Author: Kirstin Duffin

Federal: The MLA and AAHSL have filed comments in support of the new NLM Strategic Plan, under development in 2017. The new plan includes four central themes: (1) Role of NLM in advancing data science, open science, and biomedical informatics; (2) Role of NLM in advancing biomedical discovery and translational science; (3) Role of the…

Federal: With presidential administrations poised for turnover, a number of library advocacy issues are on the precipice of change: – support of net neutrality, which the FCC strongly bolstered in 2015 with the adoption of the Open Internet rules, may be weakened or eliminated under the new administration; – championship of privacy, including as it relates to…

Federal: Rep. Tom Price will be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services under president-elect Donald Trump. Like Trump, Price has been critical of the Affordable Care Act. Price also favors changes to Medicaid and Medicare. While he made no direct comments regarding policy following his secretarial appointment, Price supports Medicaid being converted…

Federal: The Connecticut Four, four librarians who, in 2005, stood against providing the FBI access to library patron computer use information, are again in the news. They write in the Hartford Courant about movement in the Senate to increase FBI surveillance authority. The latest proposition would require librarians to provide the FBI with transaction records…

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: 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: 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….