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2003 ALA Legislative Day Report

Wednesday, 01 July 2009 12:10
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2003 ALA Legislative Day Report
LACUNY Legislative Action Committee

Submitted to the LACUNY Executive Council 
by Shelley Warwick, June 13, 2003

The annual American Library Association Legislative Action day took place on May 13th this year. In the last ten years this event has expanded from a single day, with a briefing in the morning with visits in the afternoon, to a full day of briefings followed by a day of legislative visits, to a three day event with an orientation for first time attendees on the first day, briefings on the second day, and visits on the third day. Since all members of the LACUNY delegation had previously participated in this event they only went to Washington for the briefing and visit days.

Delegates: Stewart Bodner - Baruch College Charles Stewart, City College Shelly Warwick, GSLIS, Queens

Stewart and Warwick arrived at Union Station 10:15 a.m. on Monday, then went directly to a briefing on Surveillance, Privacy and USA Patriot Act (Bodner was only able to participate on the visit days, but has been following the issues throughout the year as a member of the ACRL Committee on Legislation).

After the morning briefing the delegation attended a luncheon sponsored by the ACRL. The first ACRL luncheon about four years ago was attended by about 12 librarians, but this year there appeared to be about 80. The fact that a free lunch is provided and a special briefing on issues of special impact to academic libraries indicates how important ACRL considers legislative day.

Speakers at the luncheon were Thomas Susman and Claudette Tennant who outlined the issues of most concern to ACRL:

1) Intellectual Property and Technology, specifically Anti-Circumvention, Database Protection, Distance Education, First Sale, H.R. 107 Pending, UCITA, 2) Government Information 3) Funding for LASTA, ESEA, Federal Depository Library Program, restoration of funding for the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, Library of Congress, National Agricultural Library, National Library of Medicine, other library and library related programs 4) Intellectual Freedom, Internet Filtering, (some academic libraries may be affected where Internet access is provided thorough state networks), and the USA Patriot Act, Homeland Security Act

After the luncheon the delegation attended the general afternoon briefing sessions on copyright and a general recap session that highlighted pending issues. After the briefings there was a meeting of New York State Delegation during which a final check was made of who was visiting which legislators, and arrangements were made to drop off issue kits for those legislators with whom no appointment had been made.

All ALA Legislative Day participants were invited to the launch of WebJunction, a web portal for librarians built by OCLC and funded by the Benton Foundation, the Bill & Belinda Gates Foundation, and a number of other partners. (The site can be viewed atwww.webjunction.org). The reception took place at the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, and provided the members of the delegation with an opportunity to view the exhibits as well as the launch presentation.

Tuesday started at 8:30 a.m. with the Friends of Libraries U.S.A. award being presented to Rep. Heter Hoekstra (MI). After the ceremony Stewart and Warwick were joined by Bodner for legislative visits. One of the goals of legislative day is to try to have each legislator visited by at least one of his or her constituents. This is easy with the senators, but more difficult with congress people. In some cases the delegates saw two different representatives, the one that represented the district in which they reside and the one that represents the district that houses the CUNY College where they are employed. In some cases the delegation called as a whole, and in other cases where there were conflicts in appointments, a delegate might visit alone. This year legislators seemed to be scarce so most discussions were held with their aides. In some cases visits were had with two different aides for the same legislator, the aide concerned with library funding issues and the aid concerned with more general policy matters, such as copyright, privacy, and access to government documents.

The delegates collectively visited with staff member of Senator Schumer, Congressmen Anthony Wiener (9th D) Jerrold Nadler (8th District), Major Owens (11th District) Rep. Vito Fossella (13th District), and Charles Rangel (15th District). Stewart, who resides in New Jersey, was also able to explain academic library issues to Rush Holt's office (NJ-12th District, and staffers for Senators Corzine and Lautenberg, even met briefly with Senator Lautenberg who expressed concern that library funding is so fragile. Since none of the pending issues had differential funding or implementation provisions it helps CUNY to bring the academic library position to as many legislators as possible. The visits require a great deal of walking, this year especially, as the subway between the House and Senate side of the Capitol was closed to visitors. Luckily it was a nice day which made rushing between the Senate and House office buildings more pleasant.

A delegation of Washington, D.C. librarians had made arrangements to visit with Major Owens (an M.L.S. and former public librarian) in order to ask him to introduce legislation to increase the funding of D.C. public libraries (which are directly budgeted by Congress). They requested that someone who lived in his district join the delegation, but since no one from his area in Brooklyn was in attendance, Warwick, as a New York City resident, volunteered to participate. It turned out that another strong supporter of libraries joined the group, Ralph Nader. Major Owens agreed to introduce the requested legislation, but observed that libraries always ask for too little.

At 5:00 p.m., after the visits were concluded, a reception was held for participants and legislators in the Rayburn building. Stewart by-passed the reception to take an early train home, while Bodner and Warwick remained to talk to legislators and their staff and visit with the rest of the New York delegation.

Participating in ALA Legislative Day is a fabulous experience. It provides an opportunity to be briefed on issues in depth and to use that information to help influence legislation that will help libraries and to be an active participant in democracy. It is hoped that some of those who were unable to come to Washington might be willing to visit their representatives in their district offices to explain what libraries need and enlist their support. It is suggested that LACUNY sponsor a briefing/advocacy workshop for librarians in the Fall. Briefings and advocacy training could be provided by an ALA. ACRL and/or NYLA representative assisted by members of the LACUNY Legislative Action Committee. The goal of the workshop would be to provide librarians with the information and strategy they need to promote the cause of academic libraries in their district.

More information about the various issues can be found at:

Respectfully Submitted,

Shelly Warwick
Chair, LACUNY Legislative Action Committee

 

2004 ALA Legislative Day Report

Wednesday, 01 July 2009 12:09
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2004 ALA Legislative Day Report
LACUNY Legislative Action Committee

Report of LACUNY Legislative Action Committee Participation in ALA National Library Legislation Day, May 4th, 2004. 

Only two members of the committee went to Washington this year, Charles Stewart (CCNY) and Shelly Warwick (Queens, GSLIS). Two other had originally expressed interest in participation but had schedule changes that did not allow them to do so.

Since both delegates had participated in the event before they did not attend the Sunday program for first timers, but arrived in Washington early Monday, May 3rd, for the briefing sessions which began at 10:15 with an overview of appropriations issues, followed by a session on Surveillance, Privacy and the Patriot Act. 

At 12:05 pm the ACRL provided a luncheon featuring talks by Tyrone Cannon, ACRL President, Emily Sheketoff, Associate Executive Director of ALA, and Mark Smith, Director of Government Relations for the American Association of University Professors. The central topic was discussion of the ACRL legislative agenda. The items on the agenda are as follows:

Intellectual property & Technology
Anti-circumvention – need to modify the DMCA
Database Protection – prevent new laws that will protect facts
Digital Rights management – need prevent legislation granting copyright holders downstream control over how works are used
Broadcast Flats – awaiting response from FCC to comments on how broadcast flags will prevent legitimate education uses
Distance Education – too much confusion regarding the TEACH Act – does not address electronic reserves. ACRL has issued a statement on fair use and educational reserves - http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/whitepapers/statementfair.htm
Public Domain – support two pending bills – HR2613 which would require that research substantially funded by public funds pass immediately into the public doman, and HR2601 which would require copyright holders who want the additional 20 years of protection to request such extension and pay a $1.00 fee. This would essentially leave most works in the public domain after 50 years.
2. Funding – support for bills funding the Library Services and Technology Act, the Federal Depository Library Program and Government Printing Office, Library of Congress, National Agricultural Library, National Library of Medicine 

3. Access to Government Information

Presidential records – Need to repeal Executive Order 13233 which allows incumbent or former presidents to veto public release of material which were mandated by the Presidential Records Act
Support H.R. 3630 which would make the Congressional Research Service material available on the web. Congress had authorized a pilot program than pulled the plug. This bill would reinstate this value resource for government information.
GPO – need to work with new public printer to maintain a GPO model that retains and enhances no fee access to government information.
4. Intellectual Freedom and Privacy 

USA Patriot Act – Issue of Section 215 which allows FBI to get library records – support legislation to amend the Act.
Homeland Security Act – undermines the accountability of government and prevents access to information, and might restrict access to maps and restrict journalists. ACRL was a signer on a letter to the Homeland Security secretary asking for to provide input on the procedures by which information is classified.
After lunch there were briefing on Copyright and the e-Rate, and access to government info.

Following the briefings the LACUNY delegation met with the other delegates from New York State to discuss legislative visits for the next day. NYLA had arranged a 10:00 AM appointment with Senator’s Clinton’s office and an 11:30 appointment with Senator Schumer’s office.

On Tuesday, in addition to the senate visits, LACUNY delegates brought academic library issues to the attention of Charles Rangel at 9:30, Jerold Nadler (staffer John Doty) at 11:00, and Anthony Weiner(staffer Marc Dunkelman) at 1:00 PM, plus the senate visits. Since the visits were concluded by 2:30 this year, the delegates elected not to stay for the final wrap-up reception, but took an early train home.

It is suggested that the LACUNY Legislative Action Committee consider organizing visits to the representatives with a CUNY college in their district at their local/district offices and discuss the ACRL legislation agenda with them.

Respectfully submitted,

Shelly Warwick
 

2005 ALA Legislative Day Report

Wednesday, 01 July 2009 12:08
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2005 ALA Legislative Day Report
LACUNY Legislative Action Committee

Report of LACUNY Legislative Action Committee Participation in ALA National Library Legislation Day, May 4th, 2005.

Shelly Warwick of Queens College Library School attended ALA National Library Legislative Day event representing LACUNY.

Since the delegate had participated in the event before she did not attend the Monday program for first timers, but arrived in Washington early Tuesday, May 3rd, for the briefing sessions which began at 10:15 with an overview of appropriations issues, followed by simultaneous sessions on Copyright and the USA Patriot Act. See appended copy of National Library Legislative Day Checklist of Issues. Since the delegate is highly conversant with copyright issues she attended the session on the USA Patriot Act. (Briefing papers on the issues addressed in the ALA sessions can be found at http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/washevents/nlld/nationallibrary.htm).

At 12:00 pm the ACRL provided a luncheon featuring a presentation on how to advocate entitled "Don't Let Democracy Get You Down" by Stephanie Vance. (Ms. Vance's presentation and a presentation she later delivered to a breakout session open to all delegates can be accessed at http://www.advocacyguru.com/2005/ala-acrl/dc.htm). The ACRL Legislative Agenda was distributed (briefings on the issues can be found at http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/washingtonwatch/washingtonwatch.htm).

The agenda focuses on:

Intellectual property & Technology
Anti-circumvention – need to modify the DMCA
Database Protection – prevent new laws that will protect facts
Digital Rights management – need prevent legislation granting copyright holders downstream control over how works are used

Government Information
Presidential records – seeking to amend the Presidential Records Act (PRA) to reaffirm that all Presidential records be available after 12 years (in short to negate Executive Order 13233 issued by President Bush that allows former presidents to veto the release of some records even after the 12 year period provided in the PRA.).
Freedom of Information – supports legislation to speed the response of FOIA requests and to decrease the amount of information that has been added to a new category "sensitive but unclassified.".
Government Printing Office – supports increased funding to allow preservation of government documents and the creation of a national bibliography.
Funding – support for bills funding the Library Services and Technology Act, the Federal Depository Library Program and Government Printing Office, Library of Congress, National Agricultural Library, National Library of Medicine.
Intellectual Freedom and Privacy

USA Patriot Act – Issue of Section 215 which allows FBI to get library records – support legislation to amend the Act. This includes support for the Freedom to Read Protection Act H.R. 1157, The Library Bookseller and Personal Records Privacy Act (S.317), the SAFE Act (S.373 and H.R. 1526). 

After lunch the delegate attended a general ALA briefing on Government Information and then one on LSTA.

Following the briefing sessions the LACUNY delegate met with the other delegates from New York State to discuss legislative visits for the next day. NYLA distributed packets showing how LSTA had been distributed in New York, including funds to support NOVEL and METRO. NYLA had arranged a meeting with a staffer from Senator Schumer's office at 11:00 a.m., which unfortunately conflicted with a meeting scheduled with Anthony Weiner. On Wednesday the LACUNY delegate met with staffers to bring academic library issues to the attention of a majority of the delegates with CUNY colleges in their district: Gary Ackerman at 10:00 am., Anthony Weiner (staffer Daniel Greenspahn) 11:00 a.m.; Gregory Meeks (staffer Sophia King) 12:00 noon; Jerold Nadler (staffer Maximiliano Sevillia) 1:30 p.m.; Eliot Engle (staffer Joanna Serra) 2:30 p.m.; and Charles Rangel (staffer Jonathan Sheiner) at 3:45 p.m. Since the visits were concluded by 4:15 this year the delegate elected not to stay for the final wrap-up reception and took an early train home.

In general the staffers met with had responsibility in education and library areas and not those related to judiciary issues (such as privacy and copyright) though all expressed strong support for libraries and library issues. In arranging the meeting with the Nadler staffer the person responsible for judiciary issues was met with. Nadler has been a strong supporter of libraries and introduced the Freedom to Read Act. The staffer, who has just taken on this responsibility this year, reiterated this support but was unfamiliar with some copyright and database protection issues and asked to be updated on the library point of view when legislation is introduced.

National Library Legislative Day 2005 Issue Checklist
Last Update: 28.04.2005 13:54

The topics of discussion this year will include:

Appropriations
Ask Congress to Support:

$221.33 million for the LSTA and $100 million for the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program.
Inclusion of Libraries in the Head Start Reauthorization 
Copyright
Ask Congress to support/cosponsor:

HR 1201, The Digital Media Consumers Rights Act of 2005
Access to Government Information
Ask Congress to support:

Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National (OPEN) Government Act of 2005 (S. 394).
Restore FOIA Act (S.622)
Faster FOIA Act (S.589)
Privacy (Patriot Act)
Ask Congress to Support:

The Freedom to Read Protection Act (H.R. 1157)
Library Bookseller and Personal Privacy Act (S.317)
The Security and Freedom Enhancement (SAFE) Act (S. 737 & H.R. 1526)
Ask Congress to Oppose:

Real ID Act (HR 418)
Telecommunications E-Rate
Ask Congress to Support:

S.241 A bill to exempt Universal Service from the Antideficiency Act.
Submitted by 
Prof. Lisa A. Ellis
Assistant Professor/Information Services Librarian
Newman Library of Baruch College, CUNY
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Resolution and Letter

Wednesday, 01 July 2009 12:07
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Drafted by the LACUNY Legislative Action Committee and endorsed by LACUNY Executive Council on October 22, 2004
Dear LACUNY Member:
In consideration of the upcoming elections, we and the LACUNY Executive Council (see Resolution below) would like to take this opportunity to encourage you to go to the polls and vote on November 2.
In the last four years, there has been important legislation enacted impacting libraries and the communities they serve, all in the interest of national security. This is just the beginning of the introduction of legislation affecting information centers like libraries that is an affront to our democratic society. It may be perceived that national issues are remote and distant concerns having little or no bearing on the autonomy of academic institutions of learning. However, this could not be further from the eventual reality of academic libraries operating with increased restrictions and impositions placed on our users. Ultimately, the work of academic librarians and the free intellectual engagement of the users we serve, are being undermined.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 03 August 2011 12:48 Read more...
 



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