20 December 2006
GPO Searching for New Members for Council
The Government Printing Office has asked SLA to recommend new members for the Depository Library Council, an advisory body that counsels the public printer on trends, innovation, and new concepts. Read Letter.
SLA Signs on to Amicus Brief
SLA and other organizations signed on to an U.S. Supreme Court Amicus Brief in John Gilmore vs. Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, et al. This case squarely presents one of the most critical civil liberties questions of the post-9/11 era: whether a federal agency may set standards for the conduct of members of the public through rules and requirements the public is not permitted to see. Read Full Brief.
20 December 2006
GPO Searching for New Members for Council
SLA has been asked by the Government Printing Office to recommend new members for the Depository Library Council, an advisory body that counsels the public printer on trends, innovation, and new concepts. For more information, please contact Doug Newcomb. Read More.
18 December 2006
SLA Continues to Monitor the Developments in the EPA Library Closures In another act of defiance the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has scrubbed their library website, which makes their reports unavailable to both agency scientists and outside researchers. SLA has expressed grave concerns with the actions of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as they moved to begin closing the network of 27 EPA libraries and information centers across the United States. SLA denounced the proposal to close EPA Libraries immediately when we heard the news in February 2006. SLA members have been encouraged to contact their representatives to voice opinions on SLAs Legislative Action Center. In August 2006, SLA publicly denounced EPAs decision to close libraries before Congressional action. Read Articles: PEER, LA Times, ISTL Viewpoints, EPA Newsroom For the lighter side of a serious topic, view a cartoon on the EPA.
16 November 2006
SLA and Others Voices Concern Over Broadcast Video FlagIn a letter to the U.S. Senate, SLA and other organizations expressed their concern about the broadcast video flag (or broadcast flag) provision of H.R. 5252, the Advanced Telecommunications and Opportunities Reform Act. The various organizations believe the broadcast flag provision would adversely affect their members' ability to deliver broadcast media via the Internet to support education and, in particular the delivery of distance education. Read More.
22 September 2006
Organizations express concern on WIPO Treaty
SLA signed on to a letter with several other organizations to express concerns about the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyrights and Related Rights (SCCR) decision to propose a 2007 Diplomatic Conference on the proposed WIPO Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations. The organizations are concerned about the substance of the treaty, as well as proceeding with this Diplomatic Conference in the face of significant disagreement amongst delegations. Therefore, we ask that the U.S. delegation express its objections to proceeding with a Diplomatic Conference at this time and seek support for that position from other country delegations at the upcoming WIPO General Assembly. Read Letter.
19 September 2006
Associations Support NARA Funding Request
SLA, along with four other library associations, sent a letter requesting that members of the Committee on Appropriations support the needs of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) when the conference committee on H.R. 5576, the Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, meets later this year. Read letter.
14 September 2006
Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Conferees
Several organizations, including SLA, wrote a letter to the Department of Homeland Security urging them to use Section 525 of the House version of H.R. 5441. House Section 525 would limit the overuse of the Sensitive Security Information (SSI) designation. Read Letter.
13 September 2006
EPA Library Closings Continue Despite Protests
Touting it as part of a plan to put more information online, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been closing its regional libraries in spite of protests by federal employees. The Chicago library shut its doors in April, and the Dallas and Kansas City, Missouri, libraries are set to close by the end of September. On September 13, employees of the EPA Headquarters Library in Washington received notice that their physical space would close to walk-ins beginning October 1. The closures are part of President Bush's dramatic cost-cutting plan that includes a proposed reduction of $100 million for FY 2007 and further cuts for FY 2008. Read EPA 2007 Plan.
7 September 2006
H.R. 5439, the "Orphan Works? Act of 2006.
SLA, in collaboration with the Library Copyright Alliance, wrote in support of the Orphan Works Act. The Act will help resolve issues surrounding Orphan works--works whose owners are difficult or impossible to locate. Resolving the Orphan Works issue will present significant new educational opportunities because these works will be publicly accessible and available to students, faculty and the public. Read Letter.
5 September 2006
WIPO Broadcast Treaty Statement
SLA and other groups offered a united statement in a common belief that the WIPO Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasts and Broadcasting Organizations, as currently drafted, would harm important economic and public policy interests. This Statement offers comments on several key aspects of the treaty. Read Letter.
31 August 2006
Comments on Draft plan to Consolidate NCLIS into the IMLS
On August 31st SLA commented on the proposed plan to consolidate the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) into the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). This was done to ensure that the original function of NCLIS would be upheld by the IMLS. This is not addressed in the IMLS Draft Consolidation Plan, and is a crucial component. Read Comments.
22 August 2006
H.R. 5521 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act for FY 2007
SLA, along with four other organizations, wrote to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations in support of H.R. 5521. In passing the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act for FY 2007 (H.R. 5521), the House of Representatives approved a total of $130.5 million for GPO, including $35.3 million for the Salaries and Expenses (S&E) that funds the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). Read Allard Letter. Read Lewis Letter.
3 August 2006
Library Groups Support of Public Access Act Expands
SLA and other library groups commended 23 provosts for joining the recent surge of support of the Public Access Act. Just one week after more than two dozen leading universities declared their strong support for the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006 (S.2695). The Federal Research Public Access Act was introduced on May 2, 2006 by Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT). It requires federal agencies that fund over $100 million in annual external research to make electronic manuscripts of peer-reviewed journal articles that stem from their research publicly available on the Internet. The U.S. government funds an estimated 50% of university research, making this a particularly important cause for the higher education community. Read Press Release.
12 July 2006
SLA strongly supports the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006
SLA with other library associations sent a joint letter to Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), expressing strong support of the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006 (S. 2695). This legislation would promote widespread, affordable, and effective dissemination of scientific and scholarly research results. The letter explains how, "Federally funded research is a public resource collected at public expense. Importantly, increased access to this research accelerates the pace of discovery and innovation and fosters economic growth." Other talking points and supporting arguments are outlined in the full letter. Read Letter.
11 July 2006
SLA and AALL Request Library of Congress to Delay Decision Affecting Bibliographic Records
On 26 May, 2006 SLA and AALL wrote to Dr. Billington, Librarian of Congress, and the Joint Committee on the Library, urging the Library of Congress to delay its decision to discontinue providing series authority control for bibliographic records beyond the scheduled implementation date of June 1, 2006. This delay will allow libraries and librarians sufficient time to assess the possible consequences of this decision on libraries and their users, to determine if there are appropriate alternatives, or to develop and present modifications to this decision. Read original letter. On 12 July SLA received a reply. View the reply letter from the Library of Congress.
6 July 2006
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and Google
SLA signed and delivered a letter to Dr. Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States, in association with AALL, ALA, and ARL to support with concern the agreement between the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and Google to digitize records in the possession of NARA. The Associations support NARA working with Google to make the records of the United States government more easily accessible by the public. Conversely, the associations also share a, "deep concern about the ownership - physical and legal - of both the underlying documents and the subsequent digital data files." The letter continues to outline their position, "We believe that such ownership must remain with NARA and the U.S. Government." Read Letter.
29 June 2006
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Library Closures: Take Action Today!
In his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2007, U.S. President Bush deleted $2 million of support for Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) libraries, amounting to 80% of the agency's total budget for libraries. Without waiting for Congress to act, EPA has begun shuttering libraries, closing access to collections and reassigning staff. Read what SLA has done surrounding this issue and how you can help! Since learning of this issue, SLA public policy staff members have visited Capitol Hill and the EPA offices to actively voice The Association's opposition to this proposed move to close the network of 27 libraries and information centers within the EPA. SLA representatives are still at work on this issue and to date have held meetings with staff from the EPA and the U.S. House of Representative as well as conducted outreach with U.S. Senators stating our strong disagreement with the Bush Administration's decision.
How YOU can help: Let your voice be heard! Write a letter to your Senators requesting they reinstate the EPA Library Budget. The SLA Legislative Action Center is an excellent and easy to use tool that allows for easy identification of your elected representatives, provides the important talking points surrounding this issue that are needed to write a compelling letter, and delivers the letter directly to the representatives' office. According to a press release from the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) Representatives for 10,000 U.S. scientists at the EPA are also joining the fight and asking Congress to stop the Bush administration from closing the agency's network of technical research libraries. The EPA scientists, representing more than half of the total agency workforce, contend thousands of scientific studies are being put out of reach, hindering emergency preparedness, anti-pollution enforcement and long-term research. Please take a moment to write and share YOUR opinion on the EPA Library closures.
28 June 2006
Net-neutrality: SLA endorses S. 2360, the Internet Non-Discrimination Act of 2006.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed its telecommunications bill, H.R. 5252, in May 2006 without adequate net neutrality protections. Now the fight has moved to U.S. Senate. On 28 June, the Senate Commerce Committee passed its own telecom bill, S. 2686. While an amendment to the bill that would have added meaningful net neutrality safeguards failed 11-11, this tie vote marks a significant political victory and gives the effort new momentum. The debate now shifts to the full Senate, where SLA and its allies will be working to get strong net neutrality language in any bill that the Senate considers. SLA, in conjunction with the AALL, ALA and ARL delivered a letter endorsing S. 2360, the Internet Non-Discrimination Act of 2006, which deals with the controversial issue of Net-neutrality. Together, these associations represent over 139,000 libraries as well as millions of library patrons. The letter was delivered on 26 March 2006, and explained that, "Assuring network neutrality is important as the digital world spawns an international knowledge-based economy. Important steps must be taken to prevent interfering with blocking, degrading, altering, modifying or changing traffic on the Internet and prohibiting priority lanes where some content providers can purchase faster access to end users" while those who don't or cannot pay the fee are left in the slow lane." SLA will also continue to monitor the progress of the telecommunications bill and will continue bring up-to-date develops as they occur. For a clever look at this issue from the technology side read this opinion article written by Andrew Orlowski posted on The Register.
8 June 2006
U.S. Copyright Office's Orphan Works Report
SLA, in collaboration with the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA), continues to participate in dialog with members of U.S. Congress expressing support of legislation that will alleviate the problem of orphan works. The U.S. Copyright Office produced a report and a proposal for legislation that was informed by input from the LCA. Professor Lawrence Lessig of the Stanford University Law School, wrote a thoughtful letter concerning the U.S. Copyright Office report on orphan works in which he complimented the report for collecting and presenting evidence concerning the existence of an orphan works problem. However, Professor Lessig critiqued the report's proposed legislative solution, and offered an alternative approach. Unfortunately, the LCA felt that Professor Lessig's proposals raise serious concerns, and stand little chance of enactment. In response, LCA prepared a detailed document which re-defined the Alliance's position and compared Lessig's proposal with the LCA supported legislation. Read the full LCA response to professor Lessig's letter.
The U.S. Copyright Office completed its study of problems related to "orphan works"copyrighted works whose owners may be impossible to identify and locate. As requested by Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator Patrick Leahy, the Office submitted its Report on Orphan Works to the Senate Judiciary Committee on 31 January 2006. Full Report.
6 June 2006
Library Groups File Federal Appeals Court Brief on National Geographic Society Copyright Infringement Case
SLA in conjunction with ALA, AALL, ARL, MLA, and the Society of American Archivists filed an amicus brief in support of the National Geographic Society's (NGS) right to re-publish works in a digital format without seeking permission of authors or other contributors. The case, Greenberg v. National Geographic Society, involves an allegation by photographers and authors that NGS violated copyright when it published past issues of its magazine on CD-ROM without first seeking permission. The brief was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The brief supports NGS in that as long as digital versions place photographs and articles in the same context as the print original, there is no infringement of copyright. Read the full brief.
26 May 2006
SLA and AALL Request LC to Delay Decision Affecting Bibliographic Records
SLA and AALL wrote to Dr. Billington, Librarian of Congress, and the Joint Committee on the Library, urging the Library of Congress to delay its decision to discontinue providing series authority control for bibliographic records beyond the scheduled implementation date of June 1, 2006. This delay will allow libraries and librarians sufficient time to assess the possible consequences of this decision on libraries and their users, to determine if there are appropriate alternatives, or to develop and present modifications to this decision. Read Letter.
25 May 2006
GPO Shares Draft Memorandum of Understanding for CommentThe Government Printing Office shared a draft Memorandum of Understanding between the regional Federal Depository Libraries in Kansas and Nebraska, and provided library organizations, including SLA, to provide comment. While it is recognized that future collaborations for shared regional collections and services will differ based on the unique characteristics of the participating institutions, it is recommend that GPO develop guidelines that facilitate such arrangements without stifling innovative ideas. Read Comments.
26 May 2006
SLA and AALL Request LC to Delay Decision Affecting Bibliographic Records
SLA and AALL wrote to Dr. Billington, Librarian of Congress, and the Joint Committee on the Library, urging the Library of Congress to delay its decision to discontinue providing series authority control for bibliographic records beyond the scheduled implementation date of June 1, 2006. This delay will allow libraries and librarians sufficient time to assess the possible consequences of this decision on libraries and their users, to determine if there are appropriate alternatives, or to develop and present modifications to this decision. Read Letter.
25 May 2006
GPO Shares Draft Memorandum of Understanding for Comment
The Government Printing Office shared a draft Memorandum of Understanding between the regional Federal Depository Libraries in Kansas and Nebraska, and provided library organizations, including SLA, to provide comment. While it is recognized that future collaborations for shared regional collections and services will differ based on the unique characteristics of the participating institutions, it is recommend that GPO develop guidelines that facilitate such arrangements without stifling innovative ideas. Read Comments.
16 May 2006
SLA and others oppose EPA's 2007 Budget Cuts
In a letter to Senator Barbara Boxer and Senator James Jeffords SLA and other library associations conveyed the concerns about the proposed cut of up to $2 million in the FY 2007 budget of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The cuts could result in the closure of the EPA Headquarters Library as well as many of EPA's 27 regional and laboratory libraries. Read Letter.
9 May 2006
Library Groups Submit Joint Comments on Malaysia FTA
Several library groups, including SLA, submitted joint comments in response to the notice and request for public comments on the proposed United States-Malaysia free trade negotiations (Malaysia FTA), published by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) in the Federal Register on March 22, 2006 (71 Fed. Reg. 14558). These comments address, in particular, chapters that may impact intellectual property rights and services. Read Comments.
2 May 2006
Library Groups Applaud Legislation that Improves Public Access to Federal Scientific Research
A coalition of library associations, including the Special Libraries Association, praised the introduction of the "Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006." The legislation, introduced by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) would require federal agencies with extramural research portfolios over $100 million to make the electronic versions of peer-reviewed articles publicly available via the Internet within 6 months of publication. Read Press Release.
28 April 2006
Comments Submitted on Copyright Section 108
SLA and AALL submitted comments to the Section 108 Study Group (http://www.loc.gov/section108/). The Section 108 Study Group is a select committee of copyright experts, convened by the Library of Congress, and charged with updating for the digital world the Copyright Act's balance between the rights of creators and copyright owners and the needs of libraries and archives. SLA and AALL believe that the current criteria in Section 108(a) granting exceptions to libraries and archives should be maintained. The current standard is flexible permitting various libraries and archives to copy works for purposes other than "commercial advantage," under certain circumstances. This language permits law and special libraries to facilitate the administration of justice and the efficient working of the legal system and government institutions. Read Comments.
17 April 2006
Over 200 individuals and organizations, including SLA, signed a letter to the Smithsonian Institution expressing their concern over a joint venture agreement that the Smithsonian entered into with Showtime Networks. The new service has the right of first refusal on any access to Smithsonian collections and staff. The letter was delivered to the Smithsonian Institution on April 17, 2006, with copies to 28 U.S. Senators and 23 U.S. Congressmen who have oversight over the Institution. In addition, because the agreement governing this new joint venture has been kept secret, a Freedom of Information Act request was filed by the Center for American Progress, which is being represented in this matter by attorneys from EFF. Read letter.
15 March 2006
Amicus Brief filed in Hebrew Academy vs. Goldman
SLA, along with other groups, filed an Amicus Brief in the Supreme Court of California in the case of the Hebrew Academy of San Francisco, et al., vs. Richard Goldman et al. in support of Goldman. The amicus brief argues that the placement of copies of an oral history on the shelves of a few libraries meets the requirements of the "single publication rule" for statute of limitations purposes in a defamation case. Read Full Amicus Brief.
9 March 2006
Library Associations Support GPO 2007 Budget
SLA and others sent a letter to The Honorable Jerry Lewis, Chairman, Committee on Appropriations, urging his support for the Public Printer's FY 2007 budget request of $151.5 million, which includes $100,285,000 for the Congressional Printing and Binding (CP&B) Appropriation, $43,000,000 for the Salaries and Expenses (S&E) Appropriation of the Superintendent of Documents, and $8.2 million for GPO's revolving fund. Read Letter.
Orphan Works Testimony
8 March 2006
Several organizations, including SLA, were represented by testimony on Orphan Works given by Maria Pallante given to the U.S. Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, Committee on the Judiciary U.S. House of Representatives on March 8th, 2006. Pallante is Associate General Counsel and Director of Licensing, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (Guggenheim Museum). The sheer number of cultural, scholarly, and educational institutions lending support to her remarks not only strengthened libraries position, but also caught the attention of the committee members. Read Pallante's statement.
24 February 2006
SLA Opposes Budget Cuts for EPA Libraries
SLA, AALL, ALA, and ARL are in strong opposition to the Bush Administration proposal to close the network of libraries and information centers operating within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Read Letter.
3 January 2006
Organizations Request Online Access to the World Law Bulletin
SLA, along with others groups and individuals, sent a letter to The Honorable Bob Ney, Chairman, Joint Committee on the Library, House of Representatives. The letter requests that the Law Library of Congress publish the World Law Bulletin on the World Wide Web for unrestricted public access. Read Letter.
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