june12b.indd


C&RL News June 2012  360

Corey Williams is assistant director, ALA Office of 
Government Relations, e-mail: cwilliams@alawash.org

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n eCorey Williams

Additional support for FRPAA
In April, more than 350 librarians and library 
supporters convened in Washington, D.C., 
to attend the ALA’s National Library Legisla-
tive Day (NLLD). Representing all types of 
libraries, the participants spent a day talking 
with members of Congress and their staff 
to advocate for librarians on key legislative 
issues. Likely not a coincidence is the fact 
that in the weeks immediately following 
NLLD, a key legislative issue for libraries 
and the public—the Federal Public Research 
Access Act of 2012 (FRPAA) (S. 2096/H.R. 
4004)—gained additional cosponsors in 
both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of 
Representatives. 

In the Senate, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) 
joined cosponsors Sens. John Cornyn (R-
TX), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Kay Bailey 
Hutchison (R-TX) in support of the bill. 
In the House, bill sponsor Rep. Michael 
Doyle (D-PA) garnered additional support 
from four more colleagues, including Reps. 
Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Peter DeFazio 
(D-OR), Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA), and Cory 
Gardner (R-CO), bringing the total number 
of House cosponsors to 31. 

As you may recall from the March 2012 
Washington Hotline, the bipartisan sup-
ported legislation is aimed at improving 
access to federally (i.e., taxpayer) funded 
research by building upon the success of 
the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public 
Access Policy implemented in 2008. FRPAA 
legislation would expand the amount of 
research made available and improve ac-
cess by making it accessible no later than 
six months after publication. The growing 
support of FRPAA by Congress is a positive 
step in improving equitable access to infor-
mation, and ALA will continue to strongly 
advocate for its passage.

ALA Washington Office programs at 
ALA Annual Conference
The ALA Washington Office (WO) will offer a 
number of programs of interest to ACRL mem-
bers at the 2012 ALA Annual Conference being 
held in Anaheim, California, June 21–26, 2012. 
WO programs include the traditional Saturday 
morning update on legislative, regulatory, and 
policy issues of the day and also a panel discus-
sion on digital literacy and libraries and design-
ing what comes next. In addition, the WO will 
host two panels on copyright. The first panel 
will discuss fair use and academic and research 
libraries and using best practices to make better 
practice. The second copyright panel is titled 
“Truth, Lies and Silly Putty: The Ties that Bind 
Copyright,” and will explore significant policy 
developments that negatively affect balanced 
copyright law. For more program details includ-
ing date, time, and location, along with infor-
mation on additional WO programs, please see 
www.districtdispatch.org/annual2012/. General 
information about the ALA Annual Conference 
is available at www.alaannual.org/.

Of note . . . Orphan Works and Mass 
Digitization symposium held
The Berkeley Center for Law and Technol-
ogy held a two-day symposium on “Orphan 
Works and Mass Digitization: Obstacles and 
Opportunities” in April. At the heart of the 
panel presentations and robust conversations 
were the possible public policy implications 
of legislative and other solutions to the orphan 
works problem. (Remember, those are the 
works in which the copyright holder cannot 
be identified or located). Fortunately for those 
who were unable to attend the presentations, 
audio files have been made available at www.
law.berkeley.edu/orphanworks.htm. In addi-
tion, Carrie Russell, from the WO’s Office of 
Information Technology Policy reflected on the 
conference in a recent ALA WO District Dispatch 
available at www.districtdispatch.org/2012/04 
/and-the-food-was-good/.