2   INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES  |  MARCH 2007

M
any things happen on the national front that 
affect libraries and their use of technology. 
Legislative action, national policy, and stan­

dards development are all arenas in which ALA and 
LITA both take an active role. LITA has articulated in its 
strategic plan the need to pursue active involvement in 
providing its expertise on national issues and standards 
development. LITA achieves these important objectives 
in a variety of ways.

LITA has several committees, interest groups, and 
representatives to ALA standing committees that address 
legislation, regulation, and national policy issues that 
pertain to technology. The charge of the LITA Legislation 
and Regulations Committee reads: “The Legislation and 
Regulation Committee monitors legislative and regula­
tory developments in the areas of information and 
communications technologies; identifies relevant issues 
affecting libraries and assists in developing appropri­
ate strategies for responding to these issues.” As its 
educational mission, the committee publicizes issues 
and strategies on the LITA Web site. The chairperson 
of this committee serves as the LITA representative to 
the ALA Legislation Assembly which advises ALA on 
positions to take regarding legislative and regulatory 
action. LITA also has a representative to the ALA Office 
of Information Technology Policy Advisory Committee 
who works closely with the Legislation and Regulation 
Committee on IT policy issues that may cross over into 
the legislative realm. LITA also appoints a representa­
tive to the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee whose 
purpose is “to recommend such steps as may be neces­
sary to safeguard the rights of library users, libraries, and 
librarians, in accordance with the First Amendment to the 
United States Constitution and the Library Bill of Rights.” 

Much has happened on the national front in the past 
few years that provides plenty of work for these LITA 
and ALA committees. The PATRIOT Act, CALEA, Net 
Neutrality, DOPA, ADA compliance, and debates over 
copyright and intellectual property rights in an electronic 
world are all examples of issues that require technologi­
cal control or affect systems and network solutions. They 
also touch at the heart of what librarians have always 
stood for: protection of intellectual property, personal pri­
vacy, and intellectual freedom. Library technologists exert 
enormous time and effort protecting the privacy of patron 

records through data retention policies, system controls, 
and strong authentication systems all while providing 
authorized access to intellectual property according to 
copyright or licensing restrictions. Keeping LITA mem­
bers apprised of all of these issues and the technologies 
required to abide by legal requirements is an enormous 
task of the committees and interest groups. These groups 
do this through programming, publications, and postings 
to the LITA Web site. 

LITA has always been very active on the standards 
development front. From the start, LITA was involved 
with the MARC standards through the hard work of 
Henriette Avram. The number of standards that affect 
libraries has mushroomed. There are standards for all 
aspects of technology—data formats, hardware and 
firmware, and networking. ALA regularly calls on LITA 
to provide expertise on developing standards that per­
tain to library technology. LITA has a Standards Interest 
Group and shares membership with ALCTS and RUSA 
on the MARBI committee. Most LITA Interest Groups 
deal with standards of some sort at least occasionally. 
The LITA Board felt that LITA’s work on develop­
ing standards was so important that in 2006 a new 
standards coordinator position was created and Diane 
Hillman, Cornell University, was appointed as the first 
person in this role. The standards coordinator identifies 
LITA experts to assist in calls for review of developing 
standards and seeks input from the membership. The 
standards coordinator works closely with the Standards 
Interest Group to help educate the membership. Because 
of the nature of digital information, networks, and the 
standards that enable the distribution of digital informa­
tion and services, it has become impossible for any one 
person to understand all the standards that affect the 
library technologist. As standards proliferate, it becomes 
more important for LITA to provide educational oppor­
tunities alongside the involvement in the development 
of these standards that so impact our daily lives. The 
LITA Web site provides a wealth of information about 
standards. A new means of contributing to the dialogue 
about developing standards is to participate in the LITA 
Wiki where Diane Hillman will be leading the way in 
posting information about various library technology 
standards. Also, a great place to learn about various stan­
dards is right here in ITAL. Practically every issue has at 
least one article about one standard or another. 

LITA’s participation in technological developments 
on the national front is critical to all libraries. Policy, regu­
lation, and standards form the infrastructure to techno­
logical implementation and are the cornerstone to library 
technology. LITA is the place where you can learn more 
about these developments and participate in the dialogue 
about them.  

Bonnie Postlethwaite (postlethwaiteb@umkc.edu) is LITA 
President 2006/2007 and Associate Dean of Libraries, University 
of Missouri–Kansas City. 

President’s Column Bonnie Postlethwaite