The American Library Association’s Washington, D.C., office has identified the following issues affecting libraries as being especially crucial during the 114th session of Congress (2015-2017).
Appropriations – Maintain level funding for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) in the FY 2016 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill
Copyright – Protect the many provisions of the Copyright Act that expressly allow the use of copyrighted information without prior authorization by the copyright holder, including particularly the “Fair Use” doctrine (17 U.S.C. 107)
Government Information – Pass the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR)
Privacy and Surveillance – Restore the Constitutional privacy rights of library users and all Americans lost since “9-11” to overly-broad, invasive and insufficiently “checked and balanced” provisions of the USA Patriot, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments, and of the Electronic Communications Privacy Acts
School Libraries – Reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Telecommunications-support “network neutrality”
For more information on each issue, please click here. (Also, if you’re interested, take a look at the “key facts about libraries”-some of which are humorous-at the bottom of the page.)