MLA
Rachel Anderson, New MLA President
CONFU Concludes Without Consensus
NLM Budget
MLA top
August 1997
RACHAEL K. ANDERSON IS NEW MLA PRESIDENT
Rachael K. Anderson, AHIP, Director, Arizona Health Sciences Library, University of Arizona, Tucson, has assumed the role of president of the Medical Library Association (MLA) for the 1997-98 year. President Anderson took office in May at the end of MLA ’97, in Seattle, WA.
In her role as president during the association’s centennial year, Anderson will lead the organization in spotlighting the services health sciences librarians have provided for almost 100 years. “I plan to direct MLA resources and public attention during the centennial year to programs that focus on expanding librarians’ roles and that advocate commensurate support and recognition,” she said.
Anderson has an active and extensive history with MLA. She has been appointed to various committees of MLA including the Task Force on Knowledge and Skills and the Platform for Change Implementation Task Force. Anderson has also served as Chair of the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) Board of Regents and as a member of the NLM Planning Panel on the Education and Training of Health Sciences Librarians.
Regarded as a “change agent,” she has long been committed to achieving higher status for women in health sciences library administration, and to restructuring the profession to meet current and future needs.
MLA looks forward to working under Anderson’s leadership and guidance as it embarks on its second century.
October 1997
CONFERENCE ON FAIR USE OF COPYRIGHTED WORKS CONCLUDES WITHOUT CONSENSUS;
EDUCATORS, SCHOLARS, LIBRARIANS TO EXPLORE NEXT STEPS
MLA participated in the Conference on Fair Use (CONFU) which was initiated in September of 1994 to facilitate informal discussion of the parameters of fair use in the digital environment in educational, scholarly and library settings among copyright proprietors, producers and users. Hosted by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, CONFU effectively ended on May 19, 1997. Informal discussion of more than twenty relevant topics was undertaken over that 32 month period by scores of corporate and organizational representatives. In CONFU's last year, the agenda was distilled in intense debate to the possible production of fair use "guidelines" covering just three issue areas.
Ultimately, proposals concerning some aspects of distance learning and digital image collections were circulated for comment. Neither, however, garnered broad and deep support in both the proprietary and user communities participating in CONFU. In addition, multimedia-focused proposals (developed in parallel to CONFU and presented to the participants last November) provoked widely disparate responses and confusion given their aggressive promotion to Congress and the user community despite having been rejected by many of the nation's principal educational, scholarly and library organizations.
A summary of conclusions and agreements reached at May's final CONFU meeting follows this report. Virtually all present, however, concurred that the process provided an excellent forum for constructive dialogue between information proprietors and users. Many also expressed the hope that CONFU serve as the foundation for future discussions.
Looking ahead, CONFU participants' inability to craft consensus guidelines (ones which provide effective copyright protection to information proprietors and afford users appropriate access to information without fear of litigation) presents educators, scholars and librarians - - and their national representatives--with the opportunity and responsibility to explore the appropriate parameters of fair use to the extent that experience and good faith permit. Members of the educational, scholarly and copyright user communities listed below, therefore, individually and collectively commit themselves to the following:
· We will share experiences concerning: the application of new technology in library and educational environments, "fair uses" made of copyrighted works, proprietors' responses to requests for permission to use copyrighted materials, and sources of helpful information regarding fair use and other privileges under copyright law;
· We will participate in organized efforts to capture and disseminate such information;
· We will assist in the development of "User Community Principles" and educator- and librarian-generated "Best Practices" concerning fair use, distance learning, and other activities supported by current copyright law;
· We will work to extend the application of fair use into digital networked environments in libraries and educational institutions by relying on it responsibly to lawfully make creative use of information; – more –
· We will resist relying on any proposed code of conduct which may substantially or artificially constrain the full and appropriate application of fair use; and
· We will encourage our members to reject any licensing agreement clause that implicitly or explicitly limits or abrogates fair use or any other legally conveyed user privilege.
Endorsing Organizations
American Association of Law Libraries
American Association of State Colleges and Universities
American Council on Education
American Council of Learned Societies
American Library Association
Association of American Universities
Association of Research Libraries
Medical Library Association
National Association of State Universities & Land-Grant Colleges
National Education Association
National Humanities Alliance
National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage
National School Boards Association
Special Libraries Association
October 1997
MLA SUCCESSFULLY OPPOSES $2.5 MILLION NLM CUT
On the morning of July 30, MLA Headquarters staff learned that an amendment slashing $2.5 million from the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) 1998 appropriations would be offered in the U.S. House of Representatives later that day. With only hours to act, a successful action plan was developed to contact the key Congressional leaders about the importance of NLM’s programs and services that support health care in the United States.
Through a series of phone calls with MLA’s Washington Representative Dale P. Dirks, staff learned that the elected official proposing the amendment was interested in learning more about NLM’s programs and services prior to taking action. The official promptly received a letter highlighting NLM’s contributions to health care, and MLA members living in the official’s district made phone calls to explain the importance of NLM in their geographical area.
Within a few hours, Mr. Dirks and MLA members who had responded to the call for action received phone calls from Capitol Hill telling them that the amendment would not be proposed. MLA Executive Director Carla J. Funk recognized the value of this crucial exchange: “On behalf of the members of the Medical Library Association, we are pleased that our elected officials take the time to listen to our message before making a decision that could severely impact our nation’s access to health information.”