In summary, the World Trade Organization waiver would extend intellectual property rights under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement for LDCs until they individually graduated from LDC status. These waivers affect the price, availability and use of resources in libraries for education, research and personal development, as well as access to affordable medicines, agricultural goods and renewable technologies.

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As one who has prepared for and attended the Copyright Office’s triennial 1201 rulemaking proceedings for the past 14 years, all I can say is “hallelujah.” The Library Copyright Alliance (LCA), of which ALA is a member, posted this statement (pdf) in response to the announcement.

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Above, Carolyn Brodie, president of Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), tells Domestic Policy Assistant Mary Wells and IMLS Director Susan Hildreth about the exemplary programs ALSC members are offering around early childhood learning and parental engagement. In the photo, Brodie is talking about Every Child Ready to Read and showing Wells a handout highlighting: talking, singing, reading, writing and playing. Brodie encouraged the Obama Administration to visit one of the 330 excellent programs across the country that are doing just that!

Jack Martin, President of Young Adult Library Services Association, spoke with Steve Robinson of the Domestic Policy Council staff about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Martin talked about the important part librarians, in both public and school libraries, play for children working in STEM.

Eva Poole, president of the Public Library Association, spoke to the group about what public libraries are doing for immigrants, especially around English as a second language and civic education. She followed up with how important public libraries are for health information and what an important part they could play with the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

Mandy Cohen from the Department of Health and Human Services was very interested in what Poole had to say and has already followed up to see what we can do to help each other. As Poole pointed out, we know our patrons will come to us to ask about these new insurance pools and what are the new requirements and we need good information from the federal government.

ALA President Maureen Sullivan ended the meeting by tying together what Brodie, Martin and Poole said and very positively saying that libraries serve their communities in all these areas and we look forward to hearing President Obama and Michelle Obama mention libraries and what we are doing on these important issues!

The Domestic Policy Council staff left very enthusiastic, and both IMLS and ALA leadership were pleased by the eagerness of the meeting. Now, we look forward to seeing how successful we were.

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The post LCA Comments on Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) appeared first on District Dispatch.

As part of the webinar, participants will hear from numerous e-government grant recipients on innovative workforce development programs that have successfully connected people with jobs.

Speakers include:

• Janice Collins, technology supervisor, Mandel Public Library (West Palm Beach, Fla.)
• Betha Gutsche, programs manager, WebJunction OCLC
• Tiffany McClary and Sheri Shafer, NJ Works @ your Library (New Jersey State Library Program)
• Jeff Scott, deputy county librarian, Tulare County (Tulare, Calif.)

View the webinar: http://ala.adobeconnect.com/p7m1neieyhh/

**Note: Due to technical issues, the first few minutes of the webinar were not properly recorded.

The post Learning Opportunity: Helping Patrons Find Jobs appeared first on District Dispatch.