RESOLUTION ON THE FEDERAL RESEARCH PUBLIC ACCESS ACT OF 2006 (FRPAA)
WHEREAS, government information and government-sponsored research are public resources collected at public expense; and,
WHEREAS, access to information collected, produced, and sponsored by the government is essential to maintaining an informed citizenry; and
WHEREAS, the American Library Association (ALA) has a long record of action in support of access to information, and believes that open government is vital to a democracy and that there should be equal, ready, and equitable access to information collected, compiled, produced, sponsored, and disseminated by the government of the United States; and
WHEREAS, The federal government invests $55 billion annually in scientific research, with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) portion accounting for one-third of that, resulting in over 65,000 journal articles published annually; and
WHEREAS, this information is not readily accessible to the general public; and
WHEREAS, Senators John Cornyn and Joseph Lieberman have introduced S. 2695, the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006 (FRPAA), which requires Federal agencies to develop public access policies relating to research conducted by employees of that agency or from funds administered by that agency; and
WHEREAS, FRPAA would also require federal agencies with extramural research expenditures of more than $100 million to make electronic manuscripts of peer-reviewed journal articles resulting from their funded research publicly available via the Internet within six months of publication; and
WHEREAS, FRPAA would also require agencies to produce “an online bibliography of all research papers that are publicly accessible under the policy, with each entry linking to the corresponding free online full text;” now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, that the American Library Association (ALA) supports S. 2695, the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006, as introduced, in that it reflects ALA policy regarding access to Federal government information by providing for the long-term preservation of, and no fee public access to, government-sponsored, published research findings.
Endorsed in principle by GODORT Legislation Committee 06/26/2006
Endorsed in principle by COL-Government Information Subcommittee 06/26/2006
Endorsed in principle by COL-Intellectual Property Subcommittee 06/24/2006
Endorsed in principle by GODORT Membership 06/26/2006
ALA CD#20.9
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