Reference

In September, the New York State Association of Library Boards wrote and sent email to the two major party candidates for the United States Senate from New York, Rep. Rick Lazio and Hillary Rodham Clinton. The core of our letter included the following request:

"Senator Charles Schumer recently announced he would introduce legislation he calls 'Carnegie II.' His proposal would allocate $1 billion in federal matching funds over five years to pay for the construction and repair of public libraries nationwide. Information on his proposal is attached. The directors of NYSALB would appreciate knowing whether, if elected, you would support Senator Schumer's proposal."

We informed each candidate we had made the same request of his/her opponent, and we said we would share the response of each candidate with trustees statewide.

In mid-October, we received email responses from both campaigns. Each response directed us to the website of the candidate. On the website of Hillary Rodham Clinton, www.hillary2000.org, we found language that specifically endorses the type of funding proposed by Sen. Schumer. The address of that page is www.hillary2000.org/issues/plans/libraries.html.

The website of Mr. Lazio, www.lazio.com, notes that he held a forum on Long Island in 1998 to explain E-rate telecommunications discounts to libraries, but we were unable to find anything on the site directly addressing our question. In fairness to the candidate, we immediately sent a new email repeating the question and offering him until November 1 to respond. As of November 2, we had received no answer from the Lazio campaign.

NYSALB does not endorse political candidates. But we believe it is important to inform trustees of issues affecting library service so that they can make wise decisions on behalf of their libraries and the communities they serve.

We would appreciate it if those who read this would make it known to others.