ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


Telecommunications
policy principles
ALA and several other library 
groups joined more than 60 
organizations in announcing 
a new  coalition and unveil­
ing a blueprint for America’s 
21st century information in­
frastructure. The Telecom ­
munications Policy Round­
table called on Americans to 
make their voices heard on 
vital issues of com m unica­
tions policy. The group is­
sued seven public-interest 
principles in the areas of universal access, free­
dom to communicate, vital civic sector, diverse 
and competitive marketplace, equitable w ork­
place, privacy protection, and democratic policy 
making.

Elaine Albright, dean of cultural affairs and 
libraries at the University of Maine and chair of 
the ALA Committee on Legislation’s Ad Hoc 
Subcommittee on Telecommunications, spoke 
at the coalition’s October 26 press conference 
in Washington, D.C., announcing the principles. 
Albright noted that several library groups—ALA, 
the American Association o f Law Libraries 
(AALL), the Association of Research Libraries 
(ARL), the Coalition for Networked Informa­
tion (CNI), Libraries for the Future, the Medi­
cal Library Association (MLA), and the Special 
Libraries Association (SLA)—had all endorsed 
the principles.

Albright also said that these public-interest 
principles are consistent with the outcome of a 
policy forum held in September at which rep­
resentatives of 15 national library and informa­
tion associations (including ACRL) reached gen­
eral consensus on  areas of key information 
infrastructure principles.

Intellectual p ro p erly and N ll hearing 
held
Some 27 witnesses from a variety of personal 
and organizational points of view provided tes­
timony at the November 18 public hearing on 
intellectual property issues involved in the 
National Information Infrastructure (Nil) initia­
tive. The hearing was held by the Working 
Group on Intellectual Property of the Informa­
tion Policy Committee of the Administration’s 
Information Infrastructure Task Force. Bruce

W ash in gton
H otlin e

C arol C. H enderson

Lehman, assistant secretary 
o f commerce and commis­
sioner of patents and trade­
m arks, an d  ch air o f th e 
working group, presided at 
the all-day event.

Robert Oakley, director 
of the Georgetown Univer­
sity Law Center Library and 
W ashington representative 
of the AALL, testified on be­
half of AALL, ALA, the As­
s o c ia tio n  o f A c a d e m ic  
Health Science Library Di­
rectors, the Association of 

A m erican U niversities, ARL, CAUSE, CNI, 
EDUCOM, MLA, the National Association of 
State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, the 
National Coordinating Committee for the Pro­
motion of History, and SLA.

Oakley com m ented on the specific ques­
tions asked by the working group, and summed 
up as follows:

“Although the library and education com­
munities believe it is premature to propose spe­
cific legislative or regulatory reforms while the 
information infrastructure is still in its infancy, 
we are concerned about the need to reaffirm 
that the rights granted to educators and to li­
braries and their users apply in the electronic 
environment as they have in the paper envi­
ronment. We also believe that the law needs 
some strengthening to allow libraries to utilize 
fully the new est technology to preserve the 
nation's heritage and to meet the needs of their 
users.”

John Masten, executive vice-president of the 
New York Public Library, also testified, em pha­
sizing democratic access to information in his 
points about what is desirable in any revision 
of intellectual property law and practice.

O akley reco m m en d ed  that the w orking 
group make the transcript of the hearing avail­
able over the Internet, and the working group 
will consider doing so. Otherwise, transcripts 
of the hearing were to be made available from 
the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, 
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Box 4, Wash­
ington, DC 20231, in December 1993 for $30 
each. ■

Carol C. Henderson is deputy executive director o f 
ALA’s Washington Office, bitnet: cch@alawash.org

mailto:cch@alawash.org