Category: Legislation

Library Juice Academy Makes $1,000 EveryLibrary Fundraising Challenge

by RoryLitwin

Post on March 5, 2015 by John Chrastka EveryLibrary today announces a new “Monthly Donor Challenge” from Library Juice Academy, a noted provider of professional development workshops and training for librarians. Library Juice Academy is pledging a $1,000 donation to EveryLibrary when 25 personal donors contribute at least $10 each month as reoccurring donors before … Read more Library Juice Academy Makes $1,000 EveryLibrary Fundraising Challenge

Interview with John Chrastka, Executive Director of the Every Library PAC

by RoryLitwin

John Chrastka is the former membership director at the American Library Association, and has left that position recently to start a political action committee for library advocacy purposes, called Every Library. This organization is about three months old at this point. I had heard of it and realized that I didn’t know anything about it, … Read more Interview with John Chrastka, Executive Director of the Every Library PAC

Call for Papers – Politics, Libraries and Culture: Historical Perspectives

by RoryLitwin

Call for Papers *Politics, Libraries and Culture: Historical Perspectives* *Library History Round Table (LHRT) Research Forum, June 2010* * * The Library History Round Table (LHRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) seeks papers for its Research Forum at the 2010 ALA Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., June 24-29, 2010. The theme of the Forum … Read more Call for Papers – Politics, Libraries and Culture: Historical Perspectives

Stephen L. Carter – Where’s the Bailout for the Publishing Industry?

by RoryLitwin

Stephen L. Carter, a law professor who writes about democracy, has an article in The Daily Beast entitled, “Where’s the Bailout for the Publishing Industry?” It begins: Like a lot of writers, I am wondering when Congress and the administration will propose a bailout for the publishing industry. Carnage is everywhere. Advances slashed, editors fired, … Read more Stephen L. Carter – Where’s the Bailout for the Publishing Industry?

The Conyers Bill is Back (copyright)

by RoryLitwin

The Fair Copyright Act is to fair copyright what the Patriot Act was to patriotism. It would repeal the OA policy at the NIH and prevent similar OA policies at any federal agency. The bill has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee, where Conyers is Chairman, and where he has consolidated his power since … Read more The Conyers Bill is Back (copyright)

Ruth Rikowski on the WTO and intellectual property rights

by RoryLitwin

A Marxist Analysis of the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (PDF) Policy Futures in Education Volume 4 Number 4, 2006 RUTH RIKOWSKI London South Bank University, United Kingdom This article examines the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). There are many WTO … Read more Ruth Rikowski on the WTO and intellectual property rights

EPA libraries restored in miniature form

by RoryLitwin

CLOSED EPA LIBRARIES TO RETURN IN LAVATORY-SIZED SPACES; Political Appointee Asserts Control over All Libraries, Repeals 30-Year-Old Manual “Ordered by Congress to re-open its shuttered libraries, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is grudgingly allocating only minimal space and resources, according to agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).”… Thanks to Jonathan … Read more EPA libraries restored in miniature form

OPEN Government Act of 2007

by RoryLitwin

From ALA’s Washington Office: Please contact your Senators and ask them to support the OPEN Government Act of 2007 (S. 849), and to urge Majority Leader Harry Reid or Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to support bringing the bill to the floor in early June. Unfortunately — and ironically, since this is an open government bill … Read more OPEN Government Act of 2007

Savanna River Ecology Laboratory closing, thanks to Bush Administration small-esse

by RoryLitwin

Arch Conservative Bush advisor Grover Norquist has been pushing the “Starve the Beast” strategy for a long time. This is the strategy that says run up a huge budget debt and then a future Congress will be unable to support government spending. The “War on Terror” is obviously the great implementation of the starve the … Read more Savanna River Ecology Laboratory closing, thanks to Bush Administration small-esse

Federal Libraries Wiki

by RoryLitwin

Bernadine Abbott Hoduski shared this information with ALA Council today… The ALA Washington Office and ALA Council’s Committee on Legislation have started a wiki on federal libraries. The wiki says: The purpose of this wiki is to share and track information on federal library threats, re-organizations, and closings. Based on discussions with members, the main … Read more Federal Libraries Wiki

Postal Rate Hike would hurt independent publishers

by RoryLitwin

Media critic and theorist Robert McChesney is spearheading the campaign against the postal rate hike, which has Time Warner and other major magazine publishers’ money behind it. This is from the campaign website: Postal regulators have accepted a proposal from media giant Time Warner that would stifle small and independent publishers in America. The plan … Read more Postal Rate Hike would hurt independent publishers

The Librarian Act of 2007

by RoryLitwin

Text from the ALA campaign for this legislation: Next week, to celebrate National Library Week, Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) plans to introduce the Librarian Act of 2007. The Librarian Act of 2007 amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide for Perkins student loan forgiveness to encourage individuals to become and remain librarians in … Read more The Librarian Act of 2007

The Presidential Records Act of 2007

by RoryLitwin

The Presidential Records Act of 2007 is a bill presently in Congress that would overturn Bush’s Presidential Order 13233 of 2001, which was one of many outrageous secrecy measures of the Bush Administration, this one case giving former presidents the power to prevent access to their papers for many years. Kathleen de la Peña McCook … Read more The Presidential Records Act of 2007

ALA-APA supports the Employee Free Choice Act

by RoryLitwin

Statement Emily Sheketoff, Executive Director, ALA Washington Office The American Library Association-Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA) would like to take this opportunity to announce its support of H.R. 800, the Employee Free Choice Act. Formed for the purpose of promoting “the mutual professional interests of librarians and other library workers,” the ALA-APA is a strong advocate … Read more ALA-APA supports the Employee Free Choice Act

Reports disappearing from EPA library website

by RoryLitwin

As you may have noticed throughout the EPA library closure situation, the government’s big justification for closing the libraries has been that it is a digital age, meaning that physical libraries have lost their relevance. We know that that is hardly true, but aside from that, shouldn’t this argument mean that we will see EPA … Read more Reports disappearing from EPA library website