Public Policy Connections

CALL TO ACTION: Oppose H.R. 3699, a Bill to Block Public Access to Publicly Funded Research

A new bill, The Research Works Act (H.R.3699), designed to roll back the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) Public Access Policy and block the development of similar policies in other federal agencies, has been introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives. Co-sponsored by Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), the bill was proposed on 16 December 2011, and referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The Special Libraries Association strongly supports the NIH’s popular Public Access Policy.  This new bill would essentially reverse the NIH’s Public Access Policy and prevent other Federal agencies from developing similar policies to provide timely public access to taxpayer-funded research.

Supporters of public access need to speak out against this proposed legislation. The Alliance for Taxpayer Access, of which SLA is a member, strongly urges you to contact the offices below to express your opposition today. A draft letter is available for all those who would like to join the opposition:

 --Representative Issa
@DarrellIssa
http://issa.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=597&Itemid=73
Fax (202) 225-3303

--Representative Maloney
@RepMaloney
https://maloney.house.gov/contact-me/email-me  (Using zip code 10128-3679)
Fax: (202) 225-4709

--Members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee – especially if you’re a constituent. http://1.usa.gov/zDqnne

--Your representative – through the Alliance for Taxpayer Access Action Center: http://www.congressweb.com/cweb2/index.cfm/siteid/sparc

IMLS Releases New Five Year Strategic Plan

The  2012 – 2016 IMLS Strategic Plan identifies the mission of Institute of Museum and Library Services to inspire libraries and museums to advance innovation, learning and civic engagement by providing leadership through research, policy development and grant-making.

Five strategic goals will drive IMLS activities and investments:

Strategic Goal 1: IMLS places the learner at the center and supports engaging experiences in libraries and museums that prepare people to be full participants in their local communities and our global society.

Strategic Goal 2: IMLS promotes museums and libraries as strong community anchors that enhance civic engagement, cultural opportunities, and economic vitality.

Strategic Goal 3: IMLS supports exemplary stewardship of museum and library collections and promotes the use of technology to facilitate discovery of knowledge and cultural heritage.

Strategic Goal 4: IMLS advises the President and Congress on plans, policies, and activities that sustain and increase public access to information and ideas.

Strategic Goal 5: IMLS achieves excellence in public management and performs as a model organization through strategic alignment of IMLS resources and prioritization of programmatic activities, maximizing value for the American public.

Read IMLS Press Release

Groups Support the Presidential Records Act Amendments

On November 2, 2011, more than thirty organizations backing greater accountability and transparency in government, including SLA, wrote a letter in support of the Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2011, H.R. 3071. The bill provides a framework for the assertion of privilege by a former president and clarifies the rights and obligations of the incumbent president and the Archivist of the United States in dealing with such claims.

Specifically, the bill imposes a time limit in which a former president must assert any claim of privilege upon a determination of the Archivist to make available to the public a record of that former president. The bill also establishes processes for managing the disclosure of records upon the assertion of privilege by a former president, and grants to the incumbent president the power to decide whether or not to uphold any privilege claim of a former president. Further, the decision of the incumbent president to release a document over a claim of privilege by a former president controls, absent a court order to the contrary.

Read letter.

Special Projects of the U.S. Copyright Office Announced

On October 25th, Register of Copyrights Maria A. Pallante made public the Priorities and Special Projects of the United States Copyright Office  for October 2011 through October 2013. The document articulates 17 priorities in the areas of copyright policy and administrative practice, as well as 10 new projects designed to improve the quality and efficiency of the U.S. Copyright Office’s services in the 21st century.

“Congress has charged the Copyright Office with administering the United States Copyright Act and performing important public services for the nation,” Pallante said. “The work plan presented here reflects the commitment of the office to address current complexities in the copyright system and prepare for future challenges.”

Read News Release: Director of U.S. Copyright Office Announces Priorities, Special Projects for Next Two Years

Read Document.

UCLA Streaming Video Case Dismissed

On October 3, 2011, the United States District Court in California dismissed a lawsuit charging UCLA with violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other provisions of copyright law. The Ambrose Video and the Association for Informational Media and Equipment (AIME) lawsuit challenged UCLA's practice of streaming previously purchased video content for educational purposes. The ruling suggests that educational institutions are entitled to stream legally purchased DVDs on campus without the permission of copyright holders.

Read More:
UCLA Streaming Video Case Dismissed
DMCA allows DVD ripping if you own the DVD

Obama Administration's Commitment to Open Government: A Status Report

On September 16 2011, the White House is released The Obama Administration's Commitment to Open Government: A Status Report.  

This status report highlights the breadth of the Administration’s commitment to open government, documents the substantial progress made on many of the Administration’s open government initiatives, and anticipates continued progress. Although not an exhaustive compilation of our open government efforts, this report provides a compelling picture of how far the Administration has already come towards forging a more open government.

Read more on the White House Blog

Universities Band Together To Join Orphan Works Project

In late August four universities, Cornell, Duke, Emory and Johns Hopkins, announced that they would begin making the full text of thousands of orphan works in their library collections digitally accessible to students, faculty and researchers at their own institutions. Orphan works are out-of-print books that are still subject to copyright but whose copyright holders cannot be identified or located.

These four institutions formally join the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Florida in a collaborative Orphan Works Project, which aims to identify orphan works that have been scanned and archived in the HathiTrust Digital Library. HathiTrust is a partnership of more than 50 major research institutions working to share, archive and preserve their combined collections of digitized books and journals.

Read Press Release

IMLS Requests Input on 5-Year Strategic Plan by 12 August

Do you have ideas about how the federal government can support your work as a special librarian in the private sector? The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is currently building its five-year strategic plan, and is requesting input on how it can best fulfill its statutory responsibility “to support museum, library, and information services to meet the information, education, research, economic, cultural, and civic needs of the people of the United States.”

Be heard by visiting http://imls.ideascale.com. Also, share this link with stakeholders in in your organization who value your services as an information professional. With input from the stakeholders in your organization, the IMLS will have stronger direction on how its plan will best support your goals. In order to be competitive, all workers need information science skills.

In the future, the IMLS could provide and support information science training across multiple disciplines (and potentially have federal money allocated to promote information literacy everywhere, in federal institutions, the private sector, and not-for-profit associations).

Read More http://imls.ideascale.com

NARA Proposes New Rule on Declassification

According to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a proposed new rule published for comment by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in early July would establish updated new procedures for the declassification of historical records containing national security information.

The proposed rule tracks fairly closely with President Obama’s December 2009 executive order 13526, and thus highlights some of the limitations of that order, especially with respect to the practice of “automatic declassification.”

Read FAS article. 

SLA, AALL, and MLA Congratulate the EPA on the Release of the Library Network Strategic Plan

The EPA National Library Network Strategic Plan FY 2012-2014 (EPA 260-R-11-001) and the accompanying Executive Summary (EPA 260-S-11-001) have just been published. This milestone follows nine months of collaborative writing and review by the National Library Network and its internal stakeholders. The strategic plan is a roadmap for building on recent successes and strengthening EPA’s National Library Network.

SLA, AALL, and MLA officially congratulated the EPA on the release of the Library Network Strategic Plan. The associations look forward to working together with the EPA on implementing the plan, especially regarding the goal to digitize and preserve materials in the Library Network’s collections. SLA, AALL and MLA  also encourage the United States Congress to provide full funding for this program to ensure that the plan will in fact be implemented.

Read EPA National Library Network Strategic Plan FY 2012-2014

Read SLA, AALL, and MLA Statement on the Release of the EPA National Library Network Strategic Plan 2012-2014