ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


2 7 6  /  C&RL News

W ashington 
Hotline

Lynne E. B ra d le y

N e w  com puting 
com m ittee established
The 105th Congress is enter­
ing into an extremely hectic 
period. The library commu­
nity is extensively involved 
with a number o f critical ar­
eas including advanced com ­
puter technologies and ap­
propriations issues.

On February 11 President 
Clinton issued an executive 
order establishing the Advi­
sory C om m ittee on High-
Performance Computing and 
Communications, Information Technology, and 
the Next Generation Internet. The committee 
is to advise and provide information to the Na­
tional S cien ce and T ech n o lo g y  Council on 
progress with the Next Generation Internet ini­
tiative and on the High-Performance Comput­
ing and Communications (HPCC) Program.

The appointment o f the committee indicates 
the desire o f the administration for the United 
States to maintain its leadership role in advanced 
computing and communications technologies.

At the first meeting o f the committee in Feb­
ruary, 21 members had been  appointed, includ­
ing two members o f the library and informa­
tion  s c ie n c e  p ro fessio n : C hing-C hih C hen 
(Simmons College), and Sherrilynne Fuller (Uni­
versity o f Washington the National Network of 
Libraries o f Medicine). Ken Kennedy, director 
o f the Center for Research on Parallel Compu­
tation at Rice University, and Bill Joy, vice-presi­
dent for research at Sun Microsystems, will co ­
chair the committee.

O a k le y  testifies b e fo re  Congress
On February 12 Robert Oakley, law professor 
at the Georgetown University Law Center and 
director o f the Law Center’s library, testified on 
the FY98 appropriations for the Government 
Printing O ffice and the Library o f Congress 
before the Subcommittee on Legislative, House 
Committee on Appropriations, chaired by Rep. 
Jam es Walsh (R-NY):

• G overnm ent Printing Office. Oakley 
urged the full support o f the Public Printer’s 
FY98 appropriations request o f $ 3 0 ,477,000

for the Superintendent o f 
D o c u m e n ts  S a la rie s  and 
E x p e n s e s , o f  w h ic h  
$ 2 5 ,8 8 6 ,0 0 0  will m aintain 
the Federal Depository Li­
brary Program. “While some 
policy makers may view the 
move to electronic informa­
tion as a means o f cutting 
government costs, no data 
exists to support this asser­
tion. In fact, w e believe the 
opposite likely to b e true 
particularly during the tran­
sition period.”

Appearing on behalf o f ALA, the Associa­
tion o f Research Libraries, the American Asso­
ciation o f Law Libraries, and the Special Librar­
ies Association, Oakley expressed the library 
community’s concern over the erosion o f fed­
eral government information from the public 
domain and called for a revision o f Title 44 
that extends the definition o f government in­
formation to electronic resources.

• Library o f Congress. Speaking for the 
same groups, Oakley urged funding for the Li­
brary of Congress FY98 budget request o f $387.6 
million (including the authority to obligate $30.4 
million in receipts) needed “to position the Li­
brary to realize the benefits o f the digitized net­
worked environment while ensuring that im­
portant programs and services are maintained.” 
Five LC program areas w ere the focus: services 
for the blind and physically handicapped, elec­
tronic initiatives, the American Folk Life Cen­
ter, arrearage reduction and cooperative cata­
loging, and collection security. LC was able to 
reduce arrearage in 1996 by 1.5 million items, 
a reduction o f 47.2%  since 1989.

He noted that with the passage o f landmark 
telecommunications legislation [in 1996], Con­
gress recognized that libraries are primary points 
o f access for the public to participate in the 
information age. “Although only 23.6%  o f pub­
lic libraries have full World Wide W eb capabil­
ity, the discounted rates now  being im ple­
mented by the FCC are expected to increase 
this percentage rapidly.”

Various library and higher education groups 
will be meeting on government information and 
information technology issues in the next few 
weeks. More on these activities in our next re­
port. ■

Lynne E. Bradley is deputy executive director o f 
A LA ’s Washington Office; e-mail: leb@alawash.org.

mailto:leb@alawash.org