Today, President Barack Obama released his budget request for the 2015 fiscal year. The proposed budget for the Library Services and Technology Act falls $2 million short from the $180.9 million enacted by the U.S. Congress for the 2014 fiscal year. The big hit came to the state program, with slight increases to the set … Continue reading ALA Examines President Obama’s FY2015 Budget
During the ALA Washington Office Update on Saturday morning, Patrice McDermott, executive director of Open the Government, introduced Spencer Ackerman, national security editor for the Guardian US, who discussed details of how the newspaper acquired information and documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden and came to the decision to publish them. Before Ackerman took the podium, McDermott shared her … Continue reading Putting NSA Under the Microscope
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), with open enrollment for health insurance running from October 1, 2013, through March 14, 2014, may turn out to be as busy as April tax time for libraries. And as with taxes, those manning the reference desk are not expected to be experts or to help people complete the paperwork, … Continue reading Studying Up on Health Care Literacy
It was almost 10 years ago that ALA members started to discuss Google’s plan to digitize the collection of several research libraries to create a book search database. I recall a lot of grumbling about the very idea: Surely this was a very risky thing for the research libraries to agree to, and might it … Continue reading Google Book Search: We’ve Come a Long Way
Here’s a snapshot of how the library community is affected until the budget situation is resolved: The Library of Congress buildings are closed to the public, and its website is inaccessible, except for THOMAS, Congress.gov, and Cataloger’s Desktop. However, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine still offers access to LC and other agencies before their websites went dark. The National … Continue reading The Government Shutdown and Libraries
As the first treaty devoted to copyright exceptions, the June 28, 2013, agreement represents a significant development in international copyright law. (The 1886 Berne Convention contains exceptions for quotations, illustration in teaching, and news reporting.) ALA worked closely with the US delegation throughout the negotiating process. Through the Library Copyright Alliance, ALA’s views were represented … Continue reading How the Marrakesh Treaty Opens Vistas for Print-Disabled Readers
Library workers nationwide are educating themselves about the next implementation phase of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which is slated to begin October 1. On that date, the Health Insurance Marketplace opens to an estimated 7 million people who are uninsured so they can select a health-insurance policy. “Libraries have a long tradition of making … Continue reading Libraries Stress Neutrality As They Prep for Queries on Health Care Law
Arizona House Bill 2165, which was enacted in April, adds digital books and electronic records to the state’s existing privacy law, stipulating that anyone who releases information about a user’s library activities will be charged with a misdemeanor. “Over the years we’ve dealt with internet privacy for many different reasons, including identity theft,” Arizona Rep. … Continue reading Expanding Privacy Legislation to Include Ebooks
Recent lawsuits against libraries in Kentucky continue to reverberate across the state, ever since two separate circuit-court rulings were handed down in April 2013 that found Campbell County Public Library and Kenton County Public Library had improperly raised their millage rates since 1979 and 1967, respectively. The decisions stated that the libraries did not follow … Continue reading Tax Battle in the Bluegrass State
More than 260 librarians and almost 800 library technicians who work for the Department of Defense (DOD) are being furloughed 11 days, one day per week from July 8 to September 27, due to sequestration. While this is a personal financial hardship, we are also concerned about having to cut library services for our patrons: … Continue reading Under Sequester
Library advocates gathered May 8 for a policy briefing in Washington, D.C., at the start of the American Library Association’s National Library Legislative Day (NLLD). Close to 400 librarians, patrons, parents, educators, and other volunteers discussed key library issues with congressional representatives, and nearly 1,400 others contacted their legislators via phone calls, email, and social … Continue reading Speaking Up for Libraries at National Library Legislative Day
Standing outside the ice cream freezers at the local grocery store, a notion struck me from out of the blue. “There ought to be a library-themed Ben & Jerry’s flavor.” Alas, to this day, this has not come to pass. But this single serendipitous thought on an otherwise uneventful evening shopping trip is a testament … Continue reading Analog Ideas, Digital Activism
