Here are some highlights of that meeting. Business interests dominate the present board. Libraries are encouraged to add a link to this organization on their web sites to encourage the public to vote. A new major emphasis of the Washington Office is the issue of privacy in an electronic environment. Basically, the issue revolves around the right to control what people know about you and what they do with that information.
Libraries can help protect privacy by providing tools and knowledge to their users.
The Washington Office hopes to influence external policies to include library concerns. There has been a perceptible shift of emphasis from self-regulation to the need for law. This shift began with the passage of the Child Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. This shift toward governmental regulation also can be seen in other areas where the citizen accesses the Internet. The Federal Trade Commission is now seeking to regulate collection practices.