraged to attend. Please ensure that the names and affiliations of all representatives of your library are registered on the appointment website so that the contact person can let the legislator know who will be attending the meeting.
I hope you will be able to participate in this year's Day in the District!
Kathy Gould, Day in the District Coordinator
Posted on January 10, 2007 10:31 AM | Permalink