News

Library confidentiality bill gets favorable committee vote–now it’s on to the Senate

On Friday, Feb. 15, the Vermont Senate Government Operations Committee voted in favor of S. 220, “An Act Relating to the Confidentiality of Library Patron Records.”  The bill now goes to the full Senate on Tuesday, Feb. 19.  VLA members are encouraged to call or send e-mail messages to their senators asking them to support the bill.  S. 220 is quite similar to our proposed bill, except that the committee amended it to allow parental/guardian access to the records of children under 16–even for materials that are not overdue.  FYI, here’s the VLA statement explaining the importance of confidentiality for minors:  Statement on the importance of protecting the confidentiality of minors

Library confidentiality bill gets favorable committee vote–now it's on to the Senate

On Friday, Feb. 15, the Vermont Senate Government Operations Committee voted in favor of S. 220, “An Act Relating to the Confidentiality of Library Patron Records.”  The bill now goes to the full Senate on Tuesday, Feb. 19.  VLA members are encouraged to call or send e-mail messages to their senators asking them to support the bill.  S. 220 is quite similar to our proposed bill, except that the committee amended it to allow parental/guardian access to the records of children under 16–even for materials that are not overdue.  FYI, here’s the VLA statement explaining the importance of confidentiality for minors:  Statement on the importance of protecting the confidentiality of minors

POSTPONED: Advocacy Committee Meeting

Hi All,

Due to unexpected scheduling conflicts for many of the members, we’ve decided to postpone our meeting. If you are interested in attending the next meeting, please let me know and we can work with you on best scheduling times.

Helen Linda
celestihel [at] gmail [dot] com

ALA Applauds Support of Libraries in FY2009 Presidential Budget

From the NELA listserv:

Contact: Andy Bridges

ALA Washington Office

202-628-8410

For Immediate Release

Libraries nationwide to benefit from President Bush’s proposed budget

WASHINGTON — The American Library Association (ALA) applauds the funding increases for libraries proposed in President Bush’s fiscal year (FY) 2009 budget, released this morning. The increases in library funding proposed by the President will mean that many of America’s libraries can continue to provide key programs and services to their communities, like bookmobiles and public access to the Internet.

Read more

2008 Financial Assistance for Library and Information Studies Directory

CHICAGO – Need additional financial assistance? The 2008 Financial Assistance for Library and Information Studies Directory is an annual directory of awards from state library agencies, national and state library associations, local libraries, academic institutions and foundations that give some form of financial assistance for undergraduate and/or graduate education programs in library and information studies. The directory is available online at http://tinyurl.com/284fvf.

For information on Scholarships available through ALA, visit http://tinyurl.com/2bb8cv or call the ALA Scholarship Clearinghouse at (800) 545-2433, ext. 4279.

Vermont’s 23 Things, A winter learning opportunity

From Mara Siegel to VLA Listserv

Have you ever been curious about blogs, wikis, flickr, RSS, MySpace, and YouTube, but haven’t gone beyond looking up their definitions? Here’s a chance to explore those tools (and more!)

Vermont’s 23 Things is a self-directed online learning program that will introduce you to many Web 2.0 tools. It will encourage you to play with them and see how they can be useful in your library (or personally).

To see more, click on Vermont’s 23 Things or cut and paste vermontlibrarieslearn.wordpress.com into your browser window. Then dive right in!

Please distribute this e-mail among your co-workers. If you have any questions about Vermont’s 23 Things, please contact Mara Siegel. e-mail: mara.siegel@mail.dol.state.vt.us phone: 828-3261

I thought this should go up here in case some of you are not subscribed to the VLA listserv. It’s a really good opportunity to get a crash course in social sofware in a fun, self-paced environment if you’ve been waiting for a reason to try these tools out. It only just started at the end of January. I’m having a lot of fun with it, just as a personal endorsement.

Helen Linda

Vermont's 23 Things, A winter learning opportunity

From Mara Siegel to VLA Listserv

Have you ever been curious about blogs, wikis, flickr, RSS, MySpace, and YouTube, but haven’t gone beyond looking up their definitions? Here’s a chance to explore those tools (and more!)
Vermont’s 23 Things is a self-directed online learning program that will introduce you to many Web 2.0 tools. It will encourage you to play with them and see how they can be useful in your library (or personally).
To see more, click on Vermont’s 23 Things or cut and paste vermontlibrarieslearn.wordpress.com into your browser window. Then dive right in!
Please distribute this e-mail among your co-workers. If you have any questions about Vermont’s 23 Things, please contact Mara Siegel. e-mail: mara.siegel@mail.dol.state.vt.us phone: 828-3261

I thought this should go up here in case some of you are not subscribed to the VLA listserv. It’s a really good opportunity to get a crash course in social sofware in a fun, self-paced environment if you’ve been waiting for a reason to try these tools out. It only just started at the end of January. I’m having a lot of fun with it, just as a personal endorsement.
Helen Linda

VT Senate Government Operations Committee holds hearing on confidentiality bill

On January 17, librarians representing VLA and VSLA testified in support of S. 220, a bill to protect the confidentiality of library records. Posted here are links to testimony by Trina Magi, Susan Monmaney, and Karen Lane, a letter from a parent, and the marked-up bill showing changes requested by VLA and VSLA. For a Q&A sheet explaining the rationale behind the bill and a handout you can distribute to patrons, see the January 8 post titled “Library Confientiality Bill Introduced in VT Senate” in the Intellectual Freedom section of the VLA Web site. If you have questions or comments, please contact VLA Intellectual Freedom Committee Chair Trina Magi, 656-5723 or trina.magi@uvm.edu.

Trina Magi’s testimony

Susan Monmaney’s testimony

Karen Lane’s testimony

Sandra Lindberg’s letter

Bill with changes requested by VLA and VSLA

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