Contents:

U.S. & World News
ALA News
New Orleans Update
Division News
Awards
Seen Online
Actions & Answers
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Datebook
AL Direct FAQ

House renews Patriot Act
With just two more votes than needed to meet a required two-thirds majority, the House reauthorized the USA Patriot Act March 7, approving by a vote of 280–138 amendments passed a week earlier by the Senate to a bill revising the original act....

Senate passes Patriot Act reauthorization
By a March 2 vote of 89–10, the U.S. Senate approved reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act (H.R. 3199) that would make permanent 14 of 16 expiring provisions and extend two others—including Section 215, which facilitates FBI access to business and library records—through 2009....

NARA responds to
document reclassification program
U.S. Archivist Allen Weinstein called on all intelligence and security agencies March 2 to stop removing documents from the open shelves of the National Archives and Records Administration for reclassification purposes and to return as many records as possible that they had pulled as part of a secret program in operation since 1999....

California halves funding for
Librarians’ Internet Index
The California State Library is planning a 50% reduction in funding for the Librarians’ Internet Index (LII) website, beginning July 1....

New York Public Library acquires
Burroughs archive
The New York Public Library has purchased a voluminous archive of manuscript and typescript material assembled by avant-garde American novelist William S. Burroughs (1914–1997), including the above material used for his novel The Soft Machine....

New York City rescinds
proposed midyear budget cut
New York City has rescinded proposed midyear budget cuts that would have forced service reductions at its three public library systems....

University of Iowa assists in
Katrina preservation efforts
The preservation department of the University of Iowa Libraries in Iowa City has begun repair work on documents owned by the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library in Biloxi, Mississippi, that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Project CALM (Conservation Attention for Libraries of Mississippi) also plans to assist the Biloxi Public Library with historical document preservation....

NARA, Google partner
to make historic films
available online
Google and the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration launched a pilot program February 24 to make NARA’s video holdings available free through Google Video and the NARA website....

Three Wishes denied to some Ontario students
School boards in Ontario are reviewing the age appropriateness for 4th–6th graders of Three Wishes by Deborah Ellis, a book that explores the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through interviews with children from both sides. The book has been shortlisted by the Ontario Library Association for the Silver Birch children’s literature award....

Teen admits guilt in car crash
at Columbus library
A 15-year-old pleaded guilty February 27 to stealing a Cadillac that slammed into the Livingston branch of the Columbus (Ohio) Metropolitan Library....

Library’s Ebay name sale fails
Womelsdorf (Pa.) Community Library’s two Ebay auctions offering naming rights to the library failed to attract a buyer, leaving it $270,000 short of the funds needed for the first phase of an expansion project....

Annual Conference
in New Orleans,
June 22–28

Contact Congress! Click on the icon above to go to the ALA Washington Office’s Legislative Action Center.

April 4 is National Library Workers Day, which recognizes the hard work, dedication, and expertise of library support staff and librarians.
Download a free NLWD poster to celebrate (PDF file).

Continuing Education Clearinghouse is a keyword-searchable database of CE opportunities offered by ALA and its units.

It’s Perfectly Normal tops ALA’s 2005 list of most challenged books
One of the most frequently challenged authors of the past decade has two books on ALA’s list of the most frequently challenged books of 2005. Robie H. Harris’s It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health heads up the list, while It’s So Amazing! A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families rounds out the top 10. Both books drew complaints for sexual content....

ALA election polls to open March 15
The polls will open on March 15 for the 2006 ALA election. All current ALA members as of January 31, 2006, are eligible to vote. Members must submit their ballots by April 24 at 11:59 p.m. CST....

ALA President Michael Gorman responds
to House Patriot Act reauthorization vote
The House of Representatives has joined the Senate in passing a bill that reauthorizes the Patriot Act, extending Section 215 of the Act for another four years and adding almost none of the major reforms the library community has striven for....

Gorman responds to Senate
Patriot Act reauthorization vote
H.R. 3199, a “compromise” bill to amend the USA Patriot Act reauthorization legislation, fails to restore essential privacy protections to the millions of people who use America’s libraries....

ALA launches online survey of library networks, cooperatives, and consortia
ALA launched a baseline web-based survey of library networks, cooperatives, and consortia on March 6. The ALA Office for Research and Statistics, in collaboration with ASCLA, is coordinating this project....

Gorman to speak at AAP meeting in New York
“Where Have All the Readers Gone? And How Can We Find New Ones?” will be the topic of a program featuring ALA President Michael Gorman and a stellar group of literacy leaders at the March 14 Association of American Publishers 2006 Annual Meeting at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York....

40th anniversary of FOIA celebrated
during Sunshine Week
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the federal Freedom of Information Act and librarians and others are marking the occasion with Sunshine Week (March 12–18)—a series of events cosponsored by ALA and organizations representing librarians, journalists, and people dedicated to open access and open government....

ALA Annual Conference registration tops 5,000
Preregistration for ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans (June 22–28) has topped 5,000. This count is up from preregistration numbers for the 2004 ALA Annual Conference in Orlando. Nearly 450 attendees have volunteered for community service projects planned for Friday, June 23, and Tuesday, June 27....

Natural and unnatural disaster
in the wake of Hurricane Katrina
David Helvarg takes a firsthand look at a devastated city trying to rebuild. Environmental scars run deep. After the media spotlight has moved on, a toxic legacy continues to haunt New Orleans. Will the state and federal government get serious about protecting the city?...
E/The Environmental Magazine, Jan./Feb.

Report assesses New Orleans
six months after Katrina (PDF file)
A new report from Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch measures how much progress the city has made on issues from housing to jobs, public health, and hurricane preparedness—and finds New Orleans is again being left behind....
Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, Feb. 28

ALA, Highsmith, and Bretford team up for library renovation
ALA announced March 1 that it will team with library vendors Highsmith and Bretford to renovate the interior of the historic Children’s Resource Center branch of the New Orleans Public Library during ALA Annual Conference....

LJ to help restore NOPL’s Alvar branch
Library Journal is taking the lead in tandem with architect Jeffrey Scherer (Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle) and the New Orleans Public Library for the restoration of the Katrina-devastated Alvar Street branch....

“Growing Up around the World” series helps kids find out about other countries
ALSC’s International Relations Committee has created a series of bibliographies that identify fiction and nonfiction that will help young people in the U.S. understand the lives of children living in other countries today....

Journalist Anderson Cooper to headline PLA President’s Program
Author and television news anchor Anderson Cooper will keynote the PLA President’s Program at ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans. The program will be held Monday, June 26, at 5 p.m....

LAMA preconferences on millennials, library staff development, and communications plans
LAMA will offer the following preconferences at ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans: “Millennials: If You Build It, Will They Come?”; “Cultivating the Future: Growing the Staff You Really Need”; and “Strategic Communication: Walk In With a Problem, Walk Out With a Plan,” all June 23, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m....

Registration open for RBMS preconference
Registration is now open for “Libraries, Archives, and Museums in the 21st Century: Intersecting Missions, Converging Futures?” a preconference sponsored by ACRL’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Section. The meeting will be held June 20–23 in Austin, Texas, preceding ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans....

Applications available for new YA Galley and Teens’ Top Ten groups
YALSA is accepting applications from young adult book discussion groups that wish to be considered for YALSA’s YA Galley/Teens’ Top Ten project....

Betty J. Turock receives Lippincott Award
Betty J. Turock is the 2006 recipient of the ALA Joseph W. Lippincott Award, which recognizes an individual for distinguished service to the profession of librarianship....

2006 Information Today
Library of the Future Award
Pace University Library has been named the recipient of the 2006 Information Today Library of the Future Award for its project “Media Patch.” The award of $1,500 and a citation honors an individual library, library consortium, group of librarians, or support organization for innovative planning, applications, or development of patron training programs about information technology in a library setting....

Joe Janes wins RUSA’s
Isadore Gilbert Mudge–
R.R. Bowker Award
Joseph W. Janes, associate dean in the Information School of the University of Washington in Seattle (and American Libraries’ Internet Librarian columnist), is the recipient of RUSA’s 2006 Isadore Gilbert Mudge–R.R. Bowker Award....

Reference Service
Press awardees
(Left to right) Paula S. Cenzer, Paul A. Kirk, and Denise Beaubian Bennett are the 2006 corecipients of RUSA’s Reference Service Press Award for the RUSQ article, “A Class Assignment Requiring Chat Based Reference.”...

Winner of Thomson Gale Award for Excellence in Reference and Adult Services
The Orange County Library System in Orlando, Florida, is the 2006 recipient of RUSA’s Thomson Gale Award for Excellence in Reference and Adult Services....

John Sessions Memorial Award
recipient named
Joan Cassidy, librarian for New York State United Teachers in Latham, N.Y., is the 2006 recipient of RUSA’s John Sessions Memorial Award....

American Book Prices Current
Exhibition Award winners
ACRL’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Section has selected five winners of the 2006 Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab American Book Prices Current Exhibition Awards....

Tom Sloan wins ASCLA
Professional Achivement Award
Tom W. Sloan, executive director of the Southeast Florida Information Network (SEFLIN), is the 2006 recipient of ASCLA’s Professional Achievement Award....

Rhea Rubin is ASCLA Service awardee
Rhea Rubin, Rubin Consulting, is the 2006 recipient of ASCLA’s Service Award....

Three recipients of ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute scholarships
Carlene Engstrom, director of the D’Arcy McNickle Library, Salish Kootenai College; Gladys Smiley Bell, director of the William R. and Norma B. Harvey Library, Hampton University; and Marilyn Russell, Institute of American Indian Arts, have been selected as recipients of the 2006 ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute scholarships....

BRASS Thomson Financial Student Travel Award recipient
Beth Dunning, a masters of library and information science candidate at McGill University, Montreal, is the recipient of the RUSA 2006 Business Reference and Services Section’s Thomson Financial Student Travel Award....

Illinois grants $14.2 million to public libraries
Illinois Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White has awarded public libraries in the state almost $14.2 million in fiscal year 2006 per capita and equalization aid grants....
Illinois Secretary of State, Feb. 22

School library information wasted,
parents say
Terra Linda High School’s newly renovated library is going to waste, some Terra Linda High School parents say, because San Rafael administrators have yet to hire a librarian with proper credentials....
Marin Independent Journal (Novato, Calif.), Mar. 6

The missing library of Iona
There are those who say that the island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland once housed an incredible library and held the most extraordinary books known to man. The impact that finding this library would have on our interpretation of history would be explosive. Unfortunately for such a potentially great story, there isn’t a lot of historical proof....
The Scotsman, Mar. 2

IFLA Public Libraries Committee
meets in Norman, Oklahoma
Twelve members of the Public Libraries Committee of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions visited Norman March 1–5 to discuss the development and promotion of public libraries worldwide....
Norman (Okla.) Transcript, Mar. 1

Elmhurst College’s Info Literacy classroom
keeps student ideas bubbling
The “bubble” is Elmhurst College students’ nickname for a glass-encased classroom where librarians and professors show students how to find and critique the many resources the Web offers on specific topics. In fact, it attracts students eager to find new sources of information other than through a Google search....
Chicago Sun-Times, Mar. 1

Rick Ashton remade the Denver library system
When Rick Ashton retired in February as Denver city librarian, he left behind one of America’s premier and most popular big-city public libraries, ranked No. 1 in the nation three years in a row through 2003....
Denver Rocky Mountain News, Feb. 27

NYPL’s Science, Industry, and Business Library features “audio spotlight” (Registration required)
As Jim Mason stood in front of the library’s “business information wall,” a display featuring 17 flat screens that seem to float against a backdrop of iridescent blue that constantly changes colors, he listened to a reporter from CNN deliver a commentary about management guru Jack Welch. What he was doing was partaking of a new technology, called an audio spotlight, that is making inroads at a growing number of the city’s libraries, stores, and art galleries....
New York Times, Mar. 5

Survey supports European Digital Library
The European Commission has published the results of a survey on the European Digital Library, showing widespread support from libraries, archives and museums, publishers, and universities. The 225 responses did, however, reveal differences of opinion on copyright issues, in particular between cultural institutions and rights holders. For more information on the EDL, see the Commission’s FAQ....
European Commission, Mar. 2

Wikipedia publishes one-millionth article
The Wikimedia Foundation announced the creation of the 1,000,000th article in the English-language edition of Wikipedia. The article is about the Jordanhill railway station in Scotland, and it was started by Wikipedia contributor Ewan Macdonald....
Wikimedia Foundation, Mar. 1

Wikipedia and Britannica: The kid’s all right (and so’s the old man)
Can “the public” concoct and maintain a free, authoritative encyclopedia that’s unbiased, complete, and reliable? If not, then Britannica may rest on its laurels and its good name, although with the Web so free and accessible, it’s been taking licks for some years. But if the answer is “Yes,” what happens to that shining beacon of scholarship, its publishers, and its academic contributors?
Searcher: The Magazine for Database Professionals, vol. 14, no. 3 (Mar.)

Progressive Librarians Guild calls for
Miriam Braverman Award submissions
This award honors papers concerned with an aspect of the social responsibilities of librarians, libraries, or librarianship. Entrants must be LIS students attending a graduate-level program in the U.S. or Canada. Deadline is March 24....
Progressive Librarians Guild

Fine Books & Collections magazine
lists top-selling auction items of 2005
Every year Fine Books & Collections tracks down the top auction lots of interest to book collectors. The top seller was an Audubon Elephant Folio that went for $5.6 million at Christie’s December 15. The magazine lists the stories behind the sales for each of the 237 auction items....
Fine Books & Collections, Mar./Apr.

Computing with accents, symbols,
and foreign scripts
Penn State University’s Teaching and Learning with Technology unit maintains a website that explains the basics of using Unicode for foreign languages and offers advice on the software needed for foreign-language support....
Penn State University

RLG’s new ArchiveGrid available free
through May 31
ArchiveGrid is a new RLG website that allows researchers to search thousands of archives online. It will be available to both individuals and institutions free of charge through May 31....
RLG, Mar. 3

EBSCO offers free use of library
and information science database
EBSCO Publishing is providing its Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA) database as a free resource to anyone interested in libraries and information management. This bibliographic database covers such subjects as librarianship, classification, cataloging, bibliometrics, online information retrieval, and information management....
EBSCO Publishing

Online resources for Earth Day
Thomson Gale is offering to educators, librarians, and students free experiments, information on the environment, related web links, and teaching tools appropriate for Earth Day, April 22. The site is available throughout the year....
Thomson Gale

Three gathering storms that could cause collateral damage for open access
The webcasting treaty, the opposition to network neutrality, and the end of free e-mail are potentially threatening for open access to scientific and scholarly research literature, according to Earlham College’s Peter Suber....
SPARC Open Access Newsletter, Mar. 2

World Libraries now on the Web
Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science has placed online current and selected back issues of World Libraries, a journal dedicated to librarians and libraries in regions without associations or agencies. The most recent issue contains articles on libraries in Mauritania, Uganda, Sierra Leone, and China....
Dominican University GSLIS, Mar. 3