PLEASE NOTE NEW SPEAKER: Senator Richard Durbin to open Washington Update session at 2015 ALA Midwinter Meeting

For Immediate Release
Thu, 01/29/2015

Contact:

Jazzy Wright

Press Officer

Washington Office

202-628-8410

CHICAGO—Assistant Senate Minority Leader Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) will open a discussion on the implications of the November mid-term Congressional elections for America, libraries and library advocacy at the 2015 American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting in Chicago. The session, titled “Whither Washington?: The 2014 Election and What it Means for Libraries,” takes place from 8:30–10:00a.m. on Saturday, January 31, 2015.

Sen. Durbin will explore the implications of the recent national election and the ways that librarians can help shape the coming debates on privacy, library funding and other key library issues. With critical bills to reauthorize federal library funding, efforts to reform key privacy and surveillance statutes, and changes to copyright law all likely to be on legislators’ plates, libraries will engage heavily with the newly-elected 114th Congress.

Additionally, Roger Goldblatt, associate bureau chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau, will speak at the session and focus on the Commission’s new consumer education initiative and its digital literacy agenda.

WHEN: Saturday, January 31, 2015, from 8:30–10:00 a.m.

WHO:

Sen. Richard Durbin, assistant Senate Minority Leader, Illinois Senator
J. Mark Hansen, professor, Department of Political Science, University of Chicago
Thomas Susman, director, Government Affairs, American Bar Association
Roger Goldblatt, associate bureau chief, Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau, Federal Communications Commission

WHERE: McCormick Convention Center, Chicago, Room W183A

REGISTER: To attend the conference session as a reporter, email Jazzy Wright, press officer of the American Library Association’s Washington Office, at jwright@alawash.org.

About the American Library Association

The American Library Association is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with approximately 55,000 members in academic, public, school, government, and special libraries. The mission of the American Library Association is to provide leadership for the development, promotion and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.