================================================================= ALAWON Volume 7, Number 5 ISSN 1069-7799 January 13, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (130 lines) LEGISLATION AND POLICY UPDATE AT ALA MIDWINTER _________________________________________________________________ LEGISLATION AND POLICY UPDATE AT ALA MIDWINTER The January 10 Legislation and Policy Update, sponsored by the Committee on Legislation, included segments on discounted telecom discounts for libraries/schools and the new federal advisory committee, as well the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the federal depository library program. The ALA Washington Office made an appeal for action by members on intellectual property issues. Adam Eisgrau, legislative counsel for the ALA Washington Office, stressed that current legislation is the best approach to updating the Copyright Act of 1976. "You may not have heard the shots," said Eisgrau. "But the battle for copyright in 1998 is raging right now." Emphasizing that librarians write to their House and Senate members to request they co-sponsor legislation (S. 1146 and H.R. 3048), he added, "You may think that it takes a flood of letters to influence members of Congress, but it doesn't. It's one of the great secrets of Washington." Eisgrau should know—he was a former congressional staffer. For more information, see the Digital Future Coalition, which ALA helped to found and is a member, at http://www.dfc.org. Brian Shottlaender, of the UCLA library system and a representative to the Principles Working Group, remarked on licensing agreements for electronic resources. Licenses are a factor for librarians faced with the decision of ownership versus access to information through licensing agreements. To help provide guidance in this area, six library associations, including the American Library Association, have developed a draft statement of principles for librarians to use and to submit comments. For information see http://www.ala.org/washoff/ip/license.html. Elizabeth Sywetz, deputy director for the Office of Library Services at IMLS since Monday, said her primary goal is to establish efficient grant administration for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). The application deadline for the National Leadership Grants portion of LSTA is April 17. She also called for volunteer peer reviewers. For more information see http://www.imls.fed.us. Ching-Chih Chen, member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on High Performance Computing and Communications, Information Technology, and Next Generation Internet, related the importance of libraries to the information technology of the future. Established in February of last year, the committee is looking at ways to expand the Internet network so that it is "100 to 1000 times faster than what we have now." She urged that these issues are not down the road, but are here now. A key investment in the Internet, strong cooperation in all sectors, and additional research will be needed, Chen said. For more information see http://www.ala.org/oitp/inetng.html. Referring to the universal service program, K.G. Ouye, city librarian for the San Mateo (Calif.) Public Library and chair of the Schools and Libraries Corporation (SLC), said her response is, "Yes, it's a good thing!" She added that "there are going to be peaks and valleys" and that librarians need flexibility and agility in dealing with this start-up program. Ouye requested librarians to be specific as possible in communicating any problems they encounter to the SLC and assume that SLC intends to fix them. She emphasized positive lobbying through library users, because "people who use libraries vote." Ouye also commended the work of the Office for Information Technology Policy and the ALA Washington Office, saying that she's "getting value for her membership dollar." Andrew Magpantay, director of the Office for Information Technology Policy and Aleck Johnson, OITP research associate, said that the Schools and Libraries Corporation mailed application forms to all public libraries in mid-December; the SLC web site is expected to be available about February 1. OITP mailed its third Special Report on Library Telecom Discounts to public libraries and AASL members this week. For more information see http://www.ala.org/oitp/univserv.html and http://www.slcfund.org. Eric Peterson, staff director of the U.S. Congress Joint Committee on Printing, said that legislation on the revision of Title 44 of the United States Code, the statute that governs printing and public dissemination of government information, may be introduced later this year, and that they are "nearly 95 percent of the way" along in negotiations. Kennie Gill, democratic staff director and chief counsel for the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, said that this work is important to ensure that libraries have all of the federal documents they need to serve the public. "At the end of the day, the taxpayer has a right to access the documents for which they paid." For more information, see http://www.ala.org/washoff/govinfo.html. _________________________________________________________________ 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 All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================