The United States Senate just passed this year’s $1.1 trillion budget, by a vote of 56 to 40. (The budget still has to be signed into law by the President.) While it is not entirely clear what impact the budget, as a whole, will have on libraries, one thing is certain: there will be an avoidance of the government shutdown that paralyzed many federal library and research services in the fall of 2013.
As a result of the budget’s passing, the following will happen.
-The Library of Congress will remain open. Its entire website (not just THOMAS, Congress.gov, and Cataloger’s Desktop) will remain accessible.
-Websites for the National Institutes of Health and the National Library of Medicine will be kept up-to-date.
-Databases provided by the National Library of Medicine, such as PubMed and MedlinePlus, will be fully accessible and up-to-date.
-Federally-funded presidential libraries and all National Archives facilities will stay open.
-The Smithsonian, in addition to other federal galleries and museums, will remain open.
-Federally-funded search engines, such as eric.ed.gov (and not just the version accessible through EBSCOhost), will remain accessible.
-Research into life-threatening diseases will continue, and new patients will keep being accepted into clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health.
-Consumer-protection services, from child-product safety to securing of hazardous-waste facilities, will continue. All inspections (not just “essential” ones) of chemical facilities and drinking-water systems will continue.
-Federal employees, including librarians, will still be able to read their e-mail.