Joe Mitzenmacher

  • CALL Position: VP, 2017-18
  • Reference & Electronic Services Librarian at Loyola University Chicago School of Law

Biography

Government Relations Committee Annual Report

Membership

Joe Mitzenmacher, Committee Chair
Eugene Giudice
Sally Holterhoff
Dave Rogers
Konya Lafferty, Board Liaison

Objectives

The main charge of the Committee is to monitor issues of interest to the law library community and report on those issues to the membership. The Committee’s projects for 2016-17 were to update CALL’s “Finding Illinois Law Guide,” to contribute to the CALL Bulletin by updating CALL members on state and federal legislative items of interest, to work with the Continuing Education Committee on a brown bag lunch or other educational session on government information, and to work with Congressman Quigley’s office on making CRS Reports more widely available. Continue reading Government Relations Committee Annual Report

Advocacy Update with AALL’s Emily Feltren

The CALL Government Relations Committee is happy to announce that we will be sponsoring an appearance in Chicago by Emily Feltren, the Director of the AALL Government Relations Office. Emily will be here on Thursday, April 6, to give Chicago’s law librarian community the opportunity to hear about AALL’s policy priorities for 2017, what effect the 115th Congress and the Trump administration will have on those priorities, and what CALL members can do to be advocates for issues of importance to librarians. Details on the event and a link to register to attend the event (via Wild Apricot) are provided below. We hope to see you there!

Where:  Denton’s, 233 South Wacker Drive, #5900
When:  Thursday, April 6. Registration begins at 11:30 a.m., Emily will speak from Noon to 1:00 p.m.

Sign up at:  https://caoll.wildapricot.org/event-2468219 (Registration will be open until April 5)
Cost:  $5 (paid in advance via Wild Apricot or collected at the door)

Feel free to bring your own lunch. Beverages will be provided.

AALL Government Relations Office Legislative Advocacy Efforts

In the Winter 2016 issue of the CALL Bulletin, Tom Gaylord provided us with information on AALL and ALA advocacy tools. If you are looking for a way to put those advocacy tools to use, Emily Feltren, the Director of AALL’s Government Relations Office (GRO), gave an online advocacy training session on March 9 which highlighted some of the GRO’s legislative priorities for the remainder of the 114th Congress. While election year politics and the limited time remaining in the current Congress make passing any legislation a tricky matter, Emily focused on the following pending bills which the GRO has identified as particularly worthy of our legislative advocacy efforts.

Emily_AALL                                         Emily Feltren Continue reading AALL Government Relations Office Legislative Advocacy Efforts

2015 CALL Committee Roundup

The Committee Roundup is a new CALL Bulletin featured column where all of our committees will provide a update for us each issue to let us know what they are working on. In this issue, the committees focused on their goals for the upcoming year.

Archives Committee Goals:

Co-Chairs: Therese Arado and Annie Mentkowski
Members: Sharon Nelson

  • We continue to digitize, where appropriate, CALL materials.  In addition, we are working to preserve the website. Please continue to send the Co-Chairs all materials that need to be archived. See the CALL guidelines for more details on what should be archived

Continue reading 2015 CALL Committee Roundup

FOIA Reform Amendment in Illinois

Illinois House Bill 3796, which amends the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (5 ILCS 140), was recently enacted into law as Public Act 98-1129. This bill has been quite controversial, with many opponents arguing that it weakens the current provisions of FOIA. One such opponent was Governor Quinn, who vetoed the bill in its entirety when it came across his desk in June.

In his veto message, Quinn argued that the bill would “make it more difficult for citizens to seek public records” under FOIA while “also slow[ing] down the process for individuals who lack electronic means to request or obtain information.” However, the House and Senate both recently voted to override the Governor’s veto, with the newly-enacted law taking effect immediately.

With the debate being resolved for now, some explanation is in order as to how this law will actually play out for FOIA requests going forward. From the perspective of the Act’s opponents, two provisions of the newly-revised Act are the main causes for concern. Continue reading FOIA Reform Amendment in Illinois

IL Legislative Update: Senate Bill 3288

In Illinois, a version of the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act (“UELMA”) is currently working its way through the 98th General Assembly (as Senate Bill 1941), but UELMA isn’t the only pending Illinois legislation that could affect the  production and dissemination of government-produced legal information in electronic formats.

In February, Illinois Senator Pat McGuire introduced Senate Bill 3288, which, if enacted, would make two key changes to the Illinois General Assembly Operations Act (25 ILCS 10/10, hereinafter “The Act”). Continue reading IL Legislative Update: Senate Bill 3288