Category Archives: Higher Education

Public comment period on digital literacy report ends this Friday

Posted on October 15, 2012 by | Leave a comment

We have received a number of comments on the draft report, Digital Literacy, Libraries, and Public Policy and have had over 2000 views on the ALA Connect space where it is posted. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to weigh in.

For those of you who have not yet shared your thoughts, we are closing the public comment period this Friday, October 19, 2012.

As a quick reminder, we are asking that as you review the draft, please focus your feedback on substantive issues. Specifically, the OITP Digital Literacy Task Force asks representatives of each library type to consider how your library is portrayed. Are the examples demonstrative of the work you do? Are the issues that are most important to you and your colleagues addressed? Please provide comments that in turn provide the task force with enough information to effectively address your suggestions or concerns.

How to comment

When you open the report you will notice that each paragraph is numbered: [para 1], [para 2], and so on. To ensure that we can track each comment, please refer to the page number and the paragraph number at the beginning of your comment. Please do this for each section you wish to comment on.

Please use the comment option to submit your comments. Task Force members will review each comment when the public comment period is over. Please do not submit line edits. We will have a copy editor review the final draft version prior to publication. At that time, endnotes will be formatted in APA style.

If you have a clarifying question, please send an email to me at mvisser@alawash.org.

Marijke Visser
Assistant Director, OITP

About Marijke Visser

As Assistant Director of OITP, Marijke’s responsibilities include primary management of OITP’s E-rate activities, working in collaboration with Larra Clark and Alan Inouye. In addition, Marijke’s policy portfolio includes projects focused at the intersection of children and youth and information technology policy as well as broadband adoption issues including digital literacy and challenges for diverse populations. As Assistant Director, Marijke also has responsibility for OITP communications and other office-wide activities.

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Posted in Digital Literacy, Higher Education, OITP, Public Libraries, School Libraries

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Library Copyright Alliance Files Second Amicus Brief in Authors Guild v. HathiTrust

Posted on July 24, 2012 by | Leave a comment

On July 6, 2012, members of the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) (the American Library Association, Association of Research Libraries and Association of College and Research Libraries), together with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), filed a friend of the court brief (pdf) in Authors Guild v. HathiTrust, urging a federal court to find that the fair use doctrine permitted the creation of a valuable digital library. The brief argues four main points: that the HathiTrust Digital Library (HDL) is serving the public interest, that its tremendous public benefit tilts the analysis firmly in favor of fair use, that a legislative “fix” is both unnecessary and unworkable, and that the plaintiffs helped foster public reliance on the HathiTrust project, which the public should not be deprived of now.

For several years, the HathiTrust and its member libraries have worked to index and preserve digitized works from library collections to foster research, teaching, and learning. In their lawsuit, the Authors Guild, together with a few other author groups and individual authors, propose an extremely narrow view of the rights of libraries to engage in preservation and other core library functions. In their motion for judgment on the pleadings, the plaintiffs have asked the federal court to “mothball” HDL until Congress takes action. LCA members  have filed in this case to defend the rights of all libraries, as well as the extraordinary value of the HathiTrust collection. This amicus brief follows a previous (pdf) one submitted by members of the LCA on April 20, 2012.

 

About Corey Williams

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Posted in Copyright, Higher Education

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Petition the White House to Open Access to taxpayer-funded research

Posted on May 21, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Click to sign!Who:
You! And anyone you know who supports libraries and supports increasing access to information – especially research that you (the public) helped fund.

What:
A petition is posted at “We the People” asking the White House to require the published results of taxpayer-funded research be made available via the Internet (without having to pay an additional fee to access the research).

When:
Now! 25,000 signatures must be secured by June 19 to ensure the White House will respond.

Where:
Go to wh.gov/6TH electronically sign the petition. It’s that easy!

Why:  Why not?! The petition asks the White House to build upon the tremendously successful National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy implemented more than four years ago and now has 500,000 users accessing and downloading two million articles a day.

But wait, there’s more! The petition’s request to the White House essentially mirrors active legislation – the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2012 (FRPAA) (S. 2096, H.R. 4004) – that would extend the NIH model to make available taxpayer-funded research of an additional 11 federal departments and agencies! Increased access would allow librarians the ability to better assist patrons with their information and research needs as well as allow direct access by the public.

Please spread the word by forwarding, posting and tweeting (#openaccess), etc.!

Corey Williams
Associate Director, Office of Government Relations
American Library Association

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Posted in Higher Education, OGR, Open Access, Public Libraries, School Libraries, Telecommunications

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FRPAA gains co-sponsors and a Congressional hearing

Posted on March 23, 2012 by | Leave a comment

The Federal Research Public Works Act (FRPAA) of 2012, H.R. 4004, gained traction this week in the U.S. House of Representatives. Kicking off the week on Monday Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) held a Congressional briefing on the issue of public access to the results of taxpayer-funded research.  Two experts presented on the topic, Dr. Neil Thakur from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Elliott Maxwell from the Committee for Economic Development, and Heather Joseph of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) moderated the discussion. Additional information on the briefing is available here.

On Tuesday, FRPAA picked up a whopping 24 additional co-sponsors (yes, both democrats and republicans) – joining Rep. Mike Doyle (D- PA), Rep. Lacy Clay (D-MO) and Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-KS), the original co-sponsors who introduced the bill.  Among the additional co-sponsors backing the bill was Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who was presented with the 2012 James Madison Award by the American Library Association (ALA) during the annual Freedom of Information Day event held here in Washington, DC on March 16.  Rep. Lofgren was recognized for her work on supporting a wide range of library-related issues, including open access and FRPAA legislation.

Then on Thursday the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight added to its schedule a hearing for March 29 that has been moved up to 9:30 a.m. at 10:00 a.m. on Examining Public Access and Scholarly Publication Interests.  Additional information about the upcoming hearing, including the list of witnesses and a link to the webcast, is available here.

The ALA has a strong history of support for FRPAA legislation – as it builds on the success of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy implemented in 2008.  Passage of H.R. 4004 and its companion in the Senate, S. 2096, would be big step in the right direction by expanding the amount of research made available and proving access to it without additional charge to us, the taxpayers. Background on this legislation is available on the ALA website.

Corey Williams
Associate Director, Office of Government Relations
American Library Association

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Posted in Government Information, Higher Education, OGR, Open Access

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Trying to roll back the clock on Open Access: Research Works Act introduced

Posted on January 9, 2012 by | 3 Comments

In a perplexing turn of events, Rep. Issa (R-CA) recently introduced the Research Works Act (H.R. 3699), on December 16, 2011. Co-sponsored by Rep. Maloney (D-NY), the bill would effectively turn back the clock on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access policy put into place in 2008.  The bill was referred to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of which Rep. Issa is chairman.

If you recall, the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA), (H.R. 5037), introduced in April 2010 in the 111th Congress, was modeled after the NIH Public Access policy.  The ALA strongly supported FRPAA as it aimed to ensure free, timely, online access to the published results of federally funded  (i.e. tax-payer funded) research by eleven U.S. federal agencies and departments.  The bi-partisan supported bill mirrored a Senate version of FRPAA (S. 1373), and a brief history of these bills is available here.

The ALA has been a long-time, ardent supporter of increasing access to information of all types, including federally funded research.   This latest bill, the Research Works Act, would act in direct contradiction and therefore the ALA vehemently opposes the bill.

The truly perplexing part is how Rep. Issa can fight the good fight against an egregious anti-piracy copyright bill (SOPA, H.R. 3261), and at the same time turn so abruptly and set his sights on nullifying the NIH Public Access policy.  The ALA will be keeping close tabs on the Research Works Act bill and track whether there is even a hint at it gaining traction.

Addition posts on the bill

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Posted in Copyright, Higher Education, OGR, Open Access, Public Libraries

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