Join Us for the 2004 Legislative Advocacy Leadership Training in Boston!
We invite members of AALL and/or our chapters to join us for the
Legislative Advocacy Leadership Training that will be held this year
the day before the annual meeting starts in Boston, from 8:30 a.m. until
noon on Saturday, July 10th. Thanks to the support
and commitment of AALL President Janis Johnston and our Executive Board,
there is no registration fee for this special event.
This year's focus is a bit different from past years as we're going to
concentrate on some crucial state issues, with funding for county law
libraries at the top of the list. States are reeling from budget
shortfalls and the impact on funding for state institutions continues to
be severe. At the same time, public law libraries are experiencing a
surge in the number of public patrons who increasingly rely on access to
their resources and services. In many states, filing fees that support
county law libraries haven't been raised in years. The funding situation
for county law libraries in Florida is dire. Legislation enacted there
last July eliminated the sharing of filing fees with county law
libraries. Unless our Florida colleagues are successful in crafting and
getting enacted a legislative fix, the funding from filing fees which
currently accounts for approximately 75% of the funding for these law
libraries will end on July 1, 2004.
Other state issues include opposition to efforts to enact the "Uniform
Computer Information Transactions Act" (UCITA) and the "E-Government
Services Act." While the latter sounds like a benign effort to improve
public access to state electronic information and services, it's instead
an egregious effort by industry to prevent state agencies from providing
information online if the same information is already available through
two commercial entities. Last, but not least, is our important effort to
use the findings of the "State-by-State Report on Permanent Public
Access to Electronic Government Information" to educate state policy
makers. (See: http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/aallwash/PPAreport.htm) The
report, published in July 2003, is the result of an AALL research grant
awarded to the Government Relations Committee. Our goal is to promote
Best Practices and even model state legislation to ensure the
permanent public access of electronic information, especially web based
born digital information.
So, how do you fit into all this? AALL will not succeed in its
legislative agenda without your help. The goals of this workshop are to
give you an opportunity to learn about these issues that are core to our
legislative work; to show you how easy (and fun!) it is to become
actively engaged in our advocacy efforts; and to bring together folks
who are willing to become advocacy leaders within their chapter or
state. All you need to bring with you is energy, enthusiasm, and the
willingness to become active on the legislative front!
Speakers lined up for this session are: Elizabeth LeDoux, Covington &
Burling and chair of the Government Relations Committee (GRC); Judy
Meadows, State Law Library of Montana and GRC member; Charley Dyer, San
Diego Public Law Library and chair of the State, Court and County Law
Libraries SIS; Bob Riger, executive director of the Miami-Dade County
Law Library; and Mary Alice Baish, Washington Affairs Office.
To register, please send an e-mail message to baish@law.georgetown.edu.
See you there!
Thank you,
Elizabeth LeDoux
GRC Chair
Mary Alice Baish
AALL Associate Washington Affairs Representative
Elizabeth LeDoux
Research and Conflicts Librarian
Covington & Burling
1201 Pennsylvania Ave
Washington DC 20004-2401
*202.662.6151
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