Category: Legislation

Federal: At the beginning of October, Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR), which will delay the passage of appropriations bills until after the fall election cycle. Libraries were supported in the CR, with relatively level funding for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) program, Library of Congress, and other…

Federal: Taking a look at copyright news this week while there is a lull in legislative news, Carrie Russell writes an interesting piece for the District Dispatch about interlibrary loan (ILL) permission fees. Her survey of libraries indicates that article permission fees are often steep, and she expounds on the case of one journal’s fee in particular….

Federal: ALA submitted a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding the recent inclusion of broadband Internet access to the Lifeline program. Lifeline provides low-income Americans with discounted phone service. In March 2016, the FCC voted to include broadband as an additional service of this program. Recommendations made by ALA addressed non-cost-related obstacles in accessing broadband….

Federal: The Library Copyright Alliance (LCA), of which ALA, ACRL, and ARL are the representative bodies, has submitted comments to the U.S. Copyright Office on the mandatory deposit policy of electronic resources to the Library of Congress. In 2010, an interim rule was established that addressed the mandatory deposit of electronic serial publications. The current…

Federal: Gathering in Washington, DC in late June 2016, the Joint MLA/AAHSL Legislative Task Force met with representatives. Key talking points included requesting: an increase in 2017 appropriations (at least $395.1M for NLM and $34.5B for NIH), delay of action on proposed copyright law legislation until the new Librarian of Congress has been confirmed, and…

Federal: On July 13, the Senate confirmed Carla Hayden to be the next Librarian of Congress. Hayden’s nomination was endorsed by both the MLA and AAHSL. Read the press release on the event from the Library of Congress. You may also view how your state representatives voted on the nomination, which received 74 votes of support. Congress has adjourned for the…

Federal: Congress recently updated the Freedom of Information Act with the passage of the FOIA Improvement Act. Among the amendments, the new law: requires disclosable documents be made available in electronic format; includes a Presumption of Openness clause; limits FOIA exemption to select records created in the past 25 years; establishes a Council to make…

Federal: The ALA 2016 Annual Conference and Exhibition is currently underway in Orlando, Florida, running June 23-28. Find programming relevant to medical libraries on the ALA conference website. State: The Illinois General Assembly is scheduled to be in session again Wednesday, June 29th, to work on a stopgap budget for the new year starting Friday….

Federal: Earlier this month, the MLA Board of Directors endorsed a statement by the LGBT Librarians SIG, with concern for health impacts resulting from discrimination against transgender and gender variant people. Instead, they “affirm laws and regulations that decrease stigma and discrimination against citizens and colleagues”. Federal library funding for FY17 got a boost on June 9….

Federal:  The National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., has announced that Patricia Flatley Brennan, R.N., Ph.D., will be the new director of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in August 2016. Dr. Brennan is the first female director and non-physician to lead the National Library of Medicine. For more information, see…