ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 712 / C&RL News Washington Hotline Lynne E. B ra d le y Falling p ro g ram s In Washington, federal pro­ grams are falling by the way side as fast as the leaves are falling o ff the trees. Some major issues for library ad vocates are described below. Intellectual property. Legislation was introduced in both houses o f Congress to implement the allegedly narrow recom m endations on in tellectu al p ro p erty taken practically verbatim from the White Paper. These bills, H.R. 2441 and S. 1284, are a mixed bag for libraries. (The White Paper is officially called “Intellectual Property and the National Infor­ mation Infrastructure.”) On the positive side. Both bills clarify that libraries may use digital techniques to preserve works and increase the number o f permissible preservation copies from one to three. In con­ trast: other proposals are sufficiently broad and vaguely worded to create troubling uncertainty for libraries. Examples include: defining distri­ bution by transmission as publication; recog­ nizing temporary reproduction o f a document in computer memory as a possible infringement; and crim inalizing proh ibited im portation, decryption, and management information of­ fenses. Both bills permit nonprofit reproduc tion o f large-format material for the visually impaired. H owever, the copyright ow ner is granted a full year to decide to market such material before such nonprofit activities are al­ lowed. The bills are likely to be subject to hear­ ings, perhaps as early as this November but it is unclear how much priority will be given to this legislation by leadership in the House and the Senate during a presidential election cycle. Appropriations. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved H.R. 2127, the FY96 La­ bor, Health and Human Services, and Educa­ tion Appropriations bill in September. The Com­ mittee Report (S. Rept. 104-145) recommends a total o f $131,503,000 for library programs, a significant increase above the House level o f $101,227,000. W hile the Senate committee would fund LSCA I and III at the same levels as Lynne E. Bradley is deputy executive director o f ALA s Washington Office; e-mail: leb@alawash.org the House, the Senate also included $16,329,000 for LSCA II, library construction. LSCA VI, literacy, would be funded at $7,384,000. A ls o a p p r o v e d . T h e Higher Education Act Title II- B, library education and training, was approved at $4.5 million; and II-B, library research and dem onstra­ tions, at $2 million. Research and demonstrations would be limited to tw o specific projects ($1,000,000 to the Survivors o f the Shoah Visual History Founda­ tion and $1,000,000 for the final phase o f the Portals demonstration project). The National Commission on Libraries and Information Sci­ ence would receive $829,000— compared with the House’s $450,000— but less than the cur­ rent $901,000. Report language stated the rea­ son for the decrease was in keeping with the rest o f the bill; the committee has reduced fund­ ing by eight percent. LSCA and NEA/NEH reauthorizations. A redesigned Library Services and Construction Act was passed by the Senate as an amend­ ment to S. 143, the Workforce Development Act, on October 11. The amendment, sponsored by Senators Claiborne Pell (D-RI) and James Jeffords (R-VT), passed by voice vote and con­ sisted o f the library and museum portions o f S. 856. The library-museum piece, as amended onto S. 143 by the Senate, includes the Library Ser­ vices and Technology Act proposal, with only minor modifications, as developed by ALA and other library groups to update and replace the expiring LSCA. In addition to the state-based LSTA, the amendment includes a national lead­ ership program in library science and joint li brary-museum projects. S. 856, the original vehicle proposing to establish an Institute o f Museum and Library Services, still includes reauthorizing language for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Arts and Artifacts Indemnity Act (originally Title III o f S. 856) was attached to S. 143, with its administration changed from NEA to the In­ stitute o f Museum and Library Services. (W ashington cont. on pa ge 725) mailto:leb@alawash.org November 1995/ 725 brary. The collection includes hundreds o f LPs, audiocassette recordings, and videotapes, in­ cluding over 300 complete operas and many rarely heard productions. The personal papers and recordings o f Mark Hindsley, the second conductor o f the University o f Illinois’ world-famous Concert Band, have been acquired by the John Philip Sousa American Band Archives at the Univer­ sity o f Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Hindsley was the creator o f more than 70 transcriptions o f orchestral music for bands. The collection includes scrapbooks, recordings, more than 200 books, hundreds o f photographs, and corre­ spondence documenting Hindsley’s career and the history o f American bands and conductors over a 60-year period. A la rge collection o f financial and busi­ ness records from the Nash Finch Company, the nation’s third largest food wholesaler, has been acquired by the Department o f Archives and Special Collections at the University o f North Dakota Libraries. The collection includes 56 linear feet o f records dating from 1894 to 1989, the majority o f which date from 1919 to 1960, as well as pictures and other memora­ bilia that chronicle the development o f one o f the nation’s foremost Fortune 500 companies. The papers o f the G eorge Wilkins Ken­ dall family are now available for research at the Special Collections Division o f the Univer­ sity o f Texas at Arlington. Kendall (1809– 1867) was a writer, war correspondent, and rancher on the Texas frontier. The collection consists o f correspondence, photographs, books, and artifacts, including Kendall’s correspondence with the New Orleans Picayune‚ which he co­ founded, with news from the front lines o f the Mexican War, his views on Texas annexation, and descriptions o f European events from Paris during the late 1840s. Letters to his wife during the 1850s describe daily life o f the time. The A dèle Goodm an Clark papers have been made available for research by the Cabell Library’s Special Collections and Archives at Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries. Clark (1882– 1983) was a prominent figure in the Richmond and Virginia political and arts communities and is especially known for her involvement in the Women’s Suffrage M ove­ ment. The collection contains Clark’s personal Beschreibung des Gelobten Landes Canaan, by Heinrich Bunting, a rare 1581 woodcut map from the Middle East M ap Collection at the University o f Wisconsin-Milwaukee. papers, as well as the records o f organizations with which Clark was actively associated dur­ ing her lifetime, including the Equal Suffrage League o f Virginia (later the Virginia League o f Women Voters), Work Projects Administration Arts Project for Virginia, Richmond Diocese o f the Catholic Church, and other organizations which focused on education, race relations, and labor. (Washington cont. from page 712) Technically, the Senate passed H.R. 1617, substituting S. 143 as amended. In this way, the House and Senate can convene a conference committee to work out the differences between their proposals. The House-passed H.R. 1617 is the CAREERS Act, a block grant bill that in­ cludes an LSTA Consolidation Grant as an ab­ breviated block grant o f the ALA version o f LSTA. ALA will report further as debate pro­ ceeds in Congress and elsewhere on these is­ secivre S otohP M WU ,k ic rre H ll B i : it d cr e otohP sues.