ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 12, Number 6 January 17, 2003 In This Issue: Midwinter Events [1] Washington Briefing: Privacy and Confidentiality in the Modern Library [2] Open eBook Forum meeting [1] Washington Briefing: Privacy and Confidentiality in the Modern Library When: Saturday, January 25th 8:30-12:00 a.m Where: PCC 103A-B Hosted by: ALA Committee on Legislation & the OITP Advisory Committee Political reactions in the aftermath of September eleventh, including the PATRIOT Act and the creation of a new Department of Homeland Security, have rightfully raised deep concerns within the library community about its ability to ensure library users' privacy-particularly when they use the Internet. At Saturday morning's Washington Briefing, expert speakers will address the current political environment, the issues of electronic surveillance and privacy, and more. Speakers will include Beryl Howell, Minority staff for the Senate Judiciary Committee, Robert Martin, Director of IMLS, attorneys from Van Scoyc and Associates, Attorney Tom Sussman of Ropes and Gray, and Rick Weingarten of OITP. After the opening session, we will offer two concurrent breakout sessions. At the first, attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions of our experts as we addresses a host of library legislative issues including Privacy and Surveillance, E-government and Access to Government Information, and LSTA and Appropriations. At the second breakout session, Professor Kenneth Crews will speak about TEACH, the new Distance Education law. Agenda: 8:30 - 10:15 1. Welcome and acknowledgments Linda Crowe, OITP Chair and/or Bernadine Abbott Hoduski, COL Chair 2. Announcements Emily Sheketoff, Executive Director ALA Washington Office 3. The 108th Congress & the Political Landscape Van Scoyoc & Associates Brief Q & A to follow 4. Electronic Surveillance, Privacy & You - ESPY Rick Weingarten, Director OITP Tom Sussman, Esq. - Ropes and Gray Beryl Howell, Minority Counsel, Senate Judiciary Committee Brief Q & A to follow 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.: Breakout Sessions Breakout I PCC 103A Hot Topics in the 108th Congress: A look at library issues including Privacy and Surveillance, E-government and Access to Government Information, LSTA, and Appropriations. Breakout II PCC 103B OITP Presents Distance Education Law and Copyright Issues: Professor Kenneth Crews on TEACH and predictions for Copyright in the 108th Congress. [2] Open eBook Forum hosts informal meeting regarding a Library Special Interest Group. We would like to bring an informal event recently scheduled for Midwinter to your attention. At the ALA midwinter meeting on Saturday January 25th at 4:30pm, the Open eBook Forum (www.openebook.org) is hosting an informal meeting to discuss plans to create a Library Special Interest Group. The Open eBook Forum (OeBF) is a standards and trade organization for the electronic publishing industry. The proposed Special Interest Group would consist of libraries, publishers, distributors, technology companies and other interested parties to discuss the particular issues and challenges surrounding the library eBook market. ALA is a member of the OeBF, and ALA's the e-Book Task Force has been actively working with the OeBF to see that e-Books are made available in ways that meet library and reader needs. The meeting will take place at the Adobe booth #1735. OeBF officers and ALA leaders will be at the informal meeting to discuss opportunities to participate and activities for enhancing eBook adoption in libraries. Steve Potash, OeBF President, and Rick Weingarten (Director of ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy) who serves on the OeBF Board of Directors, will both be in attendance. Again, the meeting will take place on Saturday January 25th at 4:30pm at the Adobe booth #1735. Refreshments will be served. If you plan on attending, please RSVP as soon as possible to the Executive Director of the OeBF, Nick Bogaty, at nbogaty@openebook.org. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Camille Bowman, Mary Costabile, Don Essex, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Jennifer Hendrix, Carrie Russell, Claudette Tennant. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.