ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Washington Hotline

Lynne E. Bradley and Mary Costabile

Greetings for the New Year 2002. Traditionally this is a time when people consider events of the old year and make plans and resolutions for the new year. At the outset it is important to express our gratitude for your help and successes in 2001. Without the strong support of librarians and constant efforts in the field, ALA could not achieve its legislative goals. So a hearty thank you for all your past efforts.

Of course, 2002 will have new legislative goals and corresponding challenges. List-making is often a chore, so we will spare you and send you this short list of accomplishments and challenges:

1. The Teach Act:This legislation, S. 487, passed the Senate with a coordinated legislative effort on the part of three major library associations (American Association of Law Libraries, Association of Research Libraries, and ALA) and their supporters. It became a good strong distance education bill worthy of support, which may have sailed through the House, but went into limbo following September 11. Some observers suggest that this is one of several bills hanging out there as part of a group of bills for end-of-session bartering.

GOAL 2002: Pass the Teach Act.

2. The USA. Patriot Act:This legislation, P.L. 103-56, was quickly drawn together as a result of the tragic events of September 11. Many questions have been raised for libraries about the sections of the law relating to computer trespassing and the confidentiality of business, student, and library records. The balance between fighting terrorism and respecting appropriate library patron confidentiality and other civil liberties is a complex and difficult discussion. Much more debate to come on this in the coming year.

GOAL 2002: Learn more about the U.S.A. Patriot Act and lead discussions within your institutions about Patriot Act implementation in your respective states and on your campuses.

3 LSTA:The Library Services and Technology Act legislation must be re-authorized by September 20, 2002. The draft legislation, agreed upon by a large library coalition, has not been introduced and did not move in the House or Senate because the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was being worked on by the same congressional committees. It is expected that once ESEA is completed LSTA will move forward.

GOAL 2002: Pass the Library Services and Technology Act.

4. Funding: At this writing, Congress is still in session and (a few weeks before the holiday break) still has not passed the Labor Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill. The good news is that there is an increase in both House and Senate bills for education. Since both bills are quite different, the difficulty, as always, will be in deciding what the compromises will be.

GOAL 2002: Continue funding education at a high enough level to provide services to all students.

5. OERI: During 2001, Rep. Michael Castle’s (R-Delaware) committee began work on the reauthorization of the Office of Education and Research (OERI), but because of the press of working on the major ESEA reauthorization, work also stopped on that legislation.

GOAL 2002: Pass a renewed OERI reauthorization.

6. Access to government information remains a critical issue following September 11. Important information has been removed from the Web by key federal government agencies. The Bush Administration has made changes in policies related to access to presidential records and Freedom of Information Act requests. These must be monitored and challenged by the library community as appropriate.

GOAL 2002: Participate in ACRL and other ALA discussions on access to government information and the right-to-know.

7. Participate in National Library Legislative Day on May 6 and 7, 2002. For more information about this and other issues, visit our Web site at: http://www.ala.org/washoff. ■

Lynne E. Bradley is Office of Government Relations director of ALA's Washington Office, e-mail: leb@alawash.org; Mary Costabile is Office of Government Relations assistant director of ALA's Washington Office, e-mail: mcostabile@alawash.org

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