Georgia Librarian Heads to Washington to Support State Libraries

Posted on May 1, 2012 by | Leave a comment

State Librarian Lamar Veatch Makes 15th Annual Trip to D.C. for National Library Legislative Day

Federal and state budget cuts to library programs has not stopped Georgia State Librarian Lamar Veatch, 63, from traveling to Washington, D.C. to meet with congressional lawmakers to save funding needed for our nation’s libraries and library services.

This year marked Veatch’s 15th annual trip to the nation’s capital to participate in National Library Legislative Day, the American Library Association-sponsored event where more than 3Veatch with Legislative Assistant50 librarians and library supporters met with members of Congress from April 23–24, 2012, to discuss key library issues.

While in Washington, Veatch met with representatives from Congress, including the offices of Reps. Austin Scott, John Lewis, Rob Woodall, as well as Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson. Veatch discussed Appropriations funding in those meetings, advocating specifically for funds supporting literacy, such as the Library Services and Technology Act.

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Posted in Events, Grassrooots & Advocacy, Technology, the Internet, and Telecommunications, Washington Office News

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ALA Supports Amash Amendment to CISPA Bill

Posted on April 30, 2012 by | Leave a comment

During ‘Cybersecurity Week’ in the U.S. House of Representatives last week, the American Library Association announced its support for the “Amash/Labrador/Nadler/Paul/Polis Amendment” to H.R. 3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 (CISPA). The ALA asked Congress to amend H.R. 3523 and move it toward a proper balance between our nation’s privacy laws and the need to fight cybersecurity threats. CISPA trumps all current privacy laws including the forty-eight state library record confidentiality laws as well as the Federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Wiretap Act, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The Amash amendment sought to protect library patron records and other personally identifiable information from wholesale sharing among private companies, ISP providers and the government. The amendment passed 415 to 0, although the bill did not include other proposed amendments that the ALA supported. The Amash Amendment was the type of amendment essential to address the serious problems in H.R. 3523 and the library community remained disappointed in the outcome of the final bill.

ALA President Molly Raphael joined many organizations, including the American Society of News Editors, American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Media and Democracy, in opposition to the cybersecurity bill by signing a coalition letter. ALA had urged Congress to accept the Amash Amendment and to seek other improvements to the bill.

“Cybersecurity is a serious, legitimate concern for our nation as well as for libraries, library patrons and the public at large. But CISPA would establish a whole new system for our nation’s privacy laws and policies by permitting the sharing of extraordinary amounts of personal information and electronic communications with little oversight and overly broad definitions of cybersecurity,” Raphael said. “The House of Representatives did not heed the ALA’s call and the future of CISPA lies in the Senate’s and the White House’s hands. We hope that the Senate will do better,” she added.

Jazzy Wright
Press Officer, ALA, Washington Office

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Intellectual Freedom, and Privacy, Grassrooots & Advocacy, OGR, Public Libraries, School Libraries, Technology, the Internet, and Telecommunications, Washington Office News

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Introducing “Community Practices in the Fair Use of Video in Libraries”

Posted on April 27, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Librarians at schools, colleges and universities play an important role helping their users understand and apply copyright law. This makes sense because educational institutions are sites for learning, and the advancement of learning is the purpose of the copyright. Congress recognized the unique status of non-profit educational institutions, libraries and archives under copyright law and developed allowances – copyright exceptions – especially for them. But some of these exceptions are notoriously complicated and open to varying interpretations. Even keeping track of this legal patch work can be difficult.

In response, a group of media librarians from the ALA Video Round Table approached me with a project aiming to make sense of these exceptions and come to some consensus on how media librarians should interpret the law. Piggy backing off of the “best practices” work of the American University’s Washington School of Law and the Center for Social Media, we wanted to find out what media librarians were actually doing with the exceptions. Instead of asking media librarians how they interpret the copyright law and statutory exceptions, we asked media librarians to explain what kinds of uses of media they believed were reasonable uses necessary to fulfill the mission of their educational institution. We asked, “Do you think these uses are fair?” Then we asked “Are you actually doing these things?”

We discovered areas of commonality among the responses that we identified as community practices, lawful fair use activities. Of course, there are caveats and issues to be considered which we also detail in the document. We hope it is helpful to librarians—by exercising fair use in these ways, librarian demonstrate their understanding of fair use and help shape the meaning of the law. Our hope is that these fair use community practices better able media librarians to meet the mission of their educational institutions – advancement of knowledge, learning and new discovery. We welcome feedback.

Carrie Russell

Video Fair Use Work Group

Judy Thomas, Chair (University of Virginia)

Claire Stewart (Northwestern University)

Steve Brantley (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Carlton Jackson (University of Maryland)

Nell Chenault (Virginia Commonwealth  University)

Justin Wadland (University of Washington)

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Posted in Copyright, Public Libraries, School Libraries, Technology, the Internet, and Telecommunications, Washington Office News

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ALA and LCA to Present Eric Harbeson with the Oakley Memorial Scholarship Award

Posted on April 27, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Eric Harbeson

The American Library Association (ALA) and the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) are pleased to  announce that Eric Harbeson, music special collections librarian at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has been selected as the first recipient of the Robert L. Oakley Memorial Scholarship Award, an award that bestows honorees with $1000 to offset the costs associated with attending the International Federation of Library Association (IFLA) Conference this August in Helsinki, Finland.

The Oakley scholarship award will be presented to Mr. Harbeson at the ALA’s 2012 annual conference in Anaheim, Calif. in June. Harbeson will present a paper at the conference on copyright and other legal issues surrounding institutionally-produced sound recordings.

The award was established to support research and advance study for librarians in their early-to-mid-careers who are interested and/or active in the fields that Robert Oakley was expert in—intellectual property, public policy, copyright and their impacts on libraries and the ways libraries serve their communities. The intent of the scholarship is to support librarians who will be strong advocates for balanced copyright in the years to come, and to provide development opportunities related to copyright and related issues that they might not otherwise have.

Award recipients are expected to bring their interest and energy back to library associations, by mentoring new librarians in information policy, sharing expertise, and actively engaging in public policy and library advocacy.

“I had the pleasure of working with Eric during the Copyright Office’s roundtable discussions of pre-1972 sound recordings, where he showed extraordinary tenacity,” said Brandon Butler, director of public policy initiatives at the Association of Research Libraries. “Eric wasn’t intimidated by the team of high-powered lobbyists from the content industry, and he was perhaps the only participant who joined every single session to represent his community.”

“We are delighted to name Eric Harbeson as this year’s scholarship winner,” said Carrie Russell, director of the ALA’s Program on Public Access to Information. “Mr. Harbeson’s keen interest in copyright coupled with his research tenacity make him a worthy recipient.”

Harbeson’s research focuses on copyright and other legal issues concerning institutionally produced sound recordings, such as recordings of student recitals, school-sponsored performing ensembles and theater programs. His research will examine both legal theories and the practical application of such theories at research libraries that wish to preserve and provide access to these myriad collections.

“I am absolutely thrilled to have been picked for this scholarship. I’m very grateful both to the ALA and LCA for choosing me, and honored to win a prize named after someone who clearly gave so much to new librarians, said Harbeson.

To learn more about the scholarship award, go to www.ala.org/offices/oitp.

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American Library Association Honors Kentucky Advocate

Posted on April 26, 2012 by | Leave a comment

ALA President Molly Raphael hugs BuzzLibrary advocate Louis “Buzz” Carmichael, of Lexington, Ky., was recognized on this week with the White House Conference on Library and Information Services Taskforce (WHCLIST) Award for his commitment to supporting the nation’s libraries. ALA President Molly Raphael acknowledged Carmichael at the American Library Association’s 2012 National Library Legislative Day in Washington, D.C.

WHCLIST bestows a non-librarian advocate for libraries who participates in National Library Legislative Day, the annual federal library advocacy event, a stipend to travel to the D.C. event.

As a strong and tireless advocate for libraries, Mr. Carmichael has been a Trustee of the Lexington Public Library in Kentucky for four years. He was appointed by Governor Steve Beshar to serve as the Chair of the State Advisory Council on Libraries as a result of his strong work as a Trustee. As a dedicated advocate for library issues, Carmichael is a regular at library conferences and Kentucky’s Library Legislative Day.

“I enjoy all aspects of my library work and feel I can be a better advocate with [National Library Legislative Day] experience,” Carmichael said.

To learn more about the award, go to www.ala.org/awardsgrants.

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