On July 12, ALA President Barbara Stripling released a statement regarding libraries and the Affordable Care Act. “The American Library Association anticipates that many Americans will turn to libraries for help in accessing enrollment information when open enrollment for the Health Insurance Marketplace component of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) begins on October 1, 2013,” Stripling … Continue reading Libraries and the Affordable Care Act
The following message was sent to all ALA members this morning from ALA President Barbara Stripling: Presidential Update on National Security Leak In early June, reports of the National Security Agency’s secret practices rang loudly around the world. News reports detailed PRISM, the US government surveillance program that obtains the internet records from 10 US companies: … Continue reading Will You Stand for Privacy?
After extended debate, the ALA Council voted to substitute the resolution in support of whistleblower Edward Snowden (CD#39) that passed in Council I on Monday, with a resolution on the need for reforms for the intelligence community to support privacy, open government, government transparency, and accountability (CD#20.4 and CD#19.2) developed by the Committee on Legislation … Continue reading Whistleblower Issues Dominate Council III Session
The ALA Washington Office held a special informational session on Sunday afternoon to let librarians get a head start on helping their patrons enroll for healthcare through the new Affordable Care Act, which aims to provide reasonable health insurance for all Americans equally, regardless of any pre-existing conditions. Washington Office Executive Director Emily Sheketoff replayed … Continue reading The Prescription for Finding Healthcare Information
Digital Content: What’s Next, the third supplement on ebooks and digital content from American Libraries, is now available. The supplement, launched May 22, examines both the big picture and the nitty-gritty of libraries and publishing, looking at how libraries are evolving in response to the digital revolution, from taking advantage of opportunities in content creation … Continue reading New Digital Supplement on Ebooks Launches
Libraries must be engaged with their communities. Community engagement requires political engagement. This is unfortunate, but I believe libraries cannot be apathetic to the political process if they are to succeed. That is why I attended the Saturday morning Washington Office Update; I felt it important to get a political overview as it pertains to libraries. … Continue reading Member POV, Saturday Edition: They Don’t Teach You Politics in Library School
Educators in the Houston metro area are readying a “book trafficker” caravan that would travel March 12–18 from Houston, Texas, to Tucson, Arizona, to donate books about the Mexican-American experience to four volunteer libraries. The donations are meant to counter the January removal of at least seven titles from Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) … Continue reading “Book Traffickers” Meet Tucson Ban on Mexican-American Studies
Congratulations, Libraryland! School library boosters hit the 25,000-signature threshold this morning on the White House petition urging that every child in America have access to an effective school library program. (To be exact, there were 25,594 signatures as of 1:49 p.m. Central time.) You’ve got the attention of the Executive Branch now, per the rules … Continue reading What Comes After Victory
The email below was sent January 27 to all ALA members with email addresses. The goal is a mere 6,344 signatures away from reaching the 25,000 goal: the magic number that allows the petition to reach the desk of President Obama. I hope that by now you have heard about AASL President Carl Harvey’s White House Petition on School … Continue reading Just Over 6,000 More Signatures Needed on White House School Petition
If you missed the fair-use panel presented by the ALA Washington Office at Midwinter, you may want to check out ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy and get access to policy briefs, webinars, and more. Also, the Association of Research Librarians has a webinar today from 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern time about ARL’s new … Continue reading Copyright Fair Use – Update
A panel of five copyright experts offered helpful tips and advice on orphaned works and digitization at the ALA Washington Office session this morning in Dallas. Much of the conversation revolved around copyright fair use and the willingness of academic and public library leaders to take risks that authors and copyright owners might appear and … Continue reading Copyright Fair Use on Digitized and Orphaned Works: Washington Office Update #alamw12
School librarians have regained a bit of ground at the federal level as the push continues to get school libraries restored to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which is due for reauthorization. The foothold comes in the congressional appropriation of $28.6 million for literacy programs in the $916-billion budget for FY2012, and, reading … Continue reading Good News on the Road to ESEA
