Tag Archives: ALA

Makerspaces: The Library’s Legal Answers (ALA Editions Workshop)

A 90-minute workshop, Thursday, June 18, 2015, 2:30pm Eastern/1:30 Central/12:30 Mountain/11:30am Pacific

This is an online event hosted through Webex. Further technical information is available at the ALA TechSource FAQ page.

Makerspaces: The Library’s Legal Answers (ALA Editions Workshop)
A 90-minute workshop, Thursday, June 18, 2015, 2:30pm Eastern/1:30 Central/12:30 Mountain/11:30am Pacific

Library makerspaces are truly transformative environments that advance learning and innovation in communities. This space is a great new way where people can gather to create, invent, and learn, but you will need to be aware of and understand legal implications and concepts related to patent, trademark, and product liability.

The Library’s Legal Answers team—Mary Minow, Tomas Lipinksi, and Gretchen McCord—will guide you in a positive approach to library makerspaces, true to the library mission of intellectual freedom, access, and learning. Cutting through any alarmism about the possibility of such things as guns, sex toys, or illegal drugs being made using 3D printers, they will show you how to limit your liability with consistent practices and sensible policy statements, covering topics such as:

  • Key clauses for waivers and partnership agreements.
  • How to file a one-page form with the U.S. Copyright Office that will protect you from potential infringing activity
  • What to look for in local building codes before you solder
  • Guarding against indirect or vicarious liability lawsuits
  • Where the First Amendment meets makerspaces
  • Protecting privacy in the sign-up process
  • Americans with Disabilities Act compliance

You will also learn and be able to:

  • Minimize liability for copyright or patent infringement claims
  • File a one-page form with the U.S. Copyright Office
  • Ensure access for patrons with disabilities

Register here.  If you plan on viewing this event with a group of 3 or more people, please purchase at the group rate.

FREE ALA Webinar to showcase the new Intellectual Freedom Manual!

The new ninth edition of the Intellectual Freedom Manual, published by ALA Editions, is fresh off the press. ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) will present a talk show style webinar, I.F. Live, featuring the manual’s editors and contributors who will introduce the revised manual and its new and useful features for practicing librarians at 2 p.m. EST on Tuesday, May 12, 2015.

Attendees will receive a code to purchase the manual at a discounted price and one lucky person will win a free copy of the 9th edition Intellectual Freedom Manual courtesy of ALA Editions.

Have you ever wondered. . .

  • About the best way to respond when someone expresses concern about something in your collection or asks that it be removed?
  • If you’d know what to do if the police asked for library user information?
  • Whether or not you must allow anyone to use your meeting rooms?
  • How to write library policies to protect intellectual freedom?
  • If children have First Amendments rights in the school library?
  • How to handle controversy and negative publicity, and where you can get help?

This webinar will explain the manual’s reorganized structure and the inclusion of specific tools to help librarians, directors, teachers, principals, trustees or students concerned with censorship and issues of access, privacy, and the First Amendment. The panel of experts answering questions will include Trina Magi, Martin Garnar, Sarah Houghton, Helen Adams, Deborah Caldwell Stone and Nanette Perez. For more details and to register, visit http://www.ala.org/advocacy/if-live

The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom is charged with implementing ALA policies concerning the concept of intellectual freedom as embodied in the Library Bill of Rights, the Association’s basic policy on free access to libraries and library materials. The goal of the office is to educate librarians and the general public about the nature and importance of intellectual freedom in libraries. For more information, visit www.ala.org/oif.

ALA and Scholastic Library Publishing 2010 National Library Week Grant

Libraries across the United States are invited to apply for the $3,000 Scholastic Library Publishing National Library Week Grant, which will be awarded to a single library for the best public awareness campaign incorporating the 2010 National Library Week theme, “Communities thrive @ your library®.”

The grant is sponsored by Scholastic Library Publishing, a division of Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, and is administered by the Public Awareness Committee of the American Library Association (ALA).

This year’s application deadline is October 16, 2009.   National Library Week is April 11-17, 2010.

For more information visit the ALA press release