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Now that District Days are in full swing and you have hopefully reached out to your representative, we wanted to provide some resources for you that will hopefully help you in your planning! And if you haven’t reached out yet, there’s still time. Hopefully these resources will provide some inspiration.

These handouts from YALSA are a great starting point when talk to your representative about libraries and teen services for libraries are not only important but necessary.

What public libraries do for teens..

Why teens need libraries…

YALSA’s Legislative Advocacy Guide

LSTA fact sheets from ALA

Then take a look at YALSA’s wiki page on advocating for more links and resources.

Don’t forget to use one of your best resources that you have, your teens! If you have a Teen Advisory Board then talk to them and see if they have ideas.  

And just remember, you don’t have to do something big for District Days. The most important thing is that you reach out to your representative and #act4teens!

Staci Terrell is the Children's Services Manager at Anderson Public Library in Anderson, Indiana and is the current chair of the YALSA Legislation Committee.

It’s time for District Days once again, which are when congressional representatives return home to their districts on recess. The recess this year is from August 1-September 6. This is the time representatives will have office hours at their local offices, attend town hall meetings, and meet with constituents to speak with and listen to them.

As an advocate for libraries and teens, this is an opportunity to show your representatives why libraries are a valuable asset to their constituents and districts. District Days provide you the ability to let your voice as a librarian or library worker be heard before the representatives head back to Washington, D.C.

Need help getting started? Check out the great resources on the District Days wiki and look for posts on the YALSAblog throughout August for information on how to participate by the Legislation Committee. One simple way is to make sure you use this  #act4teens hashtag when you promote your District Days activities.

Need to find out who your congressional representative is for your district? Or their local district offices? There's a website and an app for that!

Some things to keep in mind, as you start to prepare for District Days.

1. Keep it simple. You don't have to create an event just for your congressional representative to attend. Invite them to a teen program, such as a summer learning wrap up party or Back to School night.
2. Include the event details. Date, time, location, whether or not press will be invited, a description of the event, plus estimated attendance and who will be attending the event.
3. Provide information about your library. Key statistics, demographics, etc. but keep it concise.
4. Make sure to publicize the event! Send information to local news outlets along with using social media.
5. Follow up after the invitation is sent. Call them a week after it's sent, if you haven't heard back from them.
6. If they can't make it, then try going to them. Contact their local office to schedule an appointment, while they are at home in their district.
7. Send a thank you note. Once the event is over, don't forget to thank your representative for taking the time to visit your library!

For additional advocacy resources, visit www.ala.org/yalsa/advocacy

Staci Terrell is the Children's Services Manager at Anderson Public Library in Anderson, Indiana and is the current chair of the YALSA Legislation Committee.

We have been blogging all week about District Days starting next week. District Days are when legislators return to their home states and is a great time to schedule a meeting with them to advocate for your library. Check this site for more information, or read previous blog posts about District Days. If you haven’t heard, Legislators really like to hear personal stories to go along with our pleas for library support. So how do you get those personal stories? Here’s a few ideas I’ve had:

1. Thank you notes. I have received a few thank you notes from co-workers and one from some patrons for a program that I did. These are fantastic ways to show personal stories. If you don’t have any of your own, talk to a Children’s Librarian, they will probably have several. Those nice handwritten ones with the shaky kids writing are too memorable not to use. Scour your email looking for those thank you’s from teens or parents or co-workers.

2. Photos. A picture is worth 1,000 words, right? Who doesn’t have several pictures lying around of teens having a BLAST at a program? Bring some pictures with you to show how much your teens enjoy being in your library. Show off what a great place your library is.

3. “Why I Need My Library” contest. These are great stories from teens across the nation about how important their libraries are to them. Did you start and not quite finish your video with your teens? Finish it for your Senator. Did you mean to do this and just didn’t have the time? Do it for District Days (and get a head start for next year!) Put it on a digital camera that you can bring with you, burn a copy onto a cd to leave with them, create bookmarks with URLs to the video for the whole office.

4. Ask for a story. You know the library has made a real difference for this person, and their story would really hit home about why libraries are important. So ask them to help. Ask them to visit your senator with you, or ask them if you can share their story. Ask them to write it down, or if you can video tape it, or something like that. It doesn’t hurt to ask, all they can do is say no. Ask someone to be an advocate for libraries, in even just a small way by sharing their story with you so you can share it with someone else.

Some of these are small ideas, easy to implement. And you just might be surprised by how much you find when you start looking. Other ideas are bigger, but here’s a place to start. We’d love to hear your ideas for how to get personal stories too. These are a great way to help our legislators connect with the people they serve and see how important these resources are.

District Days offers us the opportunity to meet with our elected officials (or a staff member) to discuss our passion: libraries. Check your representative’s web site or call their office (read this first) to find out what opportunities they offer to connect with constituents during District Days from August 8-September 5.  Your representative might host town hall meetings, assign staff members to meet with constituents or be willing to visit your library. Whatever form of contact you can make, prepare your points ahead of time to make the most of everyone’s time.

Fortunately, ALA and YALSA offer a variety of tools to get informed and create talking points in a snap.

1. Get familiar with current pending congressional legislation and your state’s legislation here. It makes a world of difference to arrive prepared to speak on something specific and relevant such as pending legislation.
2. If broadband and internet connectivity support are important to you, check out this excellent tool for preparing state-by-state reports on this issue.  You can generate statistical reports, including comparative data.
3. Connect with your state to find out which issues are most crucial, how to contact your reps, and connect with other librarians in your states to advocate together here.
4. Don’t forget to thank your representative for supporting libraries! You can research what legislation they have supported by checking out their web sites or searching this nifty Congress voting database from the Washington Post.
5. Check out the complete advocacy clearinghouse ALA has created here for more information and ideas. 

Your presence and work during District Days DOES make a difference!