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<p align="center" style="text-align:center"><img width="600" height="100" id="_x0000_i1025" alt="https://secureimages.capwiz.com/ala/actionalerts_mlm.png" tabindex="0" style="-webkit-user-select: none;" src="cid:image001.png@01D17886.87FF6EB0"></p>
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<strong><span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; color:#777777">Help Our LSTA</span></strong><strong><span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">
</span></strong><strong><span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; color:#777777">/</span></strong><strong><span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">
</span></strong><strong><span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; color:#777777">IAL Library Champions Help Us Now!</span></strong></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; color:#777777">It's that time of year again when Congressional cost-cutters sharpen their budget knives and go looking for under-supported federal programs to slash or discontinue. Last year, now Speaker of
the House Paul Ryan proposed completely eliminating IMLS and with it over $200 million in funding for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL). Both of these programs are potentially on the chopping block this
year and it's up to you to help save them. </span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; color:#777777"> </span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; color:#777777">Library champions in Congress are now circulating "Dear Appropriator" letters to their colleagues urging members of the powerful Senate and House Appropriations Committees to fully fund LSTA
and IAL (See the letters <a href="http://www.districtdispatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/FY2017-LIBRARY-FUNDING-SUPPORT-LETTERS-2.pdf" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;">
here</a>). </span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; color:#777777"> </span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; color:#777777">Please take just five minutes to contact your Representative in the House and both of your U.S. Senators and ask them to sign these letters (one each for LSTA and IAL in each chamber of Congress).
Your help, and these funds, make a huge difference in what libraries and librarians can do for their patrons in every corner of the country.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; color:#777777"> </span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; color:#777777">These "Dear Appropriator" letters carry tremendous weight with the Appropriations Committee. The more Members of Congress who sign them, the more likely LSTA and IAL - and the millions of Americans
they help every year - are to survive and thrive.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; color:#777777">Time is short! Please, contact both your Senators and Representative now.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; color:#777777"> <a href="http://cqrcengage.com/ala/app/take-action?engagementId=178333" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;">Send an Email</a> <a href="http://cqrcengage.com/ala/app/take-action?engagementId=178353" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;">Make
a Call</a> <a href="http://cqrcengage.com/ala/app/take-action?engagementId=178313" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" title="http://cqrcengage.com/ala/app/take-action?engagementId=178313
Ctrl+Click or tap to follow the link">Send a Tweet</a> </span></p>
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