Late Bulletins

New California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed 2004–05 budget would include hefty cuts to California universities but spare public libraries. Schwarzenegger's plan would eliminate $372 million from the University of California (UC), an eight percent cut. For the 23-campus California State University system, the proposed cut is $240 million, or nine percent. These come on top of a series of reductions in previous years. If the cutbacks go through as prescribed, "the fear of sustainability is enormous," said Sarah Pritchard, university librarian at UC–Santa Barbara.

The American Library Association (ALA) and other civil liberties groups asked Congress to reject President Bush's request to make permanent certain elements of the USA PATRIOT Act. The law includes sunset provisions, which allow Congress to reexamine the law. Among the parts scheduled to sunset is Section 215, which lowers the standard for the FBI to obtain business records, including library records. ALA president Carla Hayden noted that three states and over 210 jurisdictions have passed resolutions, ordinances, and ballot initiatives that indicate discomfort with parts of the Patriot Act.

Stanford University, CA, has left the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), which includes 123 leading research libraries in North America. ARL executive director Duane Webster said he could not speculate on Stanford's motives: "It's regrettable. We hope they can rejoin at some point." While the news may come as a shock, Webster pointed out that Stanford had not been active in ARL for several years.

Steven Hawk, director of what the local paper termed the "troubled Akron-Summit County Public Library," announced his resignation last month, citing a need to move near his ailing mother this spring. The library lost a levy election in November (see News, LJ 12/03 , p. 14), much to the surprise of library leaders, who quickly scheduled another election for March, noting that voters may not have known that a previous bond issue was for buildings rather than operating funds. "Now's the time to leave," Hawk said, according to the Beacon-Journal. "If I was an issue—and I don't think I was—in the levy failing, then this takes me out of it."

Allen Paschal left his six-year post as president of Thomson Gale, effective January 21, to pursue outside interests. Charlie Siegel, senior VP of operations at Thomson Learning, has been appointed acting president of Gale. The company will not alter its business model under Siegel. Paschal was appointed president of Gale in 1998 after that company purchased Information Access Company, where he was the top executive. In late 2003, Gale eliminated 181 positions owing to what the company termed "a soft library market" (see Late Bulletins , LJ 1/04, p. 13)

The Special Libraries Association (SLA) has named Susan S. DiMattia, editor of Library Hotline and Corporate Library Update and contributing editor to LJ, an SLA Fellow. DiMattia served as SLA president in 1999–2000 and has remained active in the group's professional development and conference program planning. She will receive the award at SLA's annual conference to be held in Nashville this June.