Editor of this issue:

Gail Hendler, Ehrman Medical Library, New York University Medical School, 550 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, S-10, Phone: 212-263-8925, Fax: 212-263-8196, E-mail: hendler@library.med.nyu.edu.

Patriot Legislation
On October 11, the Senate passed S. 1510, also known as the Anti-Terrorist Act of 2001. The final vote was 96 to 1 with only Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) voting against the bill.

Despite the best efforts of the library community, "problematic privacy provisions" regarding library records, patron privacy and computer trespassing were retained in the final legislation, according to an article on the American Library Association web site. For more detailed information, log onto www.ala.org/washoff/patriot.html.

UCITA
The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) is a contract law designed to standardize the licensing of software and all other forms of digital information. It would adversely affect libraries, schools, universities, and individual consumers of software. Thus far, only two states (Maryland and Virginia) have adopted the law, but other state legislatures are considering it.

Copyright
In the case of Tasini vs. the New York Times, it was decided that freelance writers own the rights to what they produce and their works cannot be reproduced without their permission. Publishers have, therefore, pulled freelancers’ contributions from the material they provide to databases. Libraries, and the scholars and students who use them, risk losing access to complete archives. Copyright, of course, remains an area to watch.

Annual National Library Legislative Day
The 28^th Annual National Library Legislation Day will be held May 6^th and 7^th, 2002. The coordinators for New York State are Mary Rinato Berman, Deputy Director of the Westchester Library System, who can be reached at 914-674-3600; and Robert Bellinger, Associate Director for the Staten Island branches of the New York Public Library, at 718-720-5766. Although public librarians outnumber medical librarians by a wide margin at this event, the legislative packets provide a wealth of information on issues worth watching.