HELP LLAGNY ADOPT UELMA - SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS

Request for LLAGNY Members to Provide Comments in a Study of Electronic Legal Materials for New York State to provide support for UELMA.

Dear LLAGNY Members:

A message from the LLAGNY Government Relations Chair, Patricia Barbone

I need your help for an important and time sensitive matter.  I am asking you to support LLAGNY’S efforts to adopt UELMA by providing comments in a study on the use of electronic legal information in New York currently being conducted by NYS Office of Information Technology Services (ITS.)  The comment period is open now and will close on Friday, September 4th at 5 pm. 

Why are you being asked to provide comments? 

By providing your comments and your important perspective as a member of the law librarian community on the use electronic legal information, you will be part of a multi-year effort to adopt the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act (UELMA) in New York.  This uniform law which has already been adopted in twenty-one states and the Washington, DC, would provide a technology-neutral, outcomes-based approach to ensuring that online state legal material deemed “official” will be preserved and made permanently available to the public in unaltered form. 

AALL and the law library community have been actively advocating for the authentication of state legal materials since 2007.  Those efforts led to the creation of the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act (UELMA).  Earlier this year, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed into law New York State bill number A8989/S7164 which directs the NYS Office of Information Technology Services (ITS) to conduct a study on the use of legal material in an electronic format that guarantees the authenticity of and access to such legal materials.  ITS must deliver their completed study to the Governor no later than November 1, 2020.  As part of their study, the ITS is soliciting comments, and we believe the comments of law librarians will be an essential part ITS’s findings and any possible conclusions they make in the completed study.  The results of their study will directly affect the passage of UELMA, therefore, the participation of law librarians in submitting comments are critical in gaining passage of UELMA. 

UELMA has already been adopted in twenty-one states and the Washington, DC.  We want to include New York State among those states that have adopted UELMA.  You can help by submitting your comments. 

Who should participate? 

Everyone can and should participate.  You are encourage to participate even if you don’t have extensive comments to provide. You encouraged to participate whether you work in a firm, academic, government or court library; or whether you work in a library at all. 

In addition, if you know someone outside the law library community in government, in the courts, in a non-profit organization, in the media, or in any aligned profession that would benefit from authenticated and publicly available online legal information, please forward this information to them. 

What’s involved in participating comments? 

There are fourteen questions that can be submitted online.  They are available as a word document in case you would like to draft your responses offline.  For most people, these questions can be answered quickly.  For some, the answers will be more involved and take more time.  It is crucial that comments are submitted by September 4th.  While the LLAGNY Government Relations Committee can’t assist everyone preparing comments, if you need assistance in submitting comments, please reach out the LLAGNY Government Relations Chair, Patricia Barbone.

If you are planning on submitting comments or are recommending that someone else submit comments, the LLAGNY Government Relations Committee would like to know.  You may choose to inform us by emailing Patricia Barbone.  We ask you this so that we can ensure a variety of key stakeholders will respond, but your decision is completely voluntary.  We are not asking you to share your comments but only to let us know if you intend to submit comments.

How do I participate?

You can find the request for public comments at this link and responses are due by Friday September 4th, 2020.  For you convenience, I have also provided the documentation found on ITS’s website and a word document with the fourteen questions. 

In conclusion

I want to thank you for your willingness to support LLAGNY’S efforts to adopt UELMA by providing comments to the ITS study on the use of electronic legal information in New York.  We are under a tight deadline to respond by Friday, September 4th. We know that we are asking a lot of you to spend your time in the final weeks of August to answer these fourteen questions given everything that is going on in the world right now.  However, your participation is critical to a successful outcome in adopting UELMA in New York State.  If you have any questions, please direct them to the LLAGNY Government Relations Chair, Patricia Barbone.