ALAWON v4n21 (March 10, 1995)
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/alawon/alawon-v4n21

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                                                             ISSN 1069-7799
                                  ALAWON
                      ALA Washington Office Newsline
                     An electronic publication of the
              American Library Association Washington Office
 
                            Volume 4, Number 21
                              March 10, 1995
 
   In this issue: (187 lines)
     LIBRARY OF CONGRESS BUDGET SUPPORTED BY LIBRARY GROUPS
     LIBRARY ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORT GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE BUDGET
     DOWNSIZING LEGISLATIVE BRANCH AGENCIES
 
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          LIBRARY OF CONGRESS BUDGET SUPPORTED BY LIBRARY GROUPS
 
On February 23, ALA President-elect Betty Turock testified before the House
Legislative Appropriations Subcommittee in support of the FY96 budget
request for the Library of Congress.  Turock spoke on behalf of ALA, the
Association of Research Libraries, and the American Association of Law
Libraries.
 
Librarian of Congress James Billington appeared before the Subcommittee on
February 22 to request $378,544,000 for FY96 (including the authority to
obligate $25,406,000 in receipts), an increase of $30,100,000 or 8.6
percent over FY95.  In her testimony, Turock said that this amount would
position the Library to move more aggressively into the digital library
arena while at the same time, ensure that important programs such as the
National Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, and preservation
activities are maintained.
 
Turock also told the Subcommittee that the three organizations strongly
oppose the proposal to move the Copyright Office from the Library of
Congress to the Department of Commerce.  She said that the placement of the
Copyright Office in the Legislative Branch permits the Office to be a
neutral voice on copyright and intellectual property issues.  Placing the
functions of the Copyright Office in the Department of Commerce would place
it in an environment devoted to the promotion of commerce, enhanced
productivity, and U.S. competitiveness--not an environment that reflects
the needs of creators, users, and researchers.
 
Additionally, the organizations believe that "severing the link between
copyright deposit (for both published and unpublished works) would add
significant new costs to the Library's budget and would have a detrimental
effect on the depth and breadth of the Library's collection....The richness
of these collections is a direct result of the fact that the Library has
been designated as the repository for U.S. copyright deposits for nearly
150 years."
 
Subcommittee Chair Ron Packard (R-CA) assured Turock that House Speaker
Gingrich told him that "everything is on the table" except the Library of
Congress.
 
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      LIBRARY ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORT GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE BUDGET
 
Public Printer Michael DiMario presented his FY96 budget request to the
House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee on February 22.  His
request for the Salaries and Expenses Appropriation of the Superintendent
of Documents was $30,307,000 million, a decrease of $1,900,000 million, or
5.9 percent, from FY95.  DiMario said this amount is sufficient to maintain
GPO's program responsibilities while also managing the transition to the
appropriate use of electronic media.  The request included $25,600,000
million for distribution of publications to depository libraries;
$3,300,000 million for cataloging and indexing government publications; and
the remainder divided between international exchange and bylaw
distribution.
 
The request for the Depository Library Program was a reduction of
approximately $2,400,000, or 13.4 percent, from the amount approved for
FY95.  It included $2,200,000 for online access provided to depository
libraries by the GPO Access service, and $13,300,000 for the production of
paper, microfiche, and CD-ROM publications.  The distribution of electronic
copies has been steadily increasing, with about 454,000 copies projected
for FY96, a 50 percent increase over FY95.
 
Testifying on behalf of ALA, the Association of Research Libraries, and the
American Association of Law Libraries, ALA President-elect Betty Turock
strongly recommended that GPO receive the funding it requires to administer
the Depository Library Program.  She emphasized that depository libraries
are partners with the federal government in providing public access to
government information.  Turock described how the GPO Access System is
providing no-fee public access to federal information on-site at
depositories and off-site through gateways in Missouri, Alaska, Georgia,
Pennsylvania, and Washington.  Four pages of testimonials from satisfied
depository library users were attached to her statement.
 
Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Ron Packard (R-CA)
asked Turock which she would choose if it were a choice of receiving
electronic information from the Library of Congress and other agencies, or
receiving hard copy.  Turock responded that the electronic and hard copies
are not mutually exclusive.  She said that a variety of formats are needed
to meet the needs of users.  She pointed out that not all depository
libraries are equipped to receive electronic information and that not all
people can use these formats.
 
Packard said that Congress' dilemma was the cost of the transition.  "We
can't do both.  Depository libraries may have to make a choice."  Packard
said that public assistance may be available to provide equipment to help
depositories upgrade because this would save money over the long run.  He
sees the day when information will flow online from the government and
Congress.  The questions are how long this will be in coming, and how to
save money.
 
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                  DOWNSIZING LEGISLATIVE BRANCH AGENCIES
 
At a joint hearing of the House and Senate Legislative Branch
Appropriations Subcommittees on February 2, legislators signaled their
intention to study legislative support agencies with the possibility of
downsizing or eliminating them.  Nearly half of the legislative branch's
annual $2.4 billion budget goes to the General Accounting Office,
Congressional Budget Office, Office of Technology Assessment, Congressional
Research Service, Library of Congress, Government Printing Office, and
Architect of the Capitol.
 
Among other things, witnesses recommended abolishing the Government
Printing Office and contracting with the private sector to carry out its
functions.  Two Reagan-era officials, former Public Printer Danford Sawyer
and former OMB staffer Timothy Sprehe, recommended abolishing GPO.  Sprehe
incorrectly described GPO as "the same old print-oriented environment, a
struggling sales program, a depository library program being slowly starved
of funds."  Sprehe recommended transferring the function of the
Superintendent of Documents to the Library of Congress with the
stipulations that:
 
...the government documents sales program should be abolished,
and the executive agencies that produce government documents
should be permitted to sell their documents directly to the
public.  Documents sales could be integrated into the Government
Information Locator Service recently founded in the executive
branch.
 
LOC should radically restructure the federal depository library
program to bring it into conformity with the realities of the
information superhighway.  Perhaps a nationwide electronic
network will prove to be the best delivery system for getting
government documents to the public through depository libraries.
 
LOC should carry out the functions of cataloging and indexing,
bylaw distribution, and international exchange.
 
 
Challenging the perspective of Sawyer and Sprehe, former Public Printer
John Boyle, who retired in 1980, said the GPO is a credit to the
government, to the legislative branch, and to the printing industry.  "GPO
has maintained a level of efficiency with a flat appropriation and 50
percent fewer employees over the last several years that few private
companies could match.  In the face of fiscal cutbacks and scrutiny as to
its very existence, GPO developed its Electronic Access System on time and
on budget.  That is a model for other electronic databases.  What you might
hear about saving millions of dollars by closing GPO does not make any
sense.  The Congressional printing must be done somewhere; and, it is
presently being done well, on time, and at a reasonable cost."
 
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