Chicago Library System: Law & Legislative Issues

PPC asks for input from Illinois librarians

Mon, 14 Jul 2003 15:05:09 GMT

PPC asks for input from Illinois librarians:

The following news item was supplied by Kendi Kelly, ILA Public Policy Chair:

The recent Supreme Court Children’s Internet Protection Act decision and Illinois State budget cuts provided
the obvious topics for discussion when the Illinois Library Association (ILA) Public Policy Committee met July 1
at the Illinois State Library in Springfield.
Noting that CIPA clarifications will become available over the next few weeks, Public Policy Committee Chairperson
Kendi Kelley encouraged librarians to take time to study the issue and decide whether they will be required to filter.
"There is no need to rush out and buy the first filter you find," said Kelley, Administrative Librarian for C.E. Brehm
Memorial Public Library District in Mt. Vernon.
In order for the Public Policy Committee to gauge the impact of the ruling, she is encouraging all public library staff to email
her at kendik@shawls.lib.il.us and answer the following two questions: 1) Does your library currently use a filtering product,
and if so to what extent? 2) Do you believe the ruling will require you to filter in the future?
The committee also discussed strategies to deal with the Illinois State Budget cuts as they impact Illinois library users. The ILA
Public Policy Principles were reviewed as preparation for developing the 2004 Legislative Program. Individuals are encouraged
to submit suggested initiatives to ILA President Nancy Gillfillan at ngillfil@starband.net.
The next PPC meeting will be held August 5 via VTEL from the Illinois State Library, DuPage Library System and
Shawnee Library System.

Thu, 03 Jul 2003 20:24:31 GMT

CIPA Update:

"The FCC has released a Public Notice concerning the implementation of CIPA following the Supreme Court's decision last week. ALA will be posting further details and a FAQ on implementation within a few days. A .pdf version of the document is also available." [from Louise McAulay at Suburban Library System]

Illinois Library Advocacy Day

Fri, 07 Mar 2003 21:08:02 GMT

Illinois Library Advocacy Day:

Illinois Library Advocacy Day is April 9, 2003. CLS will be providing bus transportation to Springfield again this year. More information on this event is forthcoming. In the interim, please contact Veronda Pitchford at CLS if you have questions.

Eleven Proposed Library-Related Legislative Efforts

Fri, 07 Mar 2003 21:02:39 GMT

"Eleven Proposed Library-Related Legislative Efforts.

The ILA Executive Board has reviewed 112 bills and determined the association's position on 11 proposed library-related legislative efforts: House Bill 14 Child Pornography Law (ILA position: monitor), H.B. 66 Property Tax Moratorium (ILA position: oppose), H.B. 425 Project Safe Child Pilot Program (ILA position: monitor), H.B. 475 Civil Case Fees (ILA position: support), H.B. 498 Archives Research Fund (ILA position: support), H.B. 2181 Public Library District Money Transfer (ILA position: support), H.B. 2272 Filters (ILA position: oppose), H.B. 2342 Library Systems Directors Terms (ILA position: oppose), H.B. 2527 Library System Changes (ILA position: monitor), Senate Bill 383 Illinois State Library Foundation (ILA position: support), S.B. 1372 Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act (ILA position: support)." Thanks to nsls.info and ILA for the latest information.

ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy to Offer "Privacy 101 for Librarians"

Wed, 26 Feb 2003 15:22:10 GMT

ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy to Offer "Privacy 101 for Librarians":

"March 3 through May 5, 2003 OITP will host an online e-mail tutorial on privacy. Similar in format to the successful copyright, UCITA and licensing tutorials offered in past years, the privacy tutorial will cover privacy basics for library professionals in 20-25 brief, but informative messages written by Leslie Harris, experienced lawyer, lobbyist and public policy strategist in Washington, D.C. Leslie is founder and president of Leslie Harris & Associates, and has been a long-standing partner with ALA in defending civil liberties and protecting library patron privacy.

The tutorial will address privacy expectations of library patrons and practical ways to meet them; legal protections for library records and their limitations; how technology has changed the way libraries must address privacy; and privacy audits. The tutorial course is FREE to ALA members, and only $25 for non-ALA members.

Signing up is easy. 1. Send an e-mail message to: listproc@ala.org. 2. Leave the subject line blank. 3. In the body of the email type: subscribe privacytut YourFirstName YourLastName (example: subscribe privacytut John Doe)

After subscribing, you should receive an automated welcome message. On March 3rd, you will receive your first e-mail tutorial message on privacy and libraries. You can read your messages when they arrive, save them for later, or print them out, but we recommend reading the messages in the order that they are received. Please note the email tutorial is one-way communication. You will not be able to post to a discussion list...

For more information, contact Kathy Mitchell at kmitchell@alawash.org or Chiffonya Brown at cbrown@alawash.org or call ALA's Washington Office, (800)941-8478. " ---from ALA release

LawSites

Fri, 06 Dec 2002 17:43:47 GMT

LawSites:

LawSites is a legal weblog that provides news and reviews of legal web sites. (Thanks for the pointer, Chris!)

CIPA heads to Supreme Court

Wed, 13 Nov 2002 19:33:31 GMT

CIPA heads to the Supreme Court:

- "The Supreme Court said Tuesday it will decide i .... - "The Supreme Court said Tuesday it will decide if public libraries can be forced to install software blocking sexually explicit Web sites."

"Congress has struggled to find ways to protect children from Internet pornography without infringing on free speech rights for Web site operators."

"Lawmakers have passed three laws since 1996, but the Supreme Court struck down the first and blocked the second from taking effect." (from CNN) [Library Stuff - Updated daily by Steven M. Cohen]

For more information on the developments on this case, see ALA's announcement. Wired also has a new article on the case.

Intellectual freedom in the Quad Ciites

Mon, 30 Sep 2002 17:23:43 GMT

Intellectual freedom in the Quad Ciites:

"Intellectual Freedom in the Heartland !-) Ranked Google-icious." [LISNews.com] LISNews links to a couple of articles on Banned Book Week and the Quad Cities record with banned books and the effects on the USA Patriot Act on library use.

Steven M. Cohen on blogging as legal research

Thu, 19 Sep 2002 15:56:44 GMT

Steven M. Cohen on blogging as legal research:

Steven will be in NYC today speaking at Legal Tech, according to his blog Library Stuff. He's part of a dynamic panel that will also be festuring Genie Tyburski and Kaltheen Price, entitled "Using the Internet for Legal Research 201: Way Beyond the Basics".

"For those who have Power Point, my presentation can be found here." [Library Stuff - Updated daily by Steven M. Cohen]

Is there any interest in getting him to come to Chicago?

CBDTPA legislation

Mon, 16 Sep 2002 19:03:52 GMT

CBDTPA legislation:

"Class, Get Out Your Pens. To tide you over until I have enough consistent internet access to resume full-time blogging, here's a letter you can send to your elected officials regarding the CBDTPA . It was inspired by Aaron Schwartz's letter (he gets full credit for this), and you should feel free to modify it to add your own thoughts..." [The Shifted Librarian]

ProSUA

Wed, 28 Aug 2002 16:59:05 GMT

New Blog on Copyrights Issues:

"New Blog "Dedicated to the Clarification of Copyright Law for Legislators and Citizens". Kevin Marks has a new blog dedicated to taking the copyright fight to the politicians..." [Blogcritics]

ProSUA, Kevin Mark's blog, has lots of tips on how to advocate for copyright issues that affect libraries.

Digital Promise

Tue, 27 Aug 2002 20:52:06 GMT

Digital Promise:

Wired has an article entitled "Ed-Tech Crusaders Seek D.C. Bucks" by Katie Dean. The article describes the effort to create the Digital Opportunity Investment Trust. The goals of the trust include creating virtual models for educational purposes and digitizing the content in libraries, museums, and universities. The bills that would create the trust fund are Senate bill S2603 and House bill HR4641. The initative has already received funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Century Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. Macarthur Foundation, and the Open Society Institute.

Law librarians as newscasters

Tue, 27 Aug 2002 14:58:03 GMT

Law Librarians as Newscasters:

Law.com has an article entitled "Breaking News: Law Librarians as Newcasters" by Susannah Crego on its site. The article explains how newsletters, blogs, and current event summaries by law librarians can provide just in time information to law practioners and others in the firm.

Thanks again, Jenny.

Inter Alia

Mon, 26 Aug 2002 17:03:03 GMT

Inter Alia:

" A new weblog dediacted to "Internet legal research - among other things", from Tom Mighell, the mand (and the myth) behind Internet Legal Research Weekly. If you work in a law library of any shape or form, you will be doing yourself a favor by subscribing. Check out the latest issue and subsrcibe to the RSS feed. (via Virtual Chase - Welcome back Genie)" [Library Stuff - Updated daily by Steven M. Cohen]

Its a free ranging blog with lots of good content, regardless of what kind of library you work in.

Tue, 20 Aug 2002 17:53:24 GMT

Privacy:

Statewatch: monitoring civil liberties in the EU. [Privacy Digest]

Also, Privacy.org which is a joint project of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (Washington, DC) and Privacy International (London, England and Washington, DC) are informative resources.

Why is watching these developments important? Many states have privacy laws that pertain to libraries and library records. But some recently proposed federal legislation may impact those laws, like the USA Patriot Act. For more on how privacy laws may impact libraries, see the ALA Washington Office site and Robert Hughes' article, "Free Libraries, Free Society," in American Libraries.

But some libraries also provide Internet service like an ISP. For example, Bensenville Public Library in Illinois is the home of CleaRNET, the community network for Bensenville. Libraries that provide community networks (email accounts, etc.) might have to negotiate their way through these possible conflicts between the state laws that protect patrons' rights to privacy and other laws, like the proposed EU one that would require keeping of communication records by communication providers for up to a year.

Tue, 20 Aug 2002 16:26:08 GMT

"Know your federal judge - the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary is a great publication, but for years it was only available in print. It has biographical information on all of the judges in the federal judiciary. Stuff like who appointed them, date of birth, educational and professional background and so forth. It also now includes financial information gleaned from the mandatory disclosures that the judges are required to file. By far the most useful facet of the work is the anonymous comments of practioners I haven't used the book lately (because it costs a lot to update and our copy has most of the judges that we need to know about), but when I did last look at it I was impressed at how useful and accurate the comments (taken in the aggregate) were. The Almanac, which is published by Aspen Publishers, is now available online. The bad news is that it costs $1,900 (although you can try it free for 10 days). The online service provides a directory of court guidelines that is updated 3 times a year. If you spend a significant amount of time in federal courts outside of your home turf then the price of this publication is a pittance." [Ernie the Attorney]

Thanks to Ernie the Attorney and his ab fab blog for reviewing this legal resource.

CLS members: What do you think of this? How useful is it to you? Please let us know if this is of interest to you as a CLS member library in CLS Online. If there's interest, I'll see if Aspen would be willing to work out a consortial discount for CLS members.

Wed, 14 Aug 2002 21:09:01 GMT

Legislation that impacts libraries:

It looks like there might be some action on S.2395 by Senators this session, according to a recent AALL Action Alert I just received. Librarians are being encouraged to take time to educate senators that represent them on how libraries may be affected by this anti-counterfeiting legislation.

For more information on recent legislation that impacts libraries, check out the American Library Association's Washington Office web site.

Tue, 13 Aug 2002 15:11:09 GMT

Law Firms embrace blogs? - well sort of, I guess. This firm with offices in New York and D.C., with its blue-ribbon clientele has a quasi-blog page called "new on the web" and it links to my blogroll, as well as to the LitiGator's blog. Looks like a pretty interesting place to practice law. Maybe you law students should check it out. [Ernie the Attorney]

These are great law resource links! I wonder, have any Chicago law firms started experimenting with blogging?

Mon, 12 Aug 2002 21:07:33 GMT

UCITA Update: Check out Baker & McKenzie’s E-law alert on UCITA Amendments!