================================================================= ALAWON Volume 6, Number 103 ISSN 1069-7799 November 21, 1997 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (213 lines) -AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION URGES STRONG SUPPORT FOR COMPREHENSIVE NEW INTERNET COPYRIGHT BILL; REPS. RICK BOUCHER AND TOM CAMPBELL APPLAUDED -INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LITERACY STUDY UNDERWAY; INPUT REQUESTED _________________________________________________________________ AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION URGES STRONG SUPPORT FOR COMPREHENSIVE NEW INTERNET COPYRIGHT BILL; REPS. RICK BOUCHER AND TOM CAMPBELL APPLAUDED The American Library Association (ALA) is urging all librarians to strongly support legislation proposed by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Tom Campbell (R-Calif.) just hours before the First Session of the 105th Congress adjourned Nov. 13. Designed to update the U.S. Copyright Act for the electronic networked environment, the Digital Era Copyright Enhancement Act of 1997 (H.R. 3048) would amend the Copyright Act to make clear that the needs of both information proprietors and consumers must be protected. "Reps. Boucher and Campbell have introduced exactly the type of balanced and visionary copyright legislation that our nation needs to ensure that everyone benefits from the Internet's tremendous promise," said Barbara J. Ford, president of the 58,000-member American Library Association. "This excellent bill balances the needs of information proprietors with those of information consumers like teachers, students, software designers and library users everywhere. It is that balance that has made the U.S. the technological and economic leader that it is and must remain." The Digital Era Copyright Enhancement Act would amend current copyright law to make clear that: -the Fair Use Doctrine -- relied on by students, teachers, journalists and others for reasonable access to information for non-commercial purposes without the owner's advance permission -- applies in the digital environment; -libraries and archives may use the latest technology to preserve and store endangered materials; -educators engaged in distance learning may use computer networks to remotely distribute an appropriate variety of materials directly related to a defined curriculum to students enrolled in their classes; -electronic copies of material incidentally or temporarily made in the process of using a computer network may not serve as the sole basis for copyright infringement liability; and and individuals who deliberately use a computer network to violate copyright laws should be subject to substantial civil (but not criminal) liability; -and federal copyright law, including rights and privileges that afford access to information, cannot be overridden by non-negotiated, take-it-or-leave-it licenses like those often found shrink wrapped with computer software or increasingly in on-line transactions. ALA is a member of the Digital Future Coalition (http://www.dfc.org), a group of 39 nonprofit educational, scholarly, library and consumer groups, together with major commercial trade associations representing leaders in the consumer electronics, telecommunications, computer and network access industries. For more information, see the ALA Web page at http://www.ala.org under Washington Office or contact Adam Eisgrau, Legislative Counsel for ALA's Washington Office, at 202-628-8410, ext. 208. _________________________________________________________________ INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LITERACY STUDY UNDERWAY; INPUT REQUESTED The ALA Washington Office and Office for Information Technology Policy have been asked to distribute the attached request and to identify individuals within the library community who are particularly well-qualified to provide knowledgeable and thoughtful answers to the questions below on information technology literacy. The library community is particularly well positioned to provide input on this project being conducted by the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council. The NRC was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Your help is needed to (1) redistribute this message and attachment to all appropriate library listserves; and (2) please forward immediately names, addresses, phone, fax, and e-mail contacts of persons especially well-qualified to answer these questions, and perhaps participate further in this project, to Carol Henderson at the ALA Washington Office, cch@alawash.org or fax to 202-628-8419. You may also, of course, recommend names to the director of the study. Please note the December 15 and February 2 deadlines in the attachment. _________________________________________________________________ PLEASE POST WIDELY... The Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) of the National Research Council is undertaking a project to explicate the various dimensions of what might be called information technology (IT) literacy, i.e., what everyone needs to know about information technology. A major part of the project's task is to develop a consensus for the appropriate definitions of everyone, know, and information technology. The committee responsible for this project is chaired by Larry Snyder, professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington -- the full membership of the committee is attached to the end of this note. Because the subject of IT literacy is subject to many differing opinions, the committee has developed a number of questions for which it hopes to generate a broad response. The set of questions below has been developed for information management and information retrieval professionals. 1 -- In an online information community, what should every citizen know about information technology in order to make effective use of the capabilities it enables? Please describe each element of this knowledge (e.g., how to perform a net search, how to understand its results) and briefly say why you believe this is important. For each element, suggest what about it you believe should be taught at what grade levels. 2 -- Two particularly important examples of new capabilities are those of information searching and information presentation. What are the basic principles that guide an effective search or presentation? At what level should these principles be taught? How should people learn about the limitations of searches and presentations? 3 -- What learning experiences do students need to obtain the skills and knowledge described in answer to Questions 1 and 2? (Learning experiences can include both in-school and out-of-school activities.) Please be specific, using examples from your own teaching if possible. 4 -- What technological environment (computers, networks, software, resources, etc.) is needed to support the learning experiences described in Question 3? The committee invites you to submit your answers to these questions in the form of a short position paper (5 pages or less); in addition, please identify your field of expertise and your institutional affiliation. All responses will be considered by the committee. In addition, respondents may be invited to participate in a workshop to be held in Irvine, California on January 14-15, 1998 whose purpose is to discuss answers to these and other related questions. Or, they may be invited to revise their position paper for inclusion in the committee's final report. DEADLINES: -December 15, 1997, for those who wish to be considered for participation in the workshop. -February 1, 1998 for those who wish their input to be considered by the committee. E-MAIL ADDRESS FOR INPUT: IT-Lit@nas.edu FAX FOR INPUT: 202-334-2318 U.S. MAIL ADDRESS FOR INPUT: Dr. Herb Lin, Study Director CSTB National Research Council Room HA-560 2101 Constitution Ave, NW Washington, DC 20418 202-334-3191 voice COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP Lawrence Snyder, Chair, University of Washington Alfred V. Aho, Columbia University Marcia C. Linn, University of California, Berkeley Arnold H. Packer, Johns Hopkins University Allen B. Tucker, Jr., Bowdoin College Jeffrey D. Ullman, Stanford University Andries van Dam, Brown University ________________________________________________________________ ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc @ala.org. To unsubscribe, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/ washoff/alawon. Visit our Web site at http://www.alawash.org. ALA Washington Office 202.628.8410 (V) 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F) Washington, DC 20004-1701 800.941.8478 (V) Lynne E. Bradley, Editor Deirdre Herman, Managing Editor Contributors: Carol C. Henderson Adam Eisgrau All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================