Organization Manual: Government Relations Representative

This person will be appointed by the current ILA/ACRL President, and should be a member of the Chapter and of ACRL.  This person also serves as the chapter ACRL Legislative Coordinator.

Duties and Responsibilities:

  1. Develop a local advocacy network of individuals within the chapter who will contact their legislators when an issue comes before the House, Senate or other arms of government which impacts academic/research libraries or the higher education community;
  2. Work to create an awareness of legislative and information policy issues at the local level and inform academic/research librarians and others about how they can become involved in advocacy efforts;
  3. Keep informed about ALA legislative initiatives and information policy issues;
  4. Identify and collect examples of academic/research library activities and practices in support of legislative initiatives to be shared with the ACRL Government Relations Committee and the ALA Washington Office;
  5. Promote the legislative agenda developed by the ACRL Government Relations Committee and adopted by the ACRL Board;
  6. Channel information regarding local issues through the ACRL Legislative Network Representative to the ACRL Government Relations Committee and the ACRL Office for appropriate action;
  7. When possible, coordinate the work of the ACRL Legislative Network with the initiatives of the ALA state chapters.
  8. Serve as non-voting Ex Officio member of the ILA/ACRL Executive Board.

Government Relations Representative

1997/98           Dorothy Persson, University of Iowa

1998/99           Jane Kemp, Luther College

2000-2007       John Goodin, Luther College

2008

2009

2010

2011-2016       James O’Gorman, St. Ambrose University

2017-2019       Mary Heinzman, St. Ambrose University

2020??            Brett Cloyd, University of Iowa

 

Here is the ACRL page that defines the Government Relations Committee: http://www.ala.org/acrl/aboutacrl/directoryofleadership/committees/acr-lg

And the ALA page that describes how the legislative agenda is set: http://www.ala.org/aboutala/committees/ala/ala-lg