Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Federal Issues Affecting Libraries

We received the following email from Geri Hutchins, Federal Programs Coordinator at the New Mexico State Library:

"Federal Issues Affecting Libraries"
"The provisions of the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) which got stuck in committee during the last Congress is part of a new bill introduced into the Senate. S.49 Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act. Look at Sections 203 and 204.
Source: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:S.49:

"States are now introducing similar own bills into state legislatures. While the Democrat-controlled Illinois General Assembly may not be too receptive to new social networking legislation proposed by freshman Republican Senator Matt Murphy, the bill may be the first in several state attempts to achieve the goals of the federal Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), which passed the House of Representatives but failed in the Senate. The Social Networking Website Prohibition Act would require public libraries to prohibit access to social networking web sites, including MySpace and many less controversial, on all publicly accessible computers, including those used by adults, and also would prohibit access by students in schools.
Source: Library Journal, 2/20/2007 http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6417241.html

"E-Government and Libraries: Could New Law Be on the Horizon? An embryonic initiative may produce federal funds to help public libraries provide access to e-government. The library role in e-government was highlighted in a breakthrough report last year by researchers at Florida State University's Information Institute. A follow-up discussion draft report, E-Government and Public Libraries: Current Status, Meeting Report, Findings, and Next Steps, based in part on a December 2006 meeting involving a variety of library stakeholders, offers ideas and recommendations, notably a preliminary version of a new federal bill that would provide formal and fiscal support for public libraries' roles in disaster assistance and helping with online forms like taxes and Medicare. The report is available at http://www.ii.fsu.edu/announcements/e-gov2006/egov_report.pdf
Source: Library Journal 2/20/2007 http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6417238.html"

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