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Committed to serving as an advocate for Illinois libraries

ILA monitors all bills in the Illinois General Assembly that affect libraries. ILA's Public Policy Committee (PPC) carefully reviews issues and recommends action: support, oppose, or monitor. We seek to indicate "monitor" status only as we are gathering information about a bill; the goal is to ultimately support or oppose laws that will affect libraries. In rare cases, the impact on libraries remains unclear, or there is not a consensus among librarians whether to support or oppose, but in general, we try to avoid not taking a position. ILA's Quick Response Team addresses legislative issues that arise in between PPC meetings. Contact the PPC Chair, or read PPC meeting minutes, agendas, and reports to the ILA Executive Board here.

In addition to monitoring bills, ILA proactively proposes and advocates for legislation favorable to libraries; drafting changes to existing law or new law, finding sponsors for bills we wish to bring forward, and then garnering support and following the process through the passage in both the House and Senate, through signature into law by the Governor.

103rd Illinois General Assembly

• View the Illinois Senate calendar.
• View the Illinois House calendar.
  

ILA's Legislative Agenda

ILA's Public Policy Committee worked hard in the summer and fall of 2022, collecting, researching, and deliberating about possible legislative priorities for the association to pursue in the upcoming 2023 session. PPC made recommendations to the ILA Executive Board, which approved the following legislative priorities following its September 22, 2022 meeting:

•  Statewide Access to Online Resources 

  Under this proposal, selected resources will be available without charge to the 12 million Illinois residents currently served by public libraries and to the more than one million residents who currently do not receive public library service. The best practices established through years of successful experience by other states will help guide our efforts. Once the appropriation is approved, a committee, representative of Illinois library system members from all types and sizes of libraries, will work together to evaluate and select the online resources. View the proposal here.

• Amend the Local Records Act to Streamline Disposal of Records
  This proposal is an amendment to the Local Records Act that would allow the Records Management Section of the Illinois State Archives to set a general schedule for public libraries that would allow for automatic permanent destruction of some records after a set period of time. Retention is set through an approved period of time by record type as defined by the Records Management Section. This change would result in significant time and money savings on behalf of public libraries, as well as a clearer understanding of record management standards from the state of Illinois. View the proposal here.

• Flexibility in Use of Funds for Public Library Districts 
  This proposal would increase flexibility in the tax levied for the establishment, maintenance, and support of a district library. Libraries need to compensate staff fairly and in keeping with the mandated minimum wage increase. At the same time, costs have increased dramatically across the board, including for building maintenance. Flexibility in how district library boards may apply the funds from the levy will enable libraries to maintain programs, services, hours, and collections without asking for any additional support from taxpayers or the state. This proposal is still in development.

While these are the main pillars of ILA's legislative focus, we always seek to continue to tweak state law in keeping with our Public Policy Principle to "Increase Effectiveness in Illinois Libraries." We thank the PPC and at-large association members who bring suggestions forward for consideration.