ALA Washington Office

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1615 New Hampshire Ave NW
1st Floor
Washington DC 20009-2520
Phone : 202-628-8410
Toll Free Number: 1-800-941-8478
Fax : 202-628-8419

About

The American Library Association's Washington Office was established in 1945 to represent libraries on Capitol Hill, and now consists of the Office of Government Relations (OGR) and the Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP).

District Dispatch

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District Dispatch is the official blog of the American Library Association’s Washington Office. If you want to know what’s going on in Washington from the library perspective, this is the one page you need to bookmark, rss, or subscribe to for email updates.

Complete Copyright

School librarians and educators have specific copyright questions that are often glossed over in larger books on the subject. Now, thanks to best-selling copyright authority Carrie Russell, there’s a resource just for them, offering clear guidance for providing materials to students while carefully observing copyright law. Using whimsical illustrations so well known from Complete Copyright, Russell

  • Offers detailed advice on the distinctive issues of intellectual property in the school setting
  • Explores scenarios often encountered by educators, such as using copyrighted material in school plays, band and orchestra performances, bulletin board displays, and student participation in social media
  • Precisely defines “fair use,” empowering readers by showing exactly what’s possible within the law

Balancing intellectual property law with the rights of school librarians and educators will be a snap with an assist from Complete Copyright for K–12 Librarians and Educators.

 

Legislative Scorecards

domeLegislative Scorecard
The Legislative Scorecard outlines votes and support of legislation that is important to and has an impact on the library community. We hope you will use this scorecard as a tool to gauge your elected official's support of library related legislation.

 

E-Gov Toolkit

Government agencies at the local, state, and federal level are increasingly moving online to provide services directly to the public, resulting in new opportunities as well as challenges for the nation’s libraries.  Recognizing the importance of this development, the American Library Association (ALA) Committee on Legislation (COL)  works with members from all types of libraries to assist them in determining national public policy priorities and in designing local programs and services that reflect current E-Government practices.  COL’s E-Government Subcommittee works with various ALA units to consider federal legislation opportunities and assess the impact of E-Government services on local libraries. The Subcommittee produced this toolkit with tips and guidance to assist librarians in planning, managing, funding and promoting E-Government services. The ALA Washington Office also maintains an E-Government site on ALA Connect that contains background, sources, and information on legislative and other activities of the Subcommittee.

Confronting the Future: Strategic Visions for the 21st Century Public Library

confronting the futureConfronting the Future: Strategic Visions for the 21st Century Public Library (pdf)
American libraries will confront formidable challenges during the next few decades of the 21st century. Both the media and technologies they deploy will continue the digital transformation that has already eroded or swept away in years what had lasted for decades or centuries. Nor is the rate of change slowing. The new media and technologies are enabling a steady flow of genre- and usage-changing innovations, and institutions drawing on these disruptive changes are competing with the library in its most fundamental roles. Libraries also are challenged by the financial constraints facing the agencies that support them, as well as shifts in the nature and needs of library users. If libraries are to evolve rapidly enough to meet these challenges, they will have to make careful and difficult strategic decisions and persevere in implementing those decisions.

Responsibilities

The ALA Washington Office provides executive leadership and administrative support to OGR and OITP, in addition to conducting media outreach and public relations efforts. The Washington Office also builds coalitions and partnerships with Washington-based representatives of other groups with interests similar to the library community.

Staff

Emily Sheketoff - Executive Director
Email: esheketoff@alawash.org

Office of Government Relations (OGR)

Lynne Bradley - Director
Email: lbradley@alawash.org

Don Essex - Legislative Information Specialist
Email: dessex@alawash.org

Jeffrey Kratz - Assistant Director
Email: jkratz@alawash.org

Jessica McGilvary - Assistant Director
Email: jmcgilvray@alawash.org

Ted Wegner - Grassroots Coordinator
Email: twegner@alawash.org

Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP)

Alan S. Inouye - Director
Email:ainouye@alawash.org

Carrie Russell - Director, Program on Public Access to Information
Email: crussell@alawash.org

Marijke Visser - Assistant Director
Email: mvisser@alawash.org

Larra Clark - Director, Program on Networks and Associate Director, Program on America’s Libraries for the 21st Century
Email: lclark@alawash.org

Communications & Media

Jacob Roberts - Communications Specialist
Email: jroberts@alawash.org

Jazzy Wright - Press Officer
Email: jwright@alawash.org
 

Administration

Pat May - Director, Administration
Email: pmay@alawash.org

Rosalind Reynolds - Assistant Director, Administration
Email: rreynolds@alawash.org