American Library Association

The US Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Fourth Amendment when they ruled in David Leon Riley v. State of California and United States v. Brima Wurie that officers of the law must obtain warrants before they can search the cellphones of arrestees.

In response to the victorious court decision, Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Washington Office, released the following statement:

“In the past few years, our cell phones have become mobile libraries capable of storing massive amounts of personal and private data about our lives. The Constitution does not give law enforcement the right to conduct unlawful searches of our cell phones -- many of which contain immensely personal information, such as our private conversations, photos, videos, banking information and website history.

"In the same manner that we would not allow police officers to search unlawfully through our home library bookshelves without a warrant, we cannot allow government officials to search freely through our cell phones.

"We applaud the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold basic privacy principles granted by the Fourth Amendment. As we work to advocate for increased privacy protections from our government, we are encouraged that the US Supreme Court would rule in favor of protecting the nation’s constitutional checks and balances.”

The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) E-rate modernization proceeding is one of the most consequential public policy discussions in a decade. The success of this proceeding is essential to enable libraries and schools to meet the needs of America’s communities in the digital age. The gigabit broadband vision outlined by the President -- and which is a fundamental aspect of the Commission’s E-rate reforms -- is critical to support the indispensable role libraries play in our communities.

The American Library Association (ALA) recognizes the difficult task in front of the Commission to move the E-rate program from basic connections to high-capacity broadband and is supportive of its effort to do so. ALA and libraries also have fully engaged in this challenge with our school colleagues and hundreds of other stakeholders to answer an urgent call to meet 21st century learning demands. And there is broad consensus that we cannot meet these demands with funding that has hardly budged in 18 years. We must establish a sustainable foundation for the future.

Seventy-five years ago at the 1939 American Library Association’s Annual Conference in San Francisco, the ALA Council adopted the Library’s Bill of Rights, echoing the spirit of a document from the Des Moines Public Library in 1938.

This document, refreshed in 1944, 1948, 1961, 1967, 1980 and 1996, remains the library profession’s major policy document on intellectual freedom.

All those revisions prove that the Library Bill of Rights is truly a “living document.” In fact, LBOR now has 21 Interpretations. ALA has recognized that it is a document of ideals, but also of practice -- which is why interpretations have been crafted to deal with such specific issues as privacy, children and services to the disabled.

How does the recent net neutrality court case impact the public’s right to know? Learn how the Federal Communications Commission is addressing network neutrality issues at the 2014 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Las Vegas.

Gigi Sohn, special counsel for the Federal Communications Commission's External Affairs will discuss net neutrality during the conference session “Information Manipulation Part I: Net Neutrality,” which takes place June 28, 2014, in the Las Vegas Convention Center.

A panel of respondents will join Sohn in exploring the America Library Association’s actions to support an open Internet. Panelists include Vivian R. Wynn, chair of the American Library Association's Committee on Legislation and president of Wynn Library Consulting; Aaron Dobbs, Shippensburg University Systems and Electronic Resources Librarian; and Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the American Library Association’s Washington Office.

Hundreds of library supporters from across the country will meet with their members of Congress from May 5–6, 2014, to advocate for library funding during the American Library Association’s 40th annual National Library Legislative Day.

Senator Angus King (I-ME) will jumpstart the event by addressing library advocates at the opening briefing, which takes place from 9:00 a.m.–4:15 p.m. on May 5, 2014, at the Liaison Capitol Hill Hotel in Washington, DC. Additional speakers include Maine State Librarian Linda Lord; Gabriel Rottman, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union; Shawn Daugherty, assistant director of SPARC; and Peter Jaszi, professor of law at the American University Washington College of Law.

National Library Legislative Day advocates will discuss the need to fund the Library Services and Technology Act, support legislation that gives people who use libraries access to federally-funded scholarly journal articles and continue funding that provides school libraries with needed funds for materials. Additionally, advocates will ask legislators to restore reasonable expectations of privacy by supporting the USA FREEDOM Act.

“Libraries depend on the federal funding they receive to help patrons learn new skills, complete homework assignments, find job opportunities and explore reading materials that they otherwise could not afford,” said Barbara Stripling, president of the American Library Association.

Miguel Figueroa, former director of the ALA Office for Diversity and Office for Literacy and Outreach Services, has been named to head the new American Library Association Center for the Future of Libraries.

As the first director of the new Center, Figueroa will be responsible for identifying and disseminating information on long term societal, technological, educational, demographic trends that may affect libraries and their future The director will also promote and support the incorporation of “futures thinking” into library policy and planning in libraries of all types.

Figueroa has served as Director of Member Programs for the American Theological Library Association in Chicago since June 2012, where he has coordinated member recruitment, outreach and development, the cultivation of relationships with external partners, communications and publications and service to volunteer committees and interest groups. His work there has included creating a joint leadership meeting for committees and member leaders, the introduction of outcome based evaluation, and serving on the ATLA executive leadership team.

The American Library Association announced the 10 public libraries chosen to undergo an intensive 18-month, team-based community engagement training program as part of the Libraries Transforming Communities (LTC) Public Innovators Cohort.

The cohort, selected through a highly competitive peer-reviewed application process, is part of ALA’s LTC initiative, a national plan to help librarians strengthen their role as core community leaders and change-agents. The selected libraries represent the range of American communities in terms of size, location, ethnic and racial diversity and socioeconomic status, and they all face challenges including illiteracy; unemployment; a “digital divide” in their community’s access to information technology; an influx of new and immigrant populations; and disparate access to services.

Through in-person training, webinars and coaching -- valued at $50,000 -- teams from each library will learn new community engagement techniques and apply them within their communities. Each library also receives an $8,000 cash grant to help cover the cost of their new community-engagement work. In partnership with The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, Libraries Transforming Communities addresses a critical need within the library field by developing and distributing new tools, resources and support for librarians to engage with their communities in new ways. The following libraries make up the LTC Public Innovators Cohort are:

• Red Hook (NY) Public Library (pop: 1,900)
• Columbus (WI) Public Library (pop: 5,000)
• Knox County (IN) Library (pop: 33,900)
• Suffolk (VA) Public Library System (pop: 85,000)
• Hartford (CT) Public Library (pop: 125,000)
• Springfield (MA) City Library (pop: 153,000)
• Tuscaloosa (AL) Public Library (pop: 195,000)
• Spokane County (WA) Library District (pop: 255,000)
• San Jose (CA) Public Library (pop: 980,000)
• Los Angeles Public Library (pop: 3.8 million)

Libraries continue to transform to meet society’s changing needs, and more than 90 percent of the respondents in an independent national survey said that libraries are important to the community.

But school libraries continue to feel the combined pressures of recession-driven financial tightening and federal neglect. School libraries in some districts and some states still face elimination or de-professionalization of their programs.

Libraries witnessed a number of developments in 2013 in the area of e-books and copyright issues. E-books continue to make gains among reading Americans, according to another Pew survey, but few readers have completely replaced print with digital editions -- and the advent of digital reading brings with it a continuing tangle of legal issues involving
publishers and libraries.

“Print remains the foundation of Americans’ reading habits,” the Pew researchers found. Most people who read e-books also read print books, they reported, and only 4 percent of readers described themselves as “e-book only.” After years of conflict between publishers and libraries, 2013 ended with all the major US publishers participating in the library e-book market, though important challenges, such as availability and prices, remain.

Other key trends detailed in the 2014 State of America’s Libraries Report:

• More and more public libraries are turning to the use of web technologies, including websites, online account access, blogs, rich site summary (RSS) feeds, catalog search boxes, sharing interfaces, Facebook and Twitter.
• The economic downturn is continuing at most institutions of higher learning, and academic librarians are working to transform programs and services by re-purposing space and redeploying staff in the digital resources environment.
• President Barack Obama signed a $1.1 trillion spending bill in January that will fund the federal government through September and partially restore funding to the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) -- the primary source of annual funding for libraries in the federal budget -- that were dramatically cut in the 2013 fiscal year under sequestration.

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) announces the release of a new white paper, “The Importance of Diversity in Library Programs and Material Collections for Children” written for ALSC by Jamie Campbell Naidoo, PhD, and adopted by the ALSC Board of Directors on April 5,2014.

The white paper explores the critical role libraries play in helping children make cross-cultural connections and develop skills necessary to function in a culturally pluralistic society. The paper calls for libraries to include diversity in programming and materials for children as an important piece in meeting the informational and recreational needs of their community.

“It is more important than ever that our public libraries ensure access to high quality children’s materials and programming that reflects our plurality,” said Starr LaTronica, ALSC president. “This paper examines the need for children to grow up reading books that not only reflect a mirror to their own culture but also allow for a window into the cultures of others.”

At the end of the paper the reader will find a comprehensive list of diversity resources, online collection development resources, awards for culturally diverse children’s literature, multicultural children’s program resources and more.

In a new budget released from House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) denounces the critical role that the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) plays in supporting civic engagement, literacy and lifelong learning in more than 123,000 libraries nationwide.

Chairman Ryan recommends that the federal government not have a role in libraries and that Congress shift the federal agency’s responsibilities to the private sector in his 2015 fiscal year budget resolution.

American Library Association (ALA) President Barbara Stripling released the following statement in response to Rep Ryan’s budget: “We were shocked to learn that Representative Paul Ryan recommended eliminating the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the agency that administers the primary source of federal funding to libraries. Libraries depend on the support they receive from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to help patrons learn new skills, find job opportunities and access reading materials that they otherwise could not afford.

More than $180 million has been allocated to the Institute for Museum and Library Services through September 2014 to help libraries make information available to the citizens they serve. In Chairman Ryan’s own state of Wisconsin, more than 65 percent of libraries report that they are the only free access to Internet in their communities. Just blocks from Chairman Ryan’s Wisconsin office, more than 716,000 visitors used the Hedberg Public Library in Janesville, Wisconsin to access library computers and research databases, check out books and receive job training in 2013.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services administered more than $2.8 million in the 2014 fiscal year to help Wisconsin libraries prepare young students for school and provide lifelong learning opportunities for all Wisconsin residents. For example, the state reported that more than 215,000 children participated in summer reading programs at Wisconsin public libraries.