Government Relations
Advocacy Information for the New York-New Jersey Chapter of the Medical Library Association
The Advocacy Committee monitors the progress and development of legislative activities affecting health care information and education, health sciences libraries and librarians, and the public we serve. The web site of the Medical Library Association provides extensive information on national issues. To best serve our Chapter constituency, we focus particularly on issues in New York and New Jersey, recognizing that legislative and budgetary issues that affect libraries in general also impact those in the health sciences.
We invite members to access MLA Governmental Relations and ALA Advocacy to keep up with advocacy issues of concern to librarians.
Legislative News
- Legislative Updates
This report covers MLA’s public policy activities since the 2011 Annual Meeting, including advocating for 2012 NIH funding and updates on the Google Books litigation. Links to statements the association has signed onto are included in this update.
September 2011 Update - MLA Action Alerts
Funding for the NIH, Oct 2007 - MLA Position Statements
- MLA Comments in support of the National Plan for Action, Feb., 2010
- Latest Public Policy Updates
House Hearing on NIH Public Access Policy, Sept. 2008
Civil Liberties
Addresses legislation that seeks to strengthen national security post 9/11, and its impact on libraries and library services.
Funding
Addresses annual appropriations legislation that funds education and recruitment initiatives, and also library programs and services.
- NLM Appropriations
- Legislative Branch
- NIH Reauthorization
- FY10 House L-HHS Appropriations Update
- Summary: 2009 Labor, Health & Education Appropriations
- Economic Stimulus Package Update from the Health And Medicine Counsel of Washington
- FY 2008 HOUSE LABOR- Health and Human Services- Education Appropriations Bill
- FY 2007 Appropriations & Continuing Resolution Analysis
Advocacy Educational Tools
- Building a Relationship with Your Elected Official Webinar, 4/14/10 (Slides, Notes)
- Advocacy Column – Winter 2010
- Advocacy Column – Summer 2009
Health Care Reform
- Websites Featuring Health Reform Resources
- Kaiser Family Foundation: Provides comprehensive resources on a range of issues including state health reform initiatives, health policy headlines, and side-by-side comparison of the major health care form proposals.
MLA Statements
- MLA letters of support to the sponsors of FASTR, the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act, H.R. 708 and S. 350 (March 2013).
- MLA/AALL/SLA comments to Copyright Office on Orphan Works and Mass Digitization Projects (February 2013)
- MLA/AAHSL Statement: Health Sciences Librarians and Health Care Reform: “Providing quality information for improved health (July 2009)
- To the Obama Transition Team: Joint MLA/AAHSL statement: Three Principles for Meaningful Healthcare Reform (January 2009)
Information Access
- Access to Government Information
Addresses issues and legislation related to public access to health information, including the NIH policy on enhancing public access to archived publications resulting from NIH-funded research and NLM’s PubChem database.