Congratulations To:

The Research and Publications Committee is pleased to announce the funding of an RPC grant to Kathleen Kern (Reference) and Esther Gillie (Music) for a project entitled: "Real policies for virtual reference: an examination of existing policies across multiple library types."

Congratulations, Kathleen and Esther!

The faculty are invited to visit the RPC website for information about apply for RPC grants and for a listing of other recent recipients.

Communications from Library Committees:

Minutes:

Administrative Council

Cataloging Policy Committee

Collection Development Committee
Executive Committee
Integrated System Coordinating Committee
Library Faculty Meetings

Sine nomine, a publication of the Office of Services
User Ed Committee

Strategic Planning Committee

Minutes, 9/5/2003

This was the inaugural meeting of the 2003/2004 Strategic Planning Committee (SPC), which has been charged with developing a new five year Strategic Plan for the Library.  The meeting began with introductions, each member also describing his or her previous experience with strategic planning in any setting.

Part of the discussion revolved around timing and process.  The chair presented a rough timetable that called for the final Strategic Plan to be finished by August 15, 2004.  The committee would discuss process and the desired format for the final plan during part of the Fall Semester.  Gathering input from all interested parties (including, but not limited to, library faculty and staff, user groups, and appropriate campus-level bodies such as the long-range planning task force) would take place during the late fall and early spring.  The SPC would concentrate on writing the new plan during the late spring, and have it ready to present to the Library Faculty at the May 18, 2004 faculty meeting.  Further revision would take place during the summer.

The SPC will meet twice a month on an as-needed basis.  Meetings will be held in a meeting room in or near Main Library 9:00-10:30 every other Friday starting September 12.

The SPC also discussed some issues relating to the process and the form of the final Strategic Plan.  The chair discussed the process with the Executive Committee in July, and the EC’s recommendation was for a brief, strategically-oriented plan with a separate list of goals and objectives.  The list of goals and objectives could be updated on an annual basis.  The committee will research information-gathering options as well as formats for the final plan based on current best practice. Tom Teper agreed to research some existing Web-accessible Strategic Plans from similar library systems.  Becky Smith will provide the committee with the Strategic Plan from Texas A&M as well as suggesting some useful articles for background reading.  Diane Schmidt will try to find a strategic planning expert from the College of Education to come talk to the committee.

As part of the process of developing a new Strategic Plan, the SPC has been charged with revising the Vision Document presented to the Library Faculty at the June 17, 2003 faculty meeting.  We will produce a revised version by September 26, and after discussion by the divisions, will present the new Vision Document to the faculty at the October 21 faculty meeting.  The Vision Document is intended to inform our development of the new Strategic Plan and will be appended to it.

The chair will ask the Executive Committee to create an updated charge for the committee.  The SPC’s Web page will be used as a communication medium, and a shared SPC folder will be created on the G: drive.

The next SPC meeting will be held September 12 in the Slavic Seminar Room, 225B Library.

Diane Schmidt, Chair

News from the Field:

THIS WEEK AT THE ILLINOIS STATE LIBRARY

To commemorate this year's 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers historic flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Illinois State Library is hosting a wide-ranging display of model airplanes and other aviation related memorabilia that will run through the end of September. Items are on display in the library's Patent and Trademark Depository and the Illinois Authors Reading Room.

The Illinois State Library and an ad hoc planning committee are working together with OCLC to investigate some exciting alternatives to the current transaction based pricing model for OCLC services. To date, ILLINET/OCLC Services is the only OCLC Network that is pursuing the implementation of a completely revised pricing formula that will best serve the needs of all our member libraries. The new model has the potential to ensure a greater cost benefit for using a wide range of OCLC products. For an overall annual subscription price, OCLC will provide unlimited access to cataloging, interlibrary loan, and the FirstSearch reference services to all Illinois OCLC member libraries. Predictable bills could be ensured for unrestricted usage of OCLC services. Very likely, this new OCLC pricing structure will not only simplify the OCLC billing data and budget planning process for libraries, but that unlimited usage of OCLC will result in greater resource discovery and sharing throughout Illinois. The OCLC pricing model currently under investigation will take into account the variance of individual libraries materials budgets, as well as their current OCLC usage. Toward that end, we will explore the option of customizing the annual costs for OCLC services on a sliding scale, based on individual materials budgets. In order to determine the best approach for distributing these OCLC costs, we will be sending a letter to each Illinois library requesting current materials budget data. Questions may be directed to Suzanne Schriar at 217-785-1533, sschriar@ilsos.net.

Upcoming Events

PRESS RELEASE

August 27, 2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Rick Blum or Sean Moulton

OMB Watch

202-234-8494

Groups Demand Public Voice On Rules that Could Restrict Access to Public Information Deemed "Sensitive"

Seventy-five organizations representing journalists, scientists, librarians, environmental groups, privacy advocates, and others today sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge calling on the Department of Homeland Security to allow public input on procedures for "safeguarding" and sharing a vaguely defined set of information between firefighters, police officers, public health researchers and  federal, state, and local governments.

Under the auspices of fighting terrorism, the Department is poised to write - without guarantees for public input - procedures that could sweep up otherwise publicly available information that has nothing to do with terrorism into a zone of secrecy while subjecting millions of Americans to confidentiality agreements.

The letter asks Secretary Ridge to release to the public a draft version of the new procedures - which would not themselves contain classified information - and address public comments in writing a final version. The letter expresses concern that the procedures may cut a broad swath of information out of the public domain, that the procedures would subject millions inside and outside of government to nondisclosure agreements and criminal penalties for disclosing information improperly, and cut out the ability of journalists, community groups, and others to inform the public of activities of federal, state and local governments.

 The law that created the Department, the Homeland Security Act, included a provision that required the federal government to safeguard and share "homeland security information" with government officials, public health professionals, firefighters and others in order to respond to a terrorist attack.

Included in that set of information is a potentially broad set of information, such as maps of environmental contamination, that is not classified but which may be perceived as helpful to a terrorist or potentially helpful in responding to or preventing an unknown future attack.

August 27, 2003

The Honorable Tom Ridge

 Secretary

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Washington, D.C. 20528

Dear Mr. Secretary

We are writing to urge the Department of Homeland Security to give the public an opportunity to comment on procedures that are being developed that may restrict the public dissemination of "homeland security information," including information that is "sensitive but unclassified."

These procedures are being developed to implement the Homeland Security Information Sharing Act (HSISA). The Act was passed into law as Section VIII of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 with the purpose of fostering the sharing of information among federal, state, and local officials about possible terrorism activities.

The public's ability to remain informed of and participate in the decision-making of government is fundamental to the democratic process. Democracy is undermined whenever openness is compromised. Consistent with these democratic principles, those compromises, when they are made, should be made only when necessary and only after an open process in which the public participates.

Public comment on the procedures implementing the Act is warranted for several reasons. First, the definition of Homeland Security Information (HSI) included in HSISA is so broad that it raises the question whether activities of government officials and the public that have little to do with terrorism could be harmed by these implementing regulations. In particular, Section 892(f)(1) of HSISA defines homeland security information to include information that

(A) relates to the threat of a terrorist activity, (B) relates to the ability to prevent, interdict, or disrupt terrorist activity, (C)  would improve the identification or investigation of a suspected terrorist or terrorist organization, or would (D) improve the response to a terrorist act.

What remains unclear until implementing regulations are written and released is whether these procedures would preclude public access to information that community residents, parents, journalists and others in the public currently obtain from or with the assistance of government in order to make their communities safer, inform the public, and for other purposes. Equally unclear is whether these procedures will require government to remove information already publicly available. The public should have an opportunity to address that question in a public notice-and-comment rulemaking and government policymakers should consider those answers in formulating the information sharing procedures.

Second, public comment is warranted because the procedures developed under HSISA could directly affect a large number of people both inside and outside of the federal government. The HSISA would prohibit public disclosure of information subject to agreements between the government and those receiving "sensitive but unclassified" information. One recent analysis estimates that roughly four million people - including public health officials not employed by government at any level - could be asked under the requirements of HSISA to sign formal nondisclosure agreements. Those agreements would be enforceable through civil and criminal sanctions. In addition, the procedures implementing the Act could expand the list of those subject to these agreements even further.

Third, the public has an interest in being informed of new procedures for sharing information that may infringe on the public's ability to obtain information from government about its activities. Since the procedures that are to be created will directly address the "safeguarding" of information and restrictions on public dissemination of information, the public should have the opportunity to review a draft version of these implementing procedures, analyze their adequacy and potential impact, and make recommendations for improvements, as necessary.

The Homeland Security Information Sharing Act was passed into law with little public review and scrutiny and, thus, the impacts of the procedures that are to be developed to implement the Homeland Security Information Sharing Act are unknown. Since its passage, though, the law has attracted increased attention outside the government. We ask that the Department of Homeland Security provide the public with a period of sufficient length (i.e., 90 days) to review and comment upon a draft version of the procedures before they are finalized.

Please contact Rick Blum at OMB Watch by email at blumr@ombwatch.org or by phone at 202-234-8494 in regards to this letter. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

American Association of Law Libraries

American Library Association

American Society of Business Publication Editors

American Society of Magazine Editors

American Society of Newspaper Editors

Asian American Journalists Association

Associated Press Managing Editors

Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors

Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication

Association of Health Care Journalists

Association of Research Libraries

Calhoun County (Texas) Resource Watch

Center for Democracy and Technology

Chicago Association of Law Librarians

Children's Environmental Health Network

Citizens' Environmental Coalition (New York)

College Media Advisers

Committee of Concerned Journalists

Common Cause

Criminal Justice Journalists

Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO

The Education Writers Association

Electronic Privacy Information Center

Environmental Defense

Federation of American Scientists

Freedom of Information Center, University of Missouri School of

Journalism

Good Neighbor Committee of South Cook County (Illinois)

Government Accountability Project

HealthLink

Journalism Education Association

Journalism and Women's Symposium

Law Librarians Association of Wisconsin

Law Librarians of New England- Executive Board

Magazine Publishers of America

Mid-America Association of Law Librarians

Military Reporters & Editors

Montana Coalition for Health, Environmental & Economic Rights

National Association of Black Journalists

National Association of Hispanic Journalists

National Association of Science Writers

National Environmental Trust

National Federation of Press Women

National Press Foundation

National Press Photographers Association

National Security Archive

National Society of Newspaper Columnists

New Mexico Foundation for Open Government

Newspaper Association of America

The Newspaper Guild-CWA

Ohio Regional Association of Law Librarians

Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition

OMB Watch

Online News Association

Oregon Toxics Alliance

People For the American Way Foundation

Project On Government Oversight

Protect All Children's Environment

Radio-Television News Directors Association

Refinery Reform Campaign

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

The Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law (Minnesota)

Society of Environmental Journalists

Society of Professional Journalists

Society for News Design

South Carolina Library Association

South Florida Association of Law Libraries

Southern California Association of Law Libraries

Southern New England Law Librarians Association

Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition (Texas)

UNITY Journalists of Color, Inc.

Valley Watch, Inc. (Indiana)

Wasatch Clean Air Coalition (Utah)

Western Pacific Chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries

Western Pennsylvania Law Library Association

Working Group on Community Right to Know

cc Condoleeza Rice, National Security Advisor

Joshua Bolten, Director, Office of Management and Budget

John Ashcroft, Attorney General, Department of Justice

 Rick Blum

OMB Watch (CFC #1308)

1742 Connecticut Ave NW

Washington, DC 20009

Ph 202-234-8494

F 202-234-8584

blumr@ombwatch.org

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Comings & Goings:

SEPTEMBER 2003 LIBRARY EXHIBITS

Separate But Equal? African Americans Defending Our Nation -Government Documents – Wall Display Cases, Main Hall, South end, 1^st Floor

Costa Rica, su Historia, Tierra y Gentes - Latín American and Caribbean Library Display

Separate and Unequal: Segregation and Three Generations of Black Response,

1870-1950 - Main Hall Display Cases

Kenneth Dodson to Carl Sandberg: A Correspondence - Rare Book Room