FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

April 26, 2007

Henry Haupt, Secretary of State
Cindy Davidsmeyer, Senate President
Patrick O'Grady, Legislative Research Unit

Jesse White, Emil Jones Announce Cd Documenting Historic 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention Will Soon Be Available At Public, Academic Libraries

SPRINGFIELD – Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White and Senate President Emil Jones, Jr. announced today that Illinois' public and academic libraries soon will be receiving a free CD containing the complete record of proceedings from Illinois' historic sixth Constitutional Convention in 1970.

The Illinois Legislative Research Unit (LRU), at the request of President Jones, undertook the project with the goal of having an easy-to-use, hyperlinked CD of manageable size. The CD is composed of seven volumes and approximately 8,900 pages of convention proceedings and puts them onto one Mac or PC compatible CD.

Secretary White said the convention records are still frequently used, but users currently have only the printed volumes and index for legal research. He said public interest in the 1970 Constitutional Convention is expected to increase during the coming months as Illinois voters decide in 2008 whether the state should conduct another Constitutional Convention.

"I anticipate that teachers, historians, members of the media and others will want to revisit the 1970 Convention as the 2008 election approaches," said White. "I am delighted that this CD will be available at our public, college and university libraries. Those who review the record of these historic proceedings will no doubt be fascinated by how this important document came together during ten months of intense negotiations."

President Jones noted that the 1970 constitution approved by voters in December of that year created landmark initiatives, such as equal protection laws for women, the institution of home rule, creation of the State Board of Education, Auditor General and Comptroller's office and annual sessions of the General Assembly.

"The availability of the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention on CD and online showcases an important part of Illinois' history," President Jones said. "The accessibility of the document, and the ease of searching it will allow everyone-from elementary school students to astute historians--to fully realize how the state constitution was crafted."

Patrick O'Grady, Executive Director of the Legislative Research Unit, said the CD also contains several additional documents to aid in researching the convention. He said the original document is unchanged, though LRU corrected misspelled words for searches. He said search capabilities allow the researcher to search for a word that was originally misspelled and still find it. It may be searched by key word, table of contents, or index for the volumes; or the Mary Redmond Index, organized by article and section.

In addition to its availability at public and academic libraries, the contents of the CD may be used or downloaded free of charge from the Illinois General Assembly's Internet site: http://www.ilga.gov.