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ACRL Legislative Update
Volume 5, Number 4
June 19, 2006
Co-Sponsors Sought for Federal Research Public Access Act
Background: The federal government spends over fifty five billion dollars annually to fund a wide variety of research in health, scientific, and other fields. Research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health alone results in over 60,000 peer-reviewed articles per year. Giving taxpayers access to the non-classified research for which they have paid will advance research and all the benefits of research, from health care and pollution control to energy independence and public safety.
Issue for Academic Libraries: Research articles are published in peer-reviewed journals, which charge subscription fees or per-article access fees. The cost of subscriptions has risen three times faster than inflation for more than 20 years and most subscriptions are unaffordable for most libraries. Journals typically demand to own copyright as well. Wide, rapid, and easy access to the results of this research is essential for everyone who wishes to apply or build upon it, including faculty and students served by academic libraries.
Current Status: Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) & Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) introduced The Federal Research Public Access Act, S. 2695, on May 3. This bill requires that virtually all federally funded research appearing in peer-reviewed journals be made openly accessible in digital repositories within six months of publication. (ACRL endorsed this bill.)
ACRL encourages all academic librarians to work actively for passage of this bill. Read more on the Alliance for Taxpayer Access website and in the article "Public Access to Federally Funded Research: The Cornyn-Lieberman and CURES Bills" C&RL News, June 2006. Vol. 67, No. 6 by Ray English and Peter Suber.
Action Needed:
1.) Ask your U.S. Senators to become co-sponsors. Express support to your Representatives as well. For contact information, visit ALA's online Legislative Action Center. Use this sample letter and read tips on communicating with legislators.
2.) Circulate this announcement and urge your library colleagues to contact their members of Congress.
3.) Educate faculty and administrators on your campus about the need for open access to federally funded research. Enlist their support and encourage them to write to their senators and representatives. Use the FAQs for faculty and administrators.
Network Neutrality
Background: Network neutrality means that consumers can access any legal content or run any Internet applications regardless of their network provider. Current telecommunications laws are being revamped but language prohibiting preferential treatment of network traffic may not be included. Internet service providers could decide to provide lots of bandwidth to certain customers and not to others (e.g. a company could pay their carrier a premium to deliver movies, videos, etc.). As bandwidth is a limited resource, every prioritized packet pushes aside another packet that is deemed less important.
Issue for Academic Libraries: Library services could be impaired or blocked by providers, particularly if "free" services and content provided by libraries are given low priority. Libraries, K-12 and higher education and many other public sector institutions should not be marginalized or moved into slower tiers in favor of big corporations. The library community supports a proactive approach to preserving diverse sources of information on the Internet by passing enforceable network neutrality language.
Current Status: The Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to markup S. 2686, the Communications Reform Bill, between June 20-22, 2006. Senators will consider including the Internet Freedom Act, S. 2917, as an amendment to S. 2686. This network neutrality proposal was introduced by Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and cosponsored by Senators Inouye, Wyden, Leahy, Boxer, Obama and Clinton. Because only two senators (Boxer and Dorgan) spoke favorably about network neutrality during the June 13th hearing, it is even more important that grassroots library supporters contact senators now.
Action Needed:
1.) If your senator is on the Senate Commerce Committee PLEASE CALL TODAY (list and contact info). Urge your senator to add network neutrality language and maintain Universal Service Fund/E-rate provisions (which make telecommunications services affordable to libraries and schools in the poorest communities) during the pending markup. The Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to markup S. 2686, the Communications Reform Bill, between June 20-22, 2006.
2.) If your Senator is not on the Commerce Committee, please ask him or her to urge Senate colleagues to support these two important issues (contact info).
Orphan Works
Background: Orphan works are those copyrighted works whose owners are difficult or even impossible to find. Concerns have been raised that the uncertainty surrounding ownership of such works might needlessly discourage subsequent creators and users from incorporating such works in new creative efforts, or from making such works available to the public.
The library community has participated in various ways in the U.S. Copyright Offices project to address orphan works. Starting in January 2005, we have filed comments, participated in public Roundtables, and met with staff in the Copyright Office and in the House Judiciary Committee to discuss some of the thorny issues and to make further recommendations from libraries.
Current Status: On May 22, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chair of the House Judiciary Committees Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, introduced H.R. 5439, the Orphan Works Act of 2006. The bill was marked up by the subcommittee on May 24 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee. The thrust of the bill is that remedies for infringement of a copyrighted work will be limited if the user (the alleged infringer) had made a reasonably diligent, good faith search to locate the owner of the work but was unable to find the owner. Libraries support the bill, even though we have concerns with some aspects of it.
Action Needed: Please ask your Representative to co-sponsor H.R. 5439 (contact info).
This digital update is regularly issued as part of our ongoing efforts to make it easier for you to connect with ACRLs advocacy efforts. Feel free to forward this message to appropriate electronic lists.
To join the list of academic and research librarians receiving the ACRL Legislative Update directly, subscribe today by sending an e-mail to listproc@ala.org with subscribe LEGUPDATE your name in the message. To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to listproc@ala.org with unsubscribe LEGUPDATE in the message.
We want the Legislative Update to be helpful to you. If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please contact ACRL Scholarly Communications-Government Relations Specialist Kara Malenfant at kmalenfant@ala.org .
Published by the Association of College and Research Libraries, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611, www.ala.org/acrl.
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