Fabulous News: UELMA to be Introduced This Year in Maryland
by: Mary Jo Lazun and Joanie Bellistri

Next year, hopefully, will be Maryland’s turn. LLAM has just received word that the Maryland state delegate Sam Arora (D-Montgomery County) will be sponsoring the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act (UELMA) in the 2014 Maryland General Assembly.

UELMA provides a technology-neutral, outcomes-based approach to ensuring that online state legal material deemed official will be preserved and will be permanently available to the public in unaltered form. UELMA has become law in eight states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Minnesota, Nevada, North Dakota, and Oregon and hopefully this spring, Maryland.

LLAM is in a unique position to help stakeholders and legislators understand the importance of UELMA. Now is the time to seek out opportunities to educate our attorneys, educators, and government officials about the importance of UELMA. The AALL Government Relations Office has made this easy by providing a useful selection of background information, advocacy materials, and sample letters at http://www.aallnet.org/Documents/Government-Relations/UELMA.

Take a few minutes to familiarize yourself on the law and its importance so that when an elevator moment presents itself, you will be ready to provide information and answer questions about UELMA.

This year’s library Legislative Day in Annapolis will be a great opportunity to talk face-to-face with our legislators about the importance UELMA. We’ll be announcing the date soon.