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Advocacy & Policy

Information Issues and Policy

The Medical Library Association supports access to the world’s health sciences information to facilitate informed health care decisions. The Governmental Relations Committee and the Joint MLA/AAHSL Legislative Task Force both have responsibility for addressing national information issues and policies of importance to the health sciences library community.

Legislative News
MLA Position Statements

The Governmental Relations Committee [MO] develops position statements to assist librarians in understanding and applying information issues and policy within the library and to educate policy makers about the role of information services in support of health care delivery, education, and research. MLA's position statements address issues such as access to government information, the copyright law and fair use, and distance education.

To top of page Civil Liberties

Addresses legislation that seeks to strengthen national security post 9/11, and its impact on libraries and library services.

To top of page Funding

Addresses annual appropriations legislation that funds education and recruitment initiatives, and also library programs and services to ensure that information access is available to health professionals, educators, students, and the public.

To top of page 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

  • Group Statement in support of The Cures Acceleration Network (CAN) enacted as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (April 2010) [PDF]
  • MLA/AAHSL Statement: Health Sciences Librarians and Health Care Reform: "Providing quality information for improved health (July 2009) [PDF]
  • To the Obama Transition Team: Joint MLA/AAHSL statement: Three Principles for Meaningful Healthcare Reform (January 2009) PDF Download

To top of page Information Access

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.

To top of page Intellectual Property and Copyright

Addresses a wide range of national and international intellectual property and copyright issues impacting libraries and library services in the print and digital arenas.

Copyright Issues and Legislation
Copyright Web Resources

To top of page Scholarly Publishing

Addresses issues on publisher mergers, open access, and links to scholarly publishing initiatives

To top of page Technology

MLA position statements that identify roles for information professionals in national telemedicine and NII / HPCC initiatives, and address digital technology issues.

To top of page Telecommunications

Addresses telecommunications and technology issues such as the E-rate and universal service as well as Internet policies such as filtering and content controls.

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