ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

Washington Hotline

Lynne E. Bradley

With Election Day over, many of our longtime library champions including Sena- tors Paul Simon (D-IL), Mark Hatfield (R-OR), Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS), and Rep- resentative Pat Williams (D- MT) are retiring from Con- gress, so our thoughts turn to new and returning library champions.

Encourage Congress’ library champions

This relatively quiet legislative time before the 105th Congress convenes in January 1997 is a good opportunity to begin the work of educating and encouraging library champions. Academic and college librarians have a special role to play in this process as library and higher education advocates learn more about the election winners. Before particular legislative initiatives and bills are introduced is the time to bring your academic library message to your congressional representatives. Whether directly from the library or through joint campuswide efforts, invite the successful candidates to visit your library. Use such visits to demonstrate library services and to present some of the special needs of academic libraries relating to intellectual property, government information, and other library issues.

Find out what colleges and universities your senators and congressional representatives have attended. There may also be alumni from your campus that are elected officials. These connections are a good way to present the academic library message.

Copyright issues are an area in which the voices of library users, and the American public in general, need to be heard through academic libraries. Congressional champions need to understand the problems involved with the latest initiatives in both the domestic and international arenas regarding intellectual property.

ALA responds to “Fair Use Guidelines for Multimedia”

ALA and other library associations will communicate the responses of the library community to the various fair use guidelines being promulgated as part of the Con- ference on Fair Use (CONFU) process. The im- portance of preserving the legitimate fair use rights of the American public is dem- onstrated through library re- sponses to the “Fair Use Guidelines for Multimedia.” ALA and other library asso- ciations have not signed onto this draft and the other guidelines because of the too narrow interpretation of fair use.

The ALA Executive Board passed a resolution regarding the “Fair Use Guidelines for Multimedia” or any of the guidelines at its recent fall meeting in Chicago. The resolution reads:

Moved, that ALA not endorse copyright guidelines which do not fully protect the public’s fair use rights, that ALA include information on the interests and needs of library users in the CONFU final report, and publicize widely the importance of fair use to the American public.

ALA encourages library advocates not to endorse any version of the fair use guidelines at this time for several reasons. The rapidly changing nature of technology impacts the nature of draft guidelines. Some ALA Board members argue that the technology is in such a state of flux that this is not the time to formalize guidelines; and that guidelines have a tendency to become the maximum rather than the minimum. ALA leaders recognize the need for guidance in the field and urge library advocates to address that need in ways other than specific guidelines.

Several library associations are working together on these copyright issues and will develop a joint statement on the guidelines that may be used in various ways, including making clear the importance of fair use to the mission of libraries. Input from academic librarians is strongly encouraged.

Lynne E. Bradley is deputy executive director of ALA’s Washington Office; e-mail: leb@alawash.org.

More information for library advocates

To support library advocates and help them stay involved, the ALA Washington Office is developing additional information for the ALA Web site. A summary of the status of all major library legislation (including intellectual property) at the end of the 104th Congress is now available in the November issue of the newsletter called ALA Washington News at http:// www.ala.org/washoff/alawopub.html. Analysis of election results as well as the latest information on such issues as intellectual property and the status of the fair use guidelines will be reported in ALAWON, the ALA Washington Office Newsline, and in the newsletter. Readers may redistribute material from these publications free of charge for nonprofit purposes, with appropriate credit. To subscribe to ALAWON and receive notifications of ALA Washington News online, send the message: subscribe ala- wo [your_firstname][your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org.

For further information on these and other legislative issues as we prepare for the 105th Congress to convene in January, please contact the ALA Washington Office at (800) 941- 8478 or contact Lynne Bradley at leb@alawash.org. ■