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Andy Bridges W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n e  

Sunshine Week 2007 
During the week of March 12–16, ALA and 
several other organizations celebrated Sun­
shine Week 2007, a weeklong recognition 
of the importance of open government and 
freedom of information. 

To kick off Sunshine Week, on March 
12, ALA cohosted “Closed Doors; Open 
Democracies?” a nationally Webcasted 
dialogue that featured a panel of experts 
who addressed, among many topics, the 
impact of government suppression and 
manipulation of scientific information on 
public health and safety. Panelists included 
Dorothy Biggs, (former Environmental Pro­
tection Agency [EPA] librarian), Rick Piltz 
(director of Climate Science Watch), Susan 
Wood (research professor in the Depart­
ment of Environmental and Occupational 
Health), and Jay Dyckman (director of the 
Knowledge Project at the National Coalition 
Against Censorship). 

The event was an enormous success, and 
it culminated in three main calls to action: 

• Visit the OpenTheGovernment.org 
coalition Web site (openthegovernment. 
org/article/articleview/247/1/94/) and get 
involved. 

• Get others involved: talk to at least 
five people about the “Closed Doors; Open 
Democracies?” event and the themes of 
Sunshine Week. And get each of the fi ve 
people to join the OpenTheGovernment. 
org coalition. 

• Begin the dialogue about a 21st­cen­
tury right to know agenda: send Open­
TheGovernment the top one or two things 
you would change to improve public ac­
cess today. Send your one or two ideas to 
yourRTK@openthegovernment.org 

Andy Bridges is communications specialist at ALA’s 
Washington Offi  ce, e-mail: abridges@alawash.org 

Sunshine Week 2007 came to a close with 
the National Freedom of Information (FOI) 
Day Conference on March 16. The event— 
“Access: Oversight and Priorities”—was 
sponsored by the First Amendment Center 
in cooperation with ALA. The conference 
brought together access advocates, govern­
ment officials, lawyers, librarians, journalists, 
educators, and others to discuss the latest 
issues and developments in sunshine in the 
government. 

During this annual event, which falls on 
or near the birthday of James Madison, ALA 
President Leslie Burger presented the James 
Madison Award and the Eileen Cooke State 
and Local Madison Award to recognize those 
who have championed, protected, and pro­
moted public access to government informa­
tion and the public’s right to know. 

The recipient of this year’s James Madison 
award was Paul McMasters, who recently 
retired and has been involved in every 
significant FOI legislation for the last two 
decades. The recipient of the Eileen Cooke 
State and Local Madison Award was Patricia 
Glass Schuman, former ALA president, who 
has trained tens of thousands of librarians 
and trustees for free access to government 
information. 

In her remarks, Burger honored the pass­
ing of Ridley Kessler, who provided public 
access to government information as the 
federal documents and regional depository 
librarian at the University of North Carolina­
Chapel Hill. 

Burger also took the time to acknowledge 
the courage of a special group: the EPA 
library staff. 

“The courage of these individuals has 
enabled the ALA to report the scope of this 
disturbing situation to Congressional Com­
mittees,” Burger said in her remarks, “which 
have now taken action to halt and formally 
investigate the EPA’s actions.” 

254C&RL News April 2007

mailto:abridges@alawash.org
mailto:yourRTK@openthegovernment.org
http:OpenTheGovernment.org