Why does Hollywood have an issue with the Treaty to facilitate Access to Published Works by Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities?

Carrie Russell’s blogs are reliably insightful and fun to read.

If passed, the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR) would:

• Require federal departments and agencies with an annual extramural research budget of $100 million to develop a policy to ensure researchers submit an electronic copy of the final manuscript accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
• Ensure that the manuscript is preserved in a stable digital repository maintained by that agency or in another suitable repository that permits free public access, interoperability, and long-term preservation.
• Require that each taxpayer-funded manuscript be made available to the public online and without cost, no later than six months after the article has been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
• Require agencies to examine whether introducing open licensing options for research papers they make publicly available as a result of the public access policy would promote productive reuse and computational analysis of those research papers.

In essence, this legislation would advance and expand the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy implemented in 2008 which requires public access to taxpayer-funded research to an additional 11 agencies.

Please take the time to thank those who have already signed on to support FASTR and use the ALA’s Legislative Action Center to ask your representatives to cosponsor the bills.

The report states that “free access of government information is an important tenet of a democracy.”  They include a ‘however’ after that statement.

In 2012, 89 percent of the nation’s nearly 17,000 public libraries provided Wi-Fi access, and about three-quarters of these reported an increase in the use of their Wi-Fi. Since most of these libraries keep their Wi-Fi signal on after hours, we are very familiar with the “parking lot” uses of people who don’t have other Internet access options. Today, nearly all libraries provide public access computers staffed with knowledgeable librarians who, in many instances, work closely with school librarians and classroom teachers to make sure their resources and databases complement the ones in the K12 schools. These librarians, school and public, can help Joshua locate the very best resources, teach him how to evaluate online information, and guide him to collaborative production tools to compose high-quality papers. While computer and Internet access are an essential starting point, trained staff and relevant resources are also vital.