Librarians have many questions about the new Confidentiality Statute that becomes effective July 1, 2008.

State Librarian, Sybil McShane asked the Attorney General to review the law in reference to existing statutes and in consideration of some of the questions we have. Once the AG’s office has reported back we will provide more specific guidelines for implementation to all VLA members, VT Libraries and Trustees. VLAIFC will offer policy writing workshops throughout the state for the above mentioned groups in the near future.

An updated sample public library privacy and confidentiality policy is available on the website as part of the Intellectual Freedom Toolkit. It can also be found at www.sherburnelibrary.org.

Keep watching the VLA website for more information.

Gail Weymouth

VLAIFC chair

802 422 9765

Posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 6:14 pm in the Government Relations, Intellectual Freedom, Trustees, Uncategorized, news, public libraries category.

On Tuesday, May 13, Governor Douglas signed into law S. 220, “An Act Relating to the Confidentiality of Library Patron Records.” The new law will take effect July 1, 2008.

To see text of the bill, click: S. 220
To see how your representatives voted, click : House Journal, April 28 (Scroll more than half-way through the document; or search “library” using the “Find on page” feature of your browser.)

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Posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 9:55 am in the Blogroll, Government Relations, Intellectual Freedom category.

For an update on the work of the committee this past year (2007-2008), see the committee’s report: vla-grc-report-may-2008.pdf

Posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 11:01 am in the Government Relations, news category.

Tuesday morning, April 29, the House voted to concur with the Senate-passed version of the library patron confidentiality bill (S. 220). Now it goes to the governor for his signature before becoming law. Please call or write your representatives and thank them for their support on this measure. Also, a big thanks to John Shullenberger for all his efforts on our behalf.

Posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 3:49 pm in the Blogroll, Government Relations, Intellectual Freedom category.

. . .and urge them to vote in favor of S. 220, the bill to protect the confidentiality of library patrons records.  Please ask them to support the bill as voted by the House Judiciary Committee.  You might indicate that this bill will codify our professional code of ethics and make it clear to all Vermonters that their library records are confidential, and is much like laws in more than 40 other states.

To find out who your representatives are, go to:  http://www.leg.state.vt.us/legdir/legdir2.htm

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Posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 8:47 am in the Blogroll, Government Relations, Intellectual Freedom category.

In early March, several librarians made a presentation to the VT Telecom Authority about the expanding role of libraries in providing public access to technology and high-speed Internet services. The mission of VTA is, in part, to ensure “that all residences and business in all regions of the state have access to affordable broadband services not later than the end of the year 2010.”

The committee was thrilled to hear the presentation, and we hope it is a start of a conversation about our need for additional resources to meet increasing demands for services. A handout prepared for the meeting can be found here, Connecting the Unconnected.

If you would like more information, contact Lisa von Kann, Library Director, St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 802-748-8291, 1vkann[at]stjathenaeum.org.

Posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 1:17 pm in the Government Relations, Uncategorized category.