ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 8, Number 121 November 24, 1999 In this issue: ALA Announces D.C. Staff Appointments Note: The following is a November 24 news release from ALA's Public Information Office. For more information contact Linda Wallace or Belia Ortega at 312-280-5042 or 312-280-1546 or e-mail: pio@ala.org. William S. Gordon, executive director of the American Library Association (ALA), has announced a restructuring of the ALA Washington Office and four recent staff appointments. Under ALA Washington Office Executive Director Emily Sheketoff, two teams -- lobbying and information technology policy -- have been created. Lynne Bradley, former deputy director of the ALA Washington Office, will direct the lobbying team, known as the Office of Government Relations. The office represents library interests at the federal level on a wide range of issues, including federal funding for library programs, intellectual property, telecommunications, filtering and access to government information. Rick Weingarten, former OITP senior policy advisor, will direct the information technology policy team or the Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP). OITP conducts research and analysis on information technology issues as they affect libraries and library users. Miriam Nisbet has joined the Office of Government Relations as legislative counsel. She will work primarily on intellectual property issues raised by the digital information environment. She will coordinate those activities with the intellectual property research, analysis and education activities of the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy, as well as provide support on Washington Office activities in the areas of information and access law and policy. Most recently, Nisbet was special counsel for information policy at the National Archives and Records Administration, where she advised the archivist and other government officials on matters concerning government records and access issues arising out of the Freedom of Information Act, the Privacy Act of 1974, the Presidential Records Act and other access statutes. She also served as a member of the inter-agency Electronic Records Work Group, which provided significant recommendations to the archivist on improving the government's management of electronic records. Before joining the National Archives in 1994, Nisbet served as deputy director of the Office of Information and Privacy, U.S. Department of Justice. She received a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a jurist doctorate from the university's law school. La Gina Frink has been appointed legislative information specialist for the Office of Government Relations. She will conduct a broad range of research including telecommunications, emerging technologies, copyright and intellectual property. Frink was previously a law librarian at Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, P.L.C., a 23-member telecommunications firm in Rosslyn, Va. Frink received a master's degree in library science at Catholic University and a bachelor's degree in political science from Elizabeth City State University. Carrie Russell has been appointed copyright specialist for the Office for Information Technology Policy. Russell's charge is to develop a copyright education program for the library community. In this role, she will prepare educational materials for librarians, including workshops, conference programs and teleconferences, fact sheets, brochures and an authoritative Web site on copyright specifically designed for librarians. Russell previously was copyright librarian at the University of Arizona where she developed copyright and fair use awareness programs for the academic community and coordinated a project to mobilize faculty to address critical scholarly communication issues. She has a master's degree in library and information science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a master's in media arts from the University of Arizona. Saundra Shirley has been appointed telecommunications specialist for the Office for Information Technology Policy. Shirley will focus on telecommunications and information technology policy, including the E-rate and universal service. Shirley previously worked with the Pennsylvania Senate Policy Development and Research Office covering a variety of state and federal policy issues with a focus on information and technology. She also has worked with the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress and the Senate Research Office of the Georgia General Assembly. Shirley is a graduate of Georgia State University and holds a masters' degree in library science from Atlanta University. ****** 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 or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. 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; ALAWON Editor: Deirdre Herman; Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Mary Costabile, Peter Kaplan, Miriam Nisbet and Claudette Tennant; Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Carrie Russell and Saundra Shirley.