MLA wrote to Francis S. Collins, director, National Institutes of Health (NIH) in support of the areas of special opportunity the new director outlined in his September 9 Town Hall Meeting. The statement addresses several issues of importance to the health sciences library community: translating basic science discoveries into new and better treatments, putting science to work for the benefit of health care reform, encouraging a great focus on global health, advancing transparence and communication between government agencies and the people they serve, and reinvigorating and empowering the biomedical research community.
MLA wrote to the Executive Secretariat of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO in support of the IFLA Multicultural Library Manifesto. The manifesto calls for “libraries of all types to reflect, support, and promote cultural and linguistic diversity at the international, national, and local levels, and thus work for cross-cultural dialogue and active citizenship.”
MLA’s Ad Hoc Committee for Advocating Scholarly Communications, chaired by Karen Albert, AHIP, along with MLA’s Copyright Referent Lucretia W. McClure, AHIP, FMLA, developed the statement “Google Books Settlement: What Does It Mean for Libraries.” The statement addresses important elements of the court settlement for libraries, the pros and cons from a library perspective, and discusses the significance of the settlement for health sciences libraries.
MLA member T. Scott Plutchak, AHIP, is serving on the US House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology (HCST) and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Scholarly Publishing Roundtable. The latter group is charged with seeking consensus on feasible and effective ways to expand access to and preservation of federally funded research information. The roundtable expects to submit a consensus report to the HCST and OSTP by the end of the year. A list of roundtable members, member bios, and the HCST’s charge to the group are available on the AAU’s website.
Prepared by Mary M. Langman, MLA Coordinator, Information Issues and Policy
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