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:
- 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;
- 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;
- Keep informed about ALA legislative initiatives and information policy issues;
- 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;
- Promote the legislative agenda developed by the ACRL Government Relations Committee and adopted by the ACRL Board;
- Channel information regarding local issues through the ACRL Legislative Network Representative to the ACRL Government Relations Committee and the ACRL Office for appropriate action;
- When possible, coordinate the work of the ACRL Legislative Network with the initiatives of the ALA state chapters.
- 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