ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


C&RL N ew s ■ A p r il 1999 / 319

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n e Lynn E. Bradley

Two academ ic librarians testify on 
behalf of LC and GPO appropriations
On February 10 Patricia W and, university li­
brarian at Am erican University in W ashing­
ton, D .C., and Ridley K essler Jr ., regional 
docum ents librarian at the University o f North 
Carolina, Chapel Hill, testified o n  b eh a lf o f 
FY 2000 funding for the Library o f Congress 
and the G overnm ent Printing O ffice before 
the Subcommittee on  Legislative, House Com­
mittee on  Appropriations, chaired by Rep. 
Charles Taylor (R-North Carolina). K essler’s 
written testim ony included the ALA Resolu­
tion o n  G overnm ent Printing O ffice FY 2000 
Salaries and Expenses Appropriations passed 
by ALA Council o n  February 3 .

Appearing on  b eh a lf o f  ALA, the Associa­
tion o f R esearch Libraries, the Am erican As­
sociation o f  Law Libraries, the M edical Li­
brary A ssociation and the Special Libraries 
Association, Wand testified that the Library 
o f  C ongress’s digital initiatives dem onstrate 
the enorm ous value o f  and dem and for pro­
viding public access to th e grow ing body o f 
digital resources. She highlighted the library’s 
$48 million budget requ est for Services for 
the Blind and Physically H andicapped, $8 
million for the Library o f Congress Law Li­
braiy, proposed  tech nolog y initiatives, and 
the en h an cem en t o f  security m easures. T he 
library’s F Y 2000 bud get requ est o f  $ 383.7 
million, she said, w ould allow  the library to 
m aintain current programs w hile continuing 
to m ak e investm en ts in n etw o rk ed -b ased  
projects. Wand added that libraries will join 
in the Library o f  C ongress’s bicentenn ial c el­
ebration in 2000 by highlighting local lega­
cies and the role o f libraries in com m unities 
throughout the nation.

Kessler, also testifying on  b e h a lf o f the 
five library associations, sp o k e in strong sup­
port o f  the Public Printer Michael DiMario’s 
FY 2000 bud get requ est o f  $ 3 1 .245 million 
for the Superintendent o f D ocum ents Sala­
ries and E xp en ses approp riations. K essler 
stressed the im portance o f  a ccess to govern­

Lynne E. B ra dle y is d e p u ty  e xe cu tiv e  d ire c to r o f  ALA's 
W ashington Office; e-mail: leb@alawash.org

m ent materials through th e Federal D ep osi­
tory Library system  to the citizens o f  North 
Carolina and across the country. Future de­
velopm ent o f GPO  access, he said, depended 
on  the requested budgetary increase. He cited 
the 10 to 15 million d ow nloaded docum ents 
p er m onth as exam ple o f  the increased de­
m and and  n eed  for support. K essler also 
described the c o n tributions m ade by dep osi­
tory libraries to catalog, bind, and provide 
com puter access to the materials, saying that 
som e regional d ep ositories c an  spend up to 
$1 million per year to support collections and 
services.

He stressed his c on cern  and that o f  fel­
low librarians with governm ental lack o f com ­
plian ce with Title 44 o f  the U.S. Code. Rep. 
Ed Pastor (D-Arizona), a new  m em ber o f  the 
subcom m ittee, follow ed  up th ose rem arks 
with questions and con cern  abou t fugitive 
docum ents. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) 
d escribed  the attem pt to pass n ew  legisla­
tion in the last Congress and the de-funding 
o f  the Jo in t Com m ittee on  Printing. Kessler 
told the subcom m ittee about his attem pt to 
retrieve the electron ic cop y o f  M ilitary Speci­
fic a t io n s  a n d  Stan dards, a manual used by 
many small indep en den t producers o f  m ate­
rials. T h e manual can n ot b e  printed out b e ­
cause, according to Kessler, it requires a fee 
to subscribe.

(C opies o f  the library group testim onies 
av a ila b le at http://w w w .ala.org/w ashoff/ 
statem en ts.htm l.)

Copyright prim er n o w  av ailab le  on 
th e Web
“T h e Primer o n  the Digital Millennium Copy­
right Act” by Arnold P. Lutzker is now  avail­
a b l e  o n  th e  ALA W e b  s it e  at: http:// 
www.a la .org/washoff/copyright.htm l.

Lutzker is an attorney hired by ALA and 
several other library associations to w ork on 
intellectual property issues and is a reco g ­
nized exp ert on  the new  intellectual prop­
erty legislation. His primer is subtitled: “What 
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the 
Copyright Term E xtension Act M ean for the 
Library Com m unity.” ■

http://www.ala.org/washoff/
mailto:leb@alawash.org