ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


O&RL News ■ January 2002 /  47

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n e Lynne E. Bradley and Mary Costabile

Greetings for the New Year 2002. Tradition­
ally this is a time w hen people consider events 
o f the old year and m ake plans an d  resolu­
tions for the new  year. At the outset it is im­
portant to express our gratitude for your help 
and successes in 2001. W ithout the strong 
support o f librarians and constant efforts in 
the field, ALA could no t achieve its legisla­
tive goals. So a hearty thank you for all your 
past efforts.

O f course, 2002 will have new  legislative 
goals and corresponding challenges. List-mak
ing is often a chore, so w e will spare you and 
send you this short list o f accomplishments 
and challenges:

1. The Teach Act: This legislation, S. 487, 
passed the Senate with a coordinated legisla­
tive effort on the part o f three major library 
associations (American Association of Law Li­
braries, Association of Research Libraries, and 
ALA) and their supporters. It becam e a good 
strong distance education bill worthy of sup­
port, which may have sailed through the House, 
but w ent into limbo following September 11. 
Some observers suggest that this is one o f sev­
eral bills hanging out there as part of a group 
o f 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 o f the tragic events of September 11. 
Many questions have been raised for libraries 
about the sections of the law relating to com­
p u ter trespassing and the confidentiality of 
business, student, and library records. The bal­
ance betw een fighting terrorism and respect­
ing appropriate library patron confidentiality 
and other civil liberties is a complex and diffi­
cult discussion. Much more debate to come 
on this in the coming year.

GOAL 2002: Learn m ore about the U.S.A. 
Patriot Act and lead discussions within 
your institutions about Patriot Act imple­
mentation in your respective states and on 
your campuses.

3  LSTA: The Library Services and Technol­
ogy Act legislation must be re-authorized by 
Septem ber 20, 2002. The draft legislation, 
agreed upo n  by a large library coalition, has

not b een  introduced and did not move in the 
House or Senate because the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was being 
w orked on by the sam e congressional com­
mittees. It is expected that once ESEA is com­
pleted 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 w eeks before the holi­
day break) still has not passed the Labor Health 
and Human Services and Education Appropria­
tions 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 
w hat the compromises will be.

GOAL 2002: Continue funding educa­
tion at a high enough level to provide ser­
vices to all students.

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

GOAL 2002: Pass a renewed OERI reau­
thorization.

6. Access to government information re­
mains a critical issue following September 11. 
Important information has been rem oved from 
the Web by key federal governm ent agencies. 
The Bush Administration has m ade changes in 
policies related to access to presidential records 
and Freedom  of Inform ation 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 govern­
m ent information and the right-to-know.

7. Participate in National Library Legisla­
tive Day on May 6  a n d  7, 2002. For more in­
formation about this and other issues, visit our 
Web site at: http://w w w .ala.org/w ashoff. ■

Lynne E. Bradley is Office o f Government Relations director 
o f ALA's Washington Office, e-mail: leb@alawash.org; Mary 
Costabile is O ffice  o f G o vernm ent Relations assistant 
d ir e c t o r  o f  ALA 's W a s h in g to n  O ffic e , e -m a il: 
mcostabile@alawash.org

http://www.ala.org/washoff
mailto:leb@alawash.org
mailto:mcostabile@alawash.org


42 / C&RL News ■ January 2002