The Innovative Library Classroom (TILC) grant

The Innovative Library Classroom (TILC) is pleased to announce a conference grant to attend the 2017 conference, held at Radford University in Radford, VA on May 10th and May 11th. The grant will help someone from an underrepresented and/or marginalized group attend the conference by providing funding for registration or accommodations at a nearby hotel. Multiple applicants may be awarded the grant.

To be eligible to apply for the travel grant you must:

• Be working in librarianship (professional or paraprofessional), pursing a job in librarianship, or enrolled in an ALA accredited post-graduate program.
• Identify as a member of a racial or ethnic minority in the United States, the LGBTQ+ community, or as a person with a disability.
• Underrepresented and/or marginalized groups are identified in accordance with the ALA’s Office of Diversity recruitment resources.

Applications will be accepted until February 27, 2017. For more details and to apply, visit: https://goo.gl/forms/GX5Iep8S7N2IVPOm2.

Applicants will be notified of the decision of the grant committee before general registration for the conference opens on Monday, March 13th. Applicants who are not awarded a grant but would still like to attend the conference must participate in the general registration opening on March 13th.

VLA Intellectual Freedom Update 

The following email was sent to all VLA members on February 1, 2017:

We are sending this email in an attempt to update our members on the efforts the organization has been making to protect Intellectual Freedom throughout Virginia.

Last November, VLA alerted its members to a regulation that had been proposed to the Virginia Department of Education regarding parental notification of sexually explicit materials in classes. At the time, VLA, the Virginia Association of School Librarians, the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom, Virginia's ACLU Chapter, and the National Coalition Against Censorship all wrote letters to the Board of Education to oppose the regulation. On January 26, the Board of Education voted against the regulation: http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government-politics/general-assembly/article_8ed03dc4-593b-5f65-84b7-7ba74652aaa9.html. Here is a thank you letter written by VLA President Keith Weimer to Dr. Cynthia A. Cave, Assistant Superintendent, Policy and Communications for the Department of Education.

In December 2016, VLA wrote thank you letters to the Accomack County School Board when they put The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird back on shelves after a parental complaint.

Virginia Library Association Letter to The Honorable R. Steven Landes regarding HB 2191

The following letter was sent on January 19. The Virginia Library Association is working closely with the Virginia Association of School Librarians, the American Association of School Librarians, the American Library Office of Intellectual Freedom and the American Library Office for Library Advocacy and will keep you posted on any additional statements from these organizations. PDF version

The Honorable R. Steven Landes
General Assembly Building
P.O. Box 406
Richmond, Virginia 23218

January 19, 2017

Dear Delegate Landes,

The Virginia Library Association, representing more than 1,000 members from academic, public, special, and school libraries across the Commonwealth, is a leading advocate for intellectual freedom, including the freedom to read as a basic tenet. We write to express our reservations about HB2191, a bill to amend and reenact 22.1-253.13:7 of the Code of Virginia, relating to school boards and procedures.

Legislative Update: 2017 General Assembly Session Begins

The 45-day 2017 session of the General Assembly began on January 11. The following is a brief update on legislation that is being monitored by VLA's Legislative Committee. Click on the bill's name to learn more about the bill from Virginia's Legislative Information System.

• HB 1876 — A bill to amend and reenact § 2.2-3705.7 of the Code of Virginia, relating to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act; public access to library records of minors.
  Excludes from mandatory disclosure library records that can be used to identify any library patron under the age of 18 years. The bill provides that access shall not be denied to the parent, including a noncustodial parent, or guardian of such library patron.
     The Legislative Committee does not oppose this change. Likely to pass.