ACRL New England Chapter News Online

ISSN 1527-0106

Spring 2004, Number 102

In This Issue (Home):

President's Letter

Election Results

C.E. Committee Chair Needed

Librarian of the Year Award

Annual Conference Reports

National Legislative Day Report

Interest Group Reports:
Access Services (ASIG)
Information Technology (ITIG)
Instruction (NELIG)
Online Course Info. (LOCI)
Women's Studies

Annual Reports

Board Meeting Minutes, February 11th, 2004 (.pdf)

Calendar Listings

National Legislative Day Report
May 3-4, 2004 Washington DC

Janice A Wilbur, ACRL/NEC Legislative Representative, 2000-2004
Assumption College

Due to the current atmosphere "on The Hill," the House of Representative and the Senate are "sitting tight "on their votes. Librarians visiting Congress were told that Republicans are in control of the House and Senate with little input from the Democrats, and the Democrats are acting as spoilers in any legislation with a possibility of passing that Republicans may benefit. In an election year no one wants to "look bad" by their vote. Most importantly, the bills are at a standstill because the representatives do not want to vote on any financial items. ALA Washington Office told us to concentrate on making the legislators aware of library issues for the time when relevant legislation comes to a vote.

In this time of financial troubles in the country (unemployment, price increases…..) libraries will experience a rise in public use. This does not affect the academic libraries as much but those near cities will feel the effect to a certain degree. As financial budgets tighten on campuses, academic libraries will need to look towards LSTA grants and other sources of funding.

Fair Use Legislation currently in the House (HR 107, HR201) and Senate bill S1621 (Digital Rights Management Awareness Act of 2003) and S692 (Digital Consumer Right to Know Act -AKA the Wyden Bill) should concern academic libraries. HR107, the
Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (DMCRA,) was scheduled for review on Wednesday, May 12. I had sent along the call to encourage your legislators to support this bi-partisan bill earlier in May. The DMCRA is widely viewed as the first significant digital rights bill and a credible attempt to modulate some of the excesses in the 1998
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Find more info at: http://capwiz.com/ala/issues/bills/?bill=2204141

Serious work on the USA PATRIOT Act will occur next year. Several of the provisions in the Act expire (or have "sunset" clauses) in 2005 AFTER the elections. We must urge our legislators to allow these provisions to die in 2005 or seriously re-examine them before extension. ALA does not want to eliminate the "sneak and peak" legislation entirely but to disallow searches without:
- a compelling reason, and
- notifying the person that they are subject of investigation within 7 days of the "emergency" wiretap or office and home search.
Currently the CIA can search without notifying a person that a search has been done, and a judge's permission for a wiretap does not require a statement of its location.

I appreciate the opportunity to have again attended and represented ACRL/NEC at Legislative Days, 2004. As this is my last year as the Representative I highly recommend this activity continue to be supported by ACRL/NEC and will pass on my accrued knowledge to the next person chosen in my place.