Join Us in Philadelphia for the Government Relations Office/Advocacy Meet and Greet

On Tuesday July 26, AALL’s Government Relations Office staff will host an informal “Coffee Talk” at the Annual Meeting in Philadelphia to chat about how AALL and chapter members can effectively advocate for law libraries. Please stop by to share your stories and ideas and discuss how we can work together to make a difference at the federal, state and local levels. The coffee talk will take place from 8:00-8:45 a.m. in PCC-Grand Hall.

To learn more about AALL’s public policy priorities and how you can get involved, we hope you’ll put our policy programs on your schedule. See you in Philly!

White House Chat Today on Improving Federal Websites

Today at 4pm EDT, the White House will hold an online chat to solicit ideas from the public on how to improve federal websites. Speakers include White House Director of Digital Strategy, Macon Phillips; Federal Chief Information Officer, Vivek Kundra (who will soon be leaving the White House to take a joint fellowship at Harvard); and Director of the General Services Administration’s Center for Excellence in Digital Government, Sheila Campbell. This discussion is part of the President’s new Campaign to Cut Waste, which includes the goal of consolidating and eliminating unnecessary federal websites.

We encourage law librarians to participate in this online chat to ask questions and provide your perspectives on how the government can improve federal websites. You can participate by:

• Joining the chat live on WhiteHouse.gov or the White House facebook app
• Asking questions now through a form on WhiteHouse.gov
• Asking questions in advance on the White House facebook wall
• Asking a question on Twitter using the #dotgov hashtag

In addition, the White House has committed to posting a list of all “dot gov” domains and will invite comments on how to ensure the public has access to the government information they need. We will let you know when that list is published and will reach out to you for feedback.