In part 3 of 3 of this report, HSLI president, Fran E. Kovach, M.L.I.S., covers the meeting with Senator Mark Kirk’s office staff representative.
During Illinois Library Day, an appointment occurred with Michael Rasmussen, Springfield staff representative for U.S. Senator Mark Kirk. Two key points emphasized were to encourage the Senator to support LSTA level-funded in President’s FY2013 budget request $184.7 million and to support the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2012 (or FRPAA) (S. 2096). Re-inventing a strong workplace force is imperative as the economy grows to recovery. Libraries support the curriculum of nursing, allied health professionals, and even culinary art careers. In addition, libraries provide Internet access for prospective job applicants. Federal Research funded by taxes should be freely accessible to the American citizens. Digital archives can retain final manuscripts six months after publication with free public access and preserve the research indefinitely. FRPAA would enable smaller institutions access to information formerly cost prohibitive. Having vital health information available to researchers directly links to higher patient care.
I had the opportunity to explain how our organization functions, and that our membership represents 59 hospital, 37 academic, 4 special libraries, and 2 public libraries. Mr. Rasmussen had no idea that hospitals had libraries or librarians. After we discussed how librarians are part of the health care team, he asked if all hospitals had libraries. Now we have opened the dialogue and hope to have more conversations in the future.