News
SLA Government Relations Update
Nancy Curtis
John Crosby became the new Director of Government Relations at SLA in September, replacing Roxanne Fulcher. His experience includes several years as the manager of the government relations program at a national nonprofit organization. You may contact John at 1-202-234-4700, extension 629, or send e-mail to john-c@sla.org.
Electronic Communications
SLA provides an overview of its government relations programs at http://www.sla.org/govt/index.html. This Web page includes links to a monthly summary of SLA activities, the SLA Government Relations Platform, other relevant Web sites, and more. The most up-to-date news on SLA government relations activities is posted to the SLA-GR electronic discussion list. To subscribe, e-mail the message "subscribe sla-gr [your name]" to listserv@listserv.sla.org.
Standard Occupational Classification Changes
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is reviewing the Standard Occupational Classification in order to create a single, updated system for use by all federal agencies. The Classification is scheduled for publication by July. SLA Executive Director David R. Bender wrote to the Chairman of the Standard Occupational Classification Revision Policy Committee, requesting the removal of librarians from the group "Teachers, Librarians and Counselors". He suggested creating a new occupational group, titled "Librarians, Information Professionals, Archivists and Curators", that would better reflect the diversity of settings where librarians are employed. In addition, SLA suggested defining "information professional" as "information and research professionals who provide focused, working information to a specialized clientele on an ongoing basis to further the mission and goals of companies/organizations/individuals."
ConFU Draft Guidelines
SLA is one of the participants in the Conference on Fair Use (ConFU), a group negotiating U.S. national guidelines for fair use of copyrighted works in the digital era. By late 1996, ConFU had reached a consensus on fair use guidelines for digital images, educational multimedia, and some aspects of distance learning. The group did not achieve consensus on guidelines for interlibrary loan and document delivery activities, and a majority of the participants rejected proposed guidelines for electronic reserves. The results of the Conference were published in a draft report, available at http://uspto.gov/web/offices/dcom/olia/confu. A follow-up ConFU meeting is scheduled for May 19, 1997, after which a final report will be delivered to Commissioner Bruce Lehman of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
WIPO Diplomatic Conference
As a member of the Digital Future Coalition, SLA suggested revisions to a proposed international treaty on the protection of literary and artistic works. This treaty proposal originally contained several articles that could have substantially restricted the rights of information professionals and information users around the world. The revised treaty was approved by representatives from 160 nations at the Diplomatic Conference of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in December. It is expected that this treaty, and a far less controversial one on sound recordings, will be considered for formal approval by many national legislatures in 1997.