May Issue of Washington E-Bulletin

The May issue of the Washington E-Bulletin is now available on AALLNET. 

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

• New Government Relations Office Staff Member, Elizabeth Holland
• Action Alert: Help Save the American Community Survey
• Your Guide to AALL’s Public Policy Programs in Boston

STAY INFORMED/GET INVOLVED: News and Action Alerts

• House Appropriations Committee Approves Fiscal Year 2013 Legislative Branch Bill
• Judge Evans Issues Long-Awaited Ruling in Georgia State E-Reserves Case
• New One-Pager on Presidential Records

OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY: Chapter News                                

• Supreme Court of Ohio Plans to Discontinue Bound Volumes of Appellate Court Decisions
• Utah Legislature Approves Funding for Statewide Self-Help Center
• Diane Boyer-Vine is the 2012 Recipient of the NOCALL Legislative Advocacy Award
• Connecticut General Assembly Passes Online Regulations Bill

FREE TIME WELL SPENT: Further Reading and Resources for the Info Policy Junkie

• Scout, a New Legislative and Regulatory Research Tool
• Chesapeake Group Finds Thirty-eight Percent of Online Documents Disappear in Five Years
• Report Finds Agencies Still Struggling with Records Management

Volunteer Your Library for the PACER: Access and Education Program

AALL is working in collaboration with the Government Printing Office’s Federal Depository Library Program and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts to promote a collaborative program to expand access to and use of PACER. The Law Library for San Bernardino County and the Law Library of Congress participated in the initial testing of the program, which requires librarians to develop training materials for individual or group instruction. The program is open to federal depository libraries, public libraries, and public law libraries. Participating libraries are exempt from the first $50 of quarterly usage charges.

At the Depository Library Council Meeting and Conference in Arlington, Virginia this month, George Carter, Head of Reference & Public Services at  Law Library for San Bernardino County, shared the training materials and FAQs he developed for library staff. Carter used the new PACER training site, which features cases filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York in 2007, to help his staff learn how to effectively search PACER.

To volunteer your law library for this new program, or to find out more information, please see the PACER: Access and Education Program page on the FDLP Desktop.

April Issue of the Washington E-Bulletin

The April issue of the Washington E-Bulletin is now available on AALLNET. We hope you enjoy this month’s issue, which includes a special message from new Director of Government Relations Julie M. Strandlie.

Here is the Table of Contents:

UPDATES FROM THE HILL AND THE GOVERNMENT RELATIONS OFFICE

• Special Message from Julie M. Strandlie, Director Government Relations
• Please Send Us Your Stories on the Congressional Record
• After Three Years, EPA Announces Release Date for Library Network Strategic Plan
• AALL Urges Public Access to Congressional Research Service Reports
• AALL, MLA and SLA Ask Appropriations Leaders to Save the Statistical Abstract
• Celebrate Law Day — May 1, 2011

OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY: CHAPTER NEWS

• National Inventory Working Group Update

FREE TIME WELL SPENT: Further Reading for the Information Policy Junkie

• Law Library of Congress Releases Strategic Plan
• Delays Continue with Publication of Foreign Relations of the United States Series
• Chesapeake Group Finds Slow Growth in Link Rot after Three Years of Steady Increases

Government Printing Office Celebrates 150th Anniversary

Today marks the 150th year since the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) first opened its doors, the same day Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office to become the 16th President of the United States.

In honor of this special anniversary, Public Printer Bill Boarman offered these words:

GPO is an agency that performs one of the most vital services for our country: keeping the public informed on the workings of our Government. The agency’s record of technological change in the service of our country is second to none in the Federal Government, and a great testament to the skill and dedication of our employees.

GPO’s 150th year has already proved a busy and important one. In addition to welcoming new Public Printer Boarman and new Superintendent of Documents Mary Alice Baish, the agency announced on February 16 that it had received approval from the Joint Committee on Printing to work with the Library of Congress to digitize key historic documents, a partnership that AALL had strongly supported.

Congratulations to GPO on this important milestone!

February Issue of the Washington E-Bulletin

The February issue of the Washington E-Bulletin is now available on AALLNET. Here is the Table of Contents:

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

• Join Us in Philadelphia for the 2011 Advocacy Training

UPDATES FROM THE HILL AND THE GOVERNMENT RELATIONS OFFICE

• Congress Passes Three-Month Extension of Expiring PATRIOT Act Provisions
• House Passes Continuing Resolution with an Amendment Preventing Implementation of Net Neutrality Rules
• Government Printing Office, Library of Congress to Digitize Historic Documents
• February State Working Group Spotlight: FL Holds Successful “Work Day”

OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY: CHAPTER NEWS

• Texas Chapters Send Letter to Oppose Closure of State Law Library
• ORALL Tracks Legislation Impacting County Law Libraries
• NOCALL to Hold Annual Sunshine Week Event in Sacramento

FREE TIME WELL SPENT: Further Reading for the Information Policy Junkie

• Government Accountability Office Releases New Report on Electronic Records Archive
• Congressional Research Service Publishes Report on Open Government Initiative
• National Archives to Release Pentagon Papers
• Department of Energy Launches ScienceCinema Search Engine for Videos

Office of the Federal Register Launches New Blog

The Office of the Federal Register (OFR) has started a new blog “to give you an insider’s view of FederalRegister.gov (FR 2.0) and open up lines of discussion about the Federal Register system in general.” The OFR has invited readers to offer feedback, ask questions, and offer suggestions for new features you’d like to see.

The new Federal Register site launched in beta in July 2010 in honor of the 75th anniversary of the Federal Register Act. On July 8, the AALL Executive Board endorsed a “Resolution Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Federal Register Act” to recognize this milestone.

 

December Issue of the Washington E-Bulletin

The December issue of the Washington E-Bulletin is now available on AALLNET. Here is the Table of Contents:

UPDATES FROM THE HILL AND THE GOVERNMENT RELATIONS OFFICE

• Happy New Year!
• Congress Passes Continuing Resolution to Fund Government through March 2011
• Whistleblower Protection Bill Dies in Senate
• Federal Communications Commission Votes to Approve Network Neutrality Rules
• President Obama Appoints William J. Boarman as Public Printer
• Chief Technology Officer Mike Wash Announces Departure from GPO
• Government Printing Office to Sunset GPO Access in Mid-2011
• President Obama Announces Nominations to Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board
• Sen. Coburn Attacks Print Congressional Record as “Wasteful”

FREE TIME WELL SPENT: Further Reading for the Information Policy Junkie

• Federal Trade Commission Releases Report on Consumer Privacy
• Law Library of Congress Hosts Human Rights Day Event on Cultural Property Rights of Indigenous People
• Law Library of Congress Adds New Features to THOMAS
• Maryland People’s Law Library Launches New Web Site

 

 

 

Senate Confirms Ferriero as Archivist of the United States

Today the Senate voted to confirm David Ferriero as the 10th Archivist of the United States. As we reported in the October edition of the Washington E-Bulletin, Ferriero is a librarian and a highly qualified candidate to assume leadership of the National Archives and Records Administration. AALL is pleased with his confirmation by the Senate.

[Posted by Emily Feldman]