ALUW Legislative Priorities

• Competitive Salaries
  The University of Washington Libraries recruits nationally and must maintain competitive salaries and benefits in order to attract and retain top quality librarians. While we recognize the need during the current fiscal crisis for an increase in the employee contribution for health care, we are also concerned that this not become a trend in order to maintain our competitive position.

  New Enrollment Funding

  ALUW supports the legislative goal of increasing access to higher education for the citizens of this state. Increased enrollments at all three of the UW campuses places additional demands on the Libraries' collections and services. The ALUW therefore urges that funding for higher enrollments must take into account impacts on the UW Libraries such as the need for additional resources and staff.

  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 the availability of information, regardless of whether the information is in printed or electronic form. Restrictions on the nature of materials that may be acquired, retained, displayed or circulated seriously undermine the teaching, research and preservation functions of an academic library.

  Library Issues

  The University of Washington Libraries has been involved in numerous discussions concerning the cooperative library project. ALUW supports these efforts. In light of a recently-completed study by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy concerning the future of the Washington State Library, it may become even more important for the state’s libraries to engage in cooperative acquisition of resources. In addition there is the issue of UCITA which bear watching. At this time there seems to be no movement to place UCITA on the legislative agenda; that could change. ALUW needs to continue to monitor this issue