ILA Executive Board Determines Positions on Key Bills
On Friday, 22 February, the ILA Executive Board reviewed seventeen key library bills and determined the association's position on these bills. ILA is currently tracking approximately sixty bills that have an impact on libraries, and the ILA's Web site at www.ila.org/advocacy/index.htm posts those bills with their full text, status, sponsors, hearing dates, etc.

ILA Supports

House Bill (HB) 4202, sponsor: Representative Dan Brady (R-88, Bloomington). This bill concerning the disposal of library materials would amend the State Property Control Act. With respect to the transfer of books, serial publications, and other library materials to which the Act's transfer procedures do not apply, (i) adds those items that have been withdrawn from the transferring agency's library collection through a regular collection evaluation process and (ii) adds non-profit agencies, whether located in or outside Illinois, to the list of entities to which such items may be transferred. The bill would authorize an agency with withdrawn books, serial publications, or other library materials to sell those items to the public at library book sales or to book dealers or to offer those items through exchange to book dealers or to organizations. It provides that revenues generated from such sales shall be retained by the agency and used for the purchase of library materials. Dane Ward from Illinois State University has been instrumental on working on this issue.

House Bill (HB) 4518, sponsor: Representative Frank J. Mautino (D-76, Spring Valley). This bill is referred to as “Libraries in Name Only.” This is an issue that had received extensive discussion in the ILA Public Policy Committee (PPC) because of recent development regarding four township referenda (Fall River Township, Farm Ridge Township, Freedom Township, and Wallace Township in LaSalle County) where library districts have been created without clear intention of providing library service. This action has confused library service in this area and could have greater implications across the state. The bill was crafted using language recommended by ILA PPC and mirroring language in Park District laws regarding dissolution. The bill explains methods to dissolve libraries, which do not meet specific criteria (for example, appropriate, elect library board, hold meetings).

House Bill (HB) 4521, sponsor: Robert W. Pritchard (R-70, Sycamore). This bill amends the Illinois Municipal Code by providing that any recommendation by a joint review board to approve a redevelopment plan and the designation of the redevelopment project area must be adopted by a unanimous vote of the board. It further provides that, if the plan or project area is rejected by the joint review board, the municipality may not proceed with the plan or amendment.

House Bill (HB) 4527, sponsor: Representative Lou Lang (D-16, Skokie). This bill requested by the Illinois Secretary of State's Office and supported by Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-22, Chicago), changes equalization grant language: increases rate from $4.25 to $7.50 per capita; increase minimum grant award to school libraries from $100 to $750. The per capita rate has not been increased since 1979 when the grant was created. The minimum grant level for schools has not been increased since 1994. Ten public libraries currently qualify for the equalization grants. Under the new formula the number of public libraries which qualify will increase to fifty-seven. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2007, 344 school districts received a grant of less than $750. In FY 2008, 345 school districts received a grant of less than $750 out of a total of 718 school districts that received library grants. School districts have to apply for these grants and the awards are based on student enrollment as of September 30 of the award year, so it is difficult to accurately state what will happen the next year, but based on the experience in FY 07 and FY 08, it is expected somewhere between 340 and 350 school districts to benefit from HB 4527 in FY 09 and thereafter.

House Bill (HB) 4682, sponsor: Representatives Donald L. Moffitt (R-37, Galesburg) and Michael K. Smith (D-91, Pekin) are sponsoring this tax cap initiative which would exempt pension levies, including Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) from the tax caps.

Senate Bill (SB) 1865, sponsor: Senator Mike Noland (D-22, Elgin). This bill deals with parental responsibility for minors damaging public property. Damages are currently capped at $20,000. This bill would increase the limit to $200,000.

Senate Bill (SB) 2321, sponsor: Senator Donne E. Trotter (D-17, Chicago). This County Law Library Fee bill would provide that the county board may authorize a county law library fee of not more than (i) $18 in 2008, (ii) $19 in 2009, and (iii) $21 in 2010 and thereafter (now, $13).

Senate Bill (SB) 2512, sponsor: Senator Terry Link (D-30, Lake Bluff). This Internet Safety Education Curriculum bill would amend the School Code by providing that beginning with the 2009-2010 school year, a school district must incorporate into the school curriculum a component on Internet safety to be taught at least once each school year to students in grade three or above. It further requires the State Board of Education to develop a model curriculum for educating children regarding child online safety and requires the State Board of Education to provide to each school district educational materials for parents regarding child online safety.

Senate Resolution (SR) 545, sponsor: Senator Matt Murphy (R-27, Palatine). This Internet Safety Education resolution urges schools and public libraries to use available information to provide Internet safety education to the children and parents of this state.

ILA Is Monitoring

House Bill (HB) 4219, sponsor: Representative Ruth Munson (R-43, Elgin). This bill focuses on the security of Social Security numbers and identity theft. The bill prohibits any entity of local government from using social security numbers for identification and requires the creation of a separate identification number. The criminal penalty for violating this requirement would be a Class A Misdemeanor.

House Bill (HB) 4755, sponsor: Representative Sidney H. Mathias (R-53, Arlington Heights). This bill amends the Harassing and Obscene Communications Act by creating the offense of harassment by Internet. It prohibits various forms of obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent communications with the intent to offend by use of the Internet or any abusive, threatening, or harassing communications by use of the Internet and establishes penalties.

Senate Bill (SB) 2399, sponsors: Senators Terry Link (D-30, Lake Bluff) and Christine Radogno (R-41, Lemont). The bill would amends the Genetic Information Privacy Act by prohibiting an employer, employment agency, labor organization, and licensing agency from using genetic information of a person or administer a genetic test to a person. By consensus, the board voted to monitor this bill, to request the ILA Public Policy Committee to review any existing biometric guidelines, and to make a recommendation for an ILA position.

Other Actions
House Bills (HB) 4874—(HB) 4880, sponsor: Representative Tom Cross (R-84, Plainfield). The ILA Executive Board directed staff to work on these Social Networking & Sex Offender Bills with the sponsor and other liked-minded organizations to make sure that these legislative initiatives do not negatively impact libraries.

After discussion on the various funding bills submitted and in keeping with PPC's 2008 Legislative Agenda, the ILA Executive Board unanimously supported a PPC motion asking that the ILA President write a letter to the Illinois Governor, the Illinois Secretary of State, and the Illinois legislative leaders thanking them for their support, requesting support for specific library bills and, in an inclusive manner, continuing to advocate for funding for all types of libraries and the library systems.

Finally, in light of the recently introduced H. R. 4137 (“Academic Bill of Rights,” ABOR) in the U.S. Congress, which would impose extra- academic standards on academic institutions, directly interfering in course content, the classroom, the research process, and hiring and tenure decisions, and similar legislation in Massachusetts (HB 1190) and Missouri (HB 1315), the Illinois Library Association's Executive Board voted to:

• Support the “ALA Resolution in Support of Academic Freedom,” adopted by the ALA Council, January 25, 2006 in San Antonio, Texas;
• direct ILA staff to inform ALA's Association of College and Research Libraries, Washington Office, Office for Intellectual Freedom, ILA Public Policy Committee, and ILA Intellectual Freedom Committee; and
• direct ILA staff to monitor and vigorously work to defeat any proposed state legislation, which would restrict academic freedom.

Other Board Actions
Discussed the developing association's strategic plan at a day-long meeting on Thursday, 21 February;

• selected Chicago's Navy Pier as the 2010 ILA Annual Conference site, Rosemont's Stephens Convention Center as the 2011 ILA Annual Conference site, and the Peoria Civic Center as the 2012 ILA Annual Conference site;
• reviewed association's financial statements, noted the recent poor performance of the stock market and its impact on the association's long-term investments, and determined to seek professional fundraising assistance;
• congratulated the ILA Intellectual Freedom Committee for winning the ALA Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT) ProQuest/SIRS Award Committee;
• and adopted “Guidelines for Campaigning by Candidates for ILA Executive Board.”

Upcoming Workshops

• March 27-28, 2008: IACRL 2008 Spring Conference, Bloomington
• April 10, 2008: Illinois Library Day, Springfield
• April 18, 2008: Youth Services Spring Workshop, Plainfield
• May 7, 2008: Youth Services Spring Workshop, Edwardsville
• May 9, 2008: Reaching Forward Conference for Library Assistants, Rosemont
• May 13-14, 2008: National Library Legislative Day, Washington, D.C.

The registration form for the IACRL 2008 Spring Conference is in the December 2007 ILA Reporter and the registration form for all the other workshops are in the February 2008 ILA Reporter. All registration forms also appear online on the ILA Web site: http://www.ila.org/events/index.htm .

The next Public Policy Committee meeting will be Monday, March 10, 2008 via V-TEL videoconferencing at the Illinois regional library systems (except Prairie Area and Shawnee) and the Illinois State Library.