may04c.indd


W  a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n e  Bernadette Murphy 

Register to Vote @ your library 
Libraries are essential to our democracy 
and, thanks to a new partnership, libraries 
throughout America will have an opportu­
nity to make it easier than ever for people to 
become registered voters. Through Register 
to Vote @ your library, ALA and Working As­
sets will cosponsor a voter registration page 
at www.yourvotematters.org/ala, where in­
dividuals can register to vote or update their 
registration information. Voters in all states 
except New Hampshire, North Dakota, and 
Wyoming are eligible to complete registra­
tion via this Web site. 

The Your Vote Matters site was created 
and customized by Working Assets for par­
ticipating nonpartisan, nonprofi t organiza­
tions. When citizens register to vote through 
www.yourvotematters.org/ala, they help raise 
funds for ALA thanks to a generous grant 
from Working Assets. All donated funds will 
be used to support ALA’s library advocacy 
efforts nationwide. 

“Libraries have always served their 
communities by providing the information 
resources needed to be informed citizens,” 
said ALA President Carla Hayden. “Libraries 
are community centers offering information 
on voter registration, hosting forums, and 
providing resources about issues of concern 
in the community and the nation. Our public 
libraries are a perfect fit for this critical civic 
activity. We are delighted to have Working 
Assets support in this effort.” 

ALA will highlight Register to Vote @ your 
library on its homepage and via press releases 
and member publications. Through these ef­
forts, ALA will not only encourage members 
to become registered voters, but also will 
ask librarians to promote voter registration 
through this site in their local libraries. 

ALA will award a grant of $1,000 to the 
library that registers the largest number of 
voters through the site and grants of $500 
to the fi rst five libraries that register 500 
individuals. 

Bernadette Murphy is communications specialist at ALA’s 
Washington Offi ce, e-mail: bmurphy@alawash.org 

In addition to helping to support advocacy 
at ALA, Working Assets will underwrite the 
costs of producing tip sheets, bookmarks, 
and buttons for library workers to use in 
promoting voter registration in their com­
munities. These materials can be requested 
online at www.ala.org/requestmaterials by 
any library interested in participating in this 
voter registration initiative and grant contest. 
Materials will be mailed to libraries until early 
September. 

“When it comes to defending our democ­
racy, librarians have always been on the front 
lines,” said Working Assets President Michael 
Kieschnick. “We’re proud to be their partner 
in this crucial campaign to register new voters 
in library branches nationwide.” 

For more information about Register to 
Vote @ your library, please contact Lainie Cas­
tle at (800) 545­2433, extension 5050. Contact 
Your Vote Matters at (877) 205­VOTE(8683) 
with technical or voter registration questions. 
For more information about Working Assets, 
visit www.workingassets.com. 

(“Authentication...” cont. from page 270) 
It should not be dictated by the conve­

nience of other units or the passive accep­
tance of standard license agreements. 

Notes 
1. Two articles that do consider the privacy 

aspects of authentication from somewhat dif­
ferent perspectives are: Lynn Sutton, “Advo­
cacy for Intellectual Freedom in an Academic 
Library,” in Crossing the Divide : Proceedings 
of the Tenth National Conference of the As­
sociation of College and Research Libraries, 
March 15–18, 2001, Denver, Colorado, ed. 
Hugh A. Thompson (Chicago, ACRL: 2001), 
54–56 and Virginia Rezmierski and Aline 
Soules, “Security vs. Anonymity: the Debate 
over User Authentication and Information 
Access,” EDUCAUSE Review 35 (March­April 
2000): 22–30. 
2. Nancy Courtney, “Unaffiliated Users’ Ac­
cess to Academic Libraries: A Survey,” Jour­
nal of Academic Librarianship 29 (January 
2003): 3–7. 

C&RL NewsMay 2004 / 277 

http:www.workingassets.com
www.ala.org/requestmaterials
mailto:bmurphy@alawash.org
www.yourvotematters.org/ala
www.yourvotematters.org/ala