ALUW 1997 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES

The Association of Librarians of the University of Washington (ALUW) adopts the following positions on issues which will come before the Washington State Legislature during the 1997 session.

Intellectual Freedom
ALUW supports the principle of intellectual freedom as embodied in the Freedom to Read statement and the Electronic Bill of Rights of the American Library Association. ALUW opposes legislation that would abridge this freedom, regardless of whether the material is in printed or electronic form. Libraries must not be subjected to legislation that restricts availability of materials. Restrictions on the nature of materials which may be acquired, retained, displayed or circulatedseriously undermine the teaching, research and preservation functions of an academic library.

Competitive Salaries
ALUW supports the goal of the Higher Education Coordinating Board, to fund salaries for faculty and librarians at the 75th percentile of a peer group of 24 public universities. For 1997-99 ALUW supports the University's request for a 7.5% salary increase for each year of the biennium. Funds invested by the legislature in the 1995-97 biennium to remedy the salary market gap have made a significant difference. Since librarians do not receive annual step- or cost-of-living increases, continued legislative funding for competitive salary increases is the only way to sustain the Libraries ability to attract and retain top-quality librarians. Salary increases for faculty and librarians need to be comparable to maintain equity among UW academic personnel, therefore we favor the inclusion of academic librarians with faculty for the purpose of salary increases.

Electronic Infrastructure
ALUW supports the establishment of a statewide electronic infrastructure to disseminate information with equal and affordable access for all, in a framework compatible with the protection of privacy and freedom of speech. Specific initiatives of interest to us include:

access to state government information
the Council of President's Cooperative Library Project, a proposed system of library information resources and services which will provide timely access to information in both print and electronic form to the students and faculty of the six baccalaureate universities in the State of Washington
efforts to provide Internet access to libraries throughout the state

Facilities
ALUW supports the University of Washington's capital budget request to provide funding for phase 1 of a major renovation of the Suzzallo Library. Suzzallo Library, opened in 1925 and expanded in 1935, 1947 and 1963, is linked to the new (1991) Allen library. Suzzallo Library is a beautiful, heavily used campus landmark in critical need of life safety, seismic, mechanical and electrical renovation.