Senate to resume mark-up of PATRIOT Act reauthorization legislation

The Senate Judiciary Committee will resumes its mark-up of legislation to reauthorize the USA PATRIOT Act Thursday.  If you haven’t contacted your Senator yet, please take the time to do so.

Our message hasn’t changed: Congress should pass the ORIGINAL version of Senator Leahy’s USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act of 2009, S. 1692, with key amendments to protect civil liberties based upon S. 1686, the Judicious Use of Surveillance Tools in Counterterrorism Efforts (JUSTICE) Act.  Congress should also consider reforms of national security letters (NSLs) now as legislation on reform and reauthorization of Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act moves forward.

Please visit our Legislative Action Center for more information and to contact your Senator.

Lynne Bradley
Director, Office of Government Relations

Google Book Settlement Status Conference Update

Although the fairness hearing scheduled for today in the Google Book Settlement was canceled, Judge Denny Chin used the time to conduct a status update on the parties’ progress in their renegotiation of some of the settlement provisions. The renegotiations will address some of the concerns raised by the Department of Justice in their filing to the Court a few weeks ago. Chin set November 9th as the new date for submission of the amended settlement, with a new fairness hearing tentatively scheduled for late December or early Janurary. For more updates, see coverage from James Grimmelmann and Kenny Crews.

Also, ALA will be participating in D is for Digitize Google Book Settlement conference at New York Law School Thursday to Saturday, and sponsoring the lunch keynote on Friday. If you can’t be in New York, it looks like most of the sessions will be webcast.

Webinar Video: What Congress has in Store for Libraries Through 2009

Click To Play

Kristin Murphy (ALA Washington Office) and Stephanie Vance (Advocacy Guru), offer insights into the end-of-the-year legislative madness in Washington, DC. Although you’ve heard a great deal about health care reform, be assured that Washington, DC is still abuzz with a range of other issues, including LSTA funding and, of course, ongoing recovery act work. In this session we’ll look at what the library community should be tracking in the next few months, as well as how to be most effective in getting a message across in this chaotic time.

The slide deck for this webinar is available here.

OITP Presents at 2009 LITA National Forum

This past weekend, OITP participated at the 2009 LITA National Forum in Salt Lake City. OITP talked about some of the policy considerations in libraries adopting mobile devices and services, such as digital copyright and content licensing, digital rights management, user privacy, and accessibility. Timothy Vollmer, Assistant Director of OITP’s Program on Public Access to Information, said in his remarks:

In order for libraries to realize the true potential that mobile technologies can provide, we need to smartly address questions of policy, law, and society. But in the end, our rigorous analysis and community-wide conversation will not dampen library innovation and experimentation. Instead, it will provide a useful framework through which libraries can better understand the benefits and tradeoffs of implementing the mobile tools that can expand their services, and provide entirely new services to users who have never stepped foot into a physical library building, and who never may.

OITP will continue to refine its analysis of the public policy considerations surrounding mobile technologies in libraries, and is working to release a policy brief in the coming months. For more coverage on some of the great topics discussed in Salt Lake City, check out the coverage provided by American Libraries, Lauren Pressley, and the Twitter feed.

President names October 2009 National Information Literacy Awareness Month

Contact: Jenni Terry

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The American Library Association (ALA) joins President Obama in highlighting the importance of ensuring all Americans have the skills necessary to effectively navigate the Information Age.

Yesterday, the president issued a statement proclaiming October 2009 as National Information Literacy Awareness Month and calling “upon the people of the United States to recognize the important role information plays in our daily lives, and appreciate the need for a greater understanding of its impact.”

The president’s statement also makes the key point that “though we may know how to find the information we need, we must also know how to evaluate it.”

“In libraries across the country, librarians are helping the public achieve this goal,” ALA President Camila Alire said. “During this month of awareness, ALA encourages more Americans to visit their local libraries to take full advantage of the services they provide to help the public develop strong information literacy skills.”

Alire also said robust broadband is the critical underlying infrastructure needed to effectively navigate the Information Age. ALA commends the president on the $7.2 billion for broadband included in the stimulus and specific inclusion of libraries (public computer centers) as key hubs for information literacy.

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