ALAWON v4n38 (May 5, 1995)
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/alawon/alawon-v4n38

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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 38
                                May 5, 1995
 
   In this issue: (213 lines)
     LIBRARY LEGISLATIVE DAY - MAY 9, 1995
          KEY ISSUES AND MESSAGES STATEMENT
     CONFEREES ON RESCISSION BILL ANNOUNCED
          ACTION NEEDED
 
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                   LIBRARY LEGISLATIVE DAY - MAY 9, 1995
 
                          KEY ISSUES AND MESSAGES
                             as of May 4, 1995
 
1.  LIBRARY SERVICES AND TECHNOLOGY ACT NEEDED NOW
 
Congress should pass LSTA quickly because it's a proposal cooperatively
developed by the library community to:
 
  o  consolidate, simplify, and update the Library Services and
     Construction Act
 
  o  reduce 8 titles to 2 key priorities for libraries --
       -  information access through technology
       -  information empowerment through special services
 
  o  increase flexibility and accountability
 
  o  emphasize libraries as change agents and self-help institutions,
     through federal/state partnerships
 
LSTA RELATES DIRECTLY TO NATIONAL PRIORITIES
 
  o  Information Age Technology.  LSTA will help libraries, as local on-
     ramps for the information superhighway, to ensure that access is
     equitable, content is useful and usable, and expert help is available.
     LSTA will also help ensure the widest and most efficient use of
     publicly funded library resources through technology-based sharing of
     information.
 
  o  National Education Goals.  LSTA will help libraries contribute to
     school readiness, student achievement, and lifelong learning.  The
     LSTA emphasis on services for children in poverty will help ensure
     that all students make progress toward these goals.  The LSTA emphasis
     on literacy will reinforce the library role as an institution for
     self-help and self-empowerment.
 
2.  FUND LIBRARY PROGRAMS AT $1 PER PERSON
 
Help libraries use new technology and empower people by--
 
Funding the 3 major federal library programs--
 
  o  Library Services and Construction Act (restructured as LSTA),
  o  Higher Education Act title II, and
  o  School Library Media Resources Program (ESEA III-F)
 
--at a total of $260 million for FY96.  That's about $1 per person at the
federal level for America's premier lifelong learning and self-help
institution--the library.  The United States is currently spending only 57
cents, about the cost of a cup of coffee.
 
     Special note on LSCA III:  While Congress is considering the proposed
     LSTA, appropriators will begin the FY96 funding process based on the
     current LSCA.  The President would zero out LSCA III, interlibrary
     cooperation, where most technological innovation in libraries is
     supported.  The President has recommended a welcome modest increase in
     LSCA I, public library services.  However, funding of LSCA III at at
     least the current level, is critical.
 
FEDERAL ROLE IS SMALL, MIGHTY, AND CRUCIAL
 
Federal stimulus funds are concentrated on important federal goals:
 
  o  To ensure that the existing information infrastructure of libraries is
     technologically equipped to perform governmental functions for the
     public cost effectively, such as
       -  supporting literacy and lifelong learning
       -  organizing and providing access to government information
       -  undergirding economic development by providing jobs information
          and supporting small businesses
       -  providing consumer health information
 
  o  To provide incentives for interlibrary cooperation, since most library
     funding is local, with services driven by local priorities that may
     restrict services to legal residents of a political jurisdiction or
     faculty/students of an educational institution
 
  o  To adapt new technologies to identify, preserve, and share library and
     information resources across institutional, local, and state
     boundaries
 
  o  To extend outreach to those for whom library service requires extra
     effort or special materials (such as new readers, people with
     disabilities)
 
  o  To support education, research, and demonstrations in the library and
     information science field
 
3.  TWO KEY PROVISIONS IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS LEGISLATION
 
The Telecommunications Competition and Deregulation Act of 1995, S. 652, is
expected to reach the Senate floor in May.  Two key provisions affect
libraries directly:
 
 1.  Support the bipartisan Snowe-Rockefeller-Kerrey-Exon amendment to
     provide incremental cost-based rates for telecommunications services
     for schools, libraries, and rural health-care providers.
 
     This amendment is needed to ensure schools and libraries public access
     to the full range of telecommunications services at affordable rates.
 
 2.  Remove from S. 652 the Exon-Gorton "Communications Decency Act"
     amendment that would expand prohibitions against obscene or harassing
     use of the telephone to all telecommunications devices, and could lead
     to censorship of private online communications in violation of the
     First Amendment.
 
     Senator Leahy has proposed a less intrusive alternative, the Child
     Protection, User Empowerment, and Free Expression in Interactive Media
     Study Bill (S. 714), calling for a study by the Justice and Commerce
     Departments of technological means of empowering users to control
     electronic information they receive.
 
4.  GOVERNMENT INFORMATION DISSEMINATION
 
Several pending measures would affect government information dissemination
functions.  Any measure considered by Congress should--
 
  o  Guarantee a centralized distribution system that ensures timely, full
     and no fee public access to government information in all formats
     through depository libraries
 
  o  Fund the Federal Depository Library Program at the level necessary to
     comply with statutory requirements and to ensure its effectiveness and
     participation in the emerging national information infrastructure
 
These provisions are now accomplished efficiently and economically through
the Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents function that--
 
  o  Provides 20 million copies of 64,000 individual publications in all
     formats annually to depository libraries at a cost of only $1 per copy
     to acquire, catalog, and mail
 
  o  Provides free online access to many of the nation's most important
     federal documents to depositories and to offsite users through
     cooperative Internet gateways at an expanding number of depository
     libraries
 
The GPO SuDocs FY96 budget request of $30.3 million should be approved.
 
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                     CONFEREES ON RESCISSION BILL ANNOUNCED
 
On Tuesday, May 2, conferees were appointed in the House of Representatives
on HR 1158, the FY95 Rescission bill.  The conferees met May 3 and may meet
again the week of May 8-12.
 
Members of the conference committee from the House are:
 
Bob Livingston, (R-LA), Chair of House Appropriations Committee; John Myers
(R-IN); Ralph Regula (R-OH); Jerry Lewis (R-CA); John Porter (R-IL); Harold
Rogers (R-KY); Joe Skeen (R-NM); Frank Wolf (R-VA); Tom DeLay (R-TX);
Barbara Vucanovich (R-NV); Jim Lightfoot (R-IA); Sonny Callahan (R-AL);
David Obey (D-WI); Sidney Yates (D-IL); Louis Stokes (D-OH); Tom Bevill (D-
AL); Vic Fazio (D-CA); Steny Hoyer (D-MD); Richard Durbin (D-IL); Ronald
Coleman (D-TX); Alan Mollohan (D-WV).
 
Senate conferees are the members of the Appropriations Committee.
 
ACTION NEEDED:  Library supporters from the above states who are coming to
town for Library Legislative Day should speak to their Representatives
about the cuts in library programs.  The Senate cuts are much less severe.
Information will be in your folders as to specific numbers.
 
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ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is an irregular publication of the American Library
Association Washington Office, 110 Maryland Avenue, N.E., Washington, DC
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Fax: 202-547-7363.  Contributing to this issue:  Carol C. Henderson, Mary
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(leb@alawash.org).
 
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