14.0647 librarians and UCITA

From: by way of Willard McCarty (willard@lists.village.Virginia.EDU)
Date: Wed Feb 07 2001 - 02:41:13 EST

  • Next message: by way of Willard McCarty: "14.0648 black-box vs glass-box methods"

                   Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 14, No. 647.
           Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   <http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
                  <http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>

             Date: Wed, 07 Feb 2001 07:39:56 +0000
             From: NINCH-ANNOUNCE <david@ninch.org>
             Subject: UCITA Update (The Uniform Computer Information
    Transactions Act)

    NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
    News on Networking Cultural Heritage Resources
    from across the Community
    February 6, 2001

                             LIBRARIANS ORGANIZE AROUND UCITA
                   (The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act)
                            <http://www.ala.org/washoff/ucita>http://www.ala.org/washoff/ucita

    >Date: Fri, 02 Feb 2001 16:38:20 -0500
    >From: "ALAWASH E-MAIL" <ALAWASH@alawash.org>
    >To: ALA Washington Office Newsline <ala-wo@ala1.ala.org>
    >>Up! (ALAWON v.10 n. 5)
    >
    ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
    Volume 10, Number 5
    February 2, 2001

    In this issue:

    [1] UCITA is heating up around the country - and librarians are making a
    difference!

    As the new legislative year unfolds, librarians in Arizona, Florida,
    Georgia, Maine, Rhode Island, and Texas are sitting down with their
    legislators and forming statewide coalitions to discuss the Uniform
    Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA). UCITA has been formally
    introduced in Arizona and is on the legislative agenda in Georgia, Maine
    and Texas. "Bomb shelter" legislation in Iowa will expire this year and
    some action is expected there. Signs of legislative interest in UCITA
    abound in other states, but grassroots action is making a difference! -
    recently, UCITA was facing impending introduction in Rhode Island but was
    withdrawn as a result of widespread opposition!

    The ALA UCITA Web site
    (<http://www.ala.org/washoff/ucita>http://www.ala.org/washoff/ucita)
    reports on the status of UCITA in the states and provides useful
    information for anyone wanting to get more involved in the fight against
    UCITA. We are happy to report that in Delaware, Hawaii, and Rhode Island,
    librarians have played a key role in discussions about UCITA and have been
    instrumental in pushing the legislation back.

    [2] ALA and the other major library associations launch AFFECT, a
    nationwide coalition to oppose UCITA

    On January 31, a nationwide coalition of libraries, industry leaders,
    computer professionals, and consumer organizations announced the formation
    of AFFECT (Americans for Fair Electronic Commerce Transactions), a
    coalition dedicated to educating the public and policymakers about the
    dangers of UCITA (the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act). The
    American Library Association is a founding member of the coalition,
    formerly know as 4CITE.

    AFFECT is working in states where UCITA is being proposed as a
    statecontract law to regulate and standardize computer information
    transactions. The coalition has been a leading voice in alerting the
    business communities, library and educational institutions, and consumers
    to the dangerous implications of UCITA to consumer protections, First
    Amendment rights and copyright privileges. If passed, licensing terms
    permissible under UCITA would seriously impact a library's ability to
    conduct inter-library loan, distance learning, archiving, and preservation.

    For more information on AFFECT, visit the ALA UCITA Web pages
    (<http://www.ala.org/washoff/ucita>http://www.ala.org/washoff/ucita) or
    contact Carol Ashworth, UCITA Grassroots Coordinator at 800-941-8478.

    [3] UCITA Training Sessions have Reached Thousands!

    In response to the increasing need for education about UCITA, a number
    of training opportunities have been offered to librarians through the
    ALA Washington Office. The Washington Office UCITA team hosted two UCITA
    workshops at ALA's Midwinter Conference for those wanting basic
    information on the law and for those already involved in advocacy efforts
    in their states.

    The ALA Washington Office is also sponsoring a UCITA on-line tutorial.
    The tutorial, which began in November, has 3,000 subscribers. The
    UCITA Teleconference in December, 2000 was downlinked to 226 sites in 42
    states. Plans are underway for more UCITA workshops at Annual. Stay tuned
    to ALAWON for news about UCITA workshops to be offered at Annual
    Conference, and contact Carol Ashworth, UCITA Grassroots Coordinator, for
    information.

    ******
    ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the
    American Library Association Washington Office. All materials
    subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be
    reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with
    appropriate credits.

    To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo
    [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to
    <http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon>http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To
    unsubscribe to ALAWON, send
    the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON
    archives at
    <http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon>http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon.

    ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403,
    Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478
    toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web
    site: <http://www.ala.org/washoff>http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive
    Director: Emily
    Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley,
    Director; Mary Costabile, Peter Kaplan, Miriam Nisbet and
    Claudette Tennant. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick
    Weingarten, Director; Jennifer Hendrix, Carrie Russell and Saundra
    Shirley. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.h^
    ==============================================================
    NINCH-Announce is an announcement listserv, produced by the National
    Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH). The subjects of
    announcements are not the projects of NINCH, unless otherwise noted;
    neither does NINCH necessarily endorse the subjects of announcements. We
    attempt to credit all re-distributed news and announcements and appreciate
    reciprocal credit.

    For questions, comments or requests to un-subscribe, contact the editor:
    <<mailto:david@ninch.org>mailto:david@ninch.org>
    ==============================================================
    See and search back issues of NINCH-ANNOUNCE at
    <<http://www.cni.org/Hforums/ninch-announce/>http://www.cni.org/Hforums/ninch-announce/>.

    ==============================================================



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Feb 07 2001 - 02:47:41 EST