New

• ARL Joins Organizations on Importance of Federal R&D and Sequester Impact (Dec. 7, '12)

• ARL Applauds Judiciary Committee Action to Reform Privacy Laws (Nov. 30, '12)

• The #Librarianscode of Fair Use Comes to Life at UCLA, UC Berkeley, U of Florida, Texas A&M, and Yale (Nov. 26, '12)

• LCA Files Amicus Brief Supporting Defendant-Appellant and Reversal in Authors Guild v. Google (Nov. 16, '12)

• LCA Issues Statement on Authors Guild’s Appeal of HathiTrust Decision (Nov. 9, '12)

• Report of the ARL Joint Task Force on Services to Patrons with Print Disabilities (PDF) (Nov. 2, '12)

Overview

A primary goal of the Public Policies program is to influence legislative action that is favorable to the research library and higher education communities.

To achieve this goal, the program helps ARL members keep abreast of the legislative landscape, as well as rapidly changing issues, players, regulations, and community priorities.

The program staff track the activities of state and federal legislatures as well as regulatory and government agencies in North America and abroad.

The program analyzes, responds to, and seeks to influence public initiatives on information, intellectual property, and telecommunications policies.

In addition, the program promotes funding for numerous agencies and national institutions and advances ARL members' interests on these issues.

The Public Policies program monitors Canadian information policies such as copyright and intellectual property and access to government information through the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL).