"Many of you already know about ALA's involvement (with other library associations) in challenging the FCC's 'Broadcast Flag' rule, a rule that will prevent librarians from being able to distribute or make available copies of broadcast television programs on the internet. It will also require you to purchase new electronic equipment that your library now uses to read or manipulate digital television signals (such as DVD players, recorders, TiVos, appropriately equipped computers, etc.) if that equipment is not Flag-compliant and your library does not already own a digital TV tuner.

We have filed an appeal to the federal Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, arguing that the FCC had no authority to promulgate the Broadcast Flag rule. The validity of the Broadcast Flag is now pending before that court.

This week, the court issued a very important order requiring us to submit evidence proving that we have 'standing' to sue the FCC. In order to provide the court with the evidence it needs--and to defeat the Broadcast Flag, which will sharply limit how libraries might be able to use broadcast materials, perhaps in ways we might not yet have even conceived--we need your help.

We are looking for members of our organization that might be willing to submit an affidavit explaining how the Broadcast Flag harms them. The process will be simple, straightforward, and not very time-consuming. The lawyers representing us in the case will assist in drafting the document; you'll just have to help provide the facts of what it will say.

If you can answer 'yes' to the following questions and would be willing to help us protect the First Amendment rights of librarians, and the rights we fought so hard to obtain in the TEACH Act, then please contact us as soon as possible:

1. Are you a current member of the American Library Association?
   -and-


2. Do you do any of the following?
   
   
   
   
   1. Archive television broadcasts for use by library patrons or other educational or research purposes?
   
   
   2. Use portions of television broadcasts in distance learning courses, or make broadcast portions available to teachers at your institution for this purpose?
   
   
   3. Make portions of television broadcasts available via your library's or your school's website for any educational, research, or
      commentary reasons?
   
   
   4. Record television broadcasts at your library for any other type of educational purpose?
   
   
   5. Have equipment that you use to archive, record, or manipulate copies of television broadcasts that you would replace if it no longer allowed you to archive, record, or manipulate the television broadcast in the same way you do today.
   
   
   
   

We look forward to hearing from you to help in this important issue!

For further information, go to http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/copyrightb/broadcastflag/broadcastflag.htm."

If you can help or if you can help your local library get involved (they may not understand the issues and you could educate them), please act now! These are incredibly important issues, not just for libraries, but for the average person, who the courts are apparently leaving out of the equation entirely.

Interesting that American Greetings now offers a few ecards just for National Library Week and reading in general. I set up something like this several years ago for my member libraries, although only one of them actually used it (and has since discontinued using it). You can still play with the demo, which used the Library Media & PR Read graphics. I used to change the postcards seasonally, which was kind of fun.

I still think this would be a great project for ALA to do on a national level.