****Begin File*******************BeginFile*******************Begin File**** *************************************************************************** ISSN 1069-7799 ALAWON ALA Washington Office Newsline An electronic publication of the American Library Association Washington Office Volume 3, Number 69 November 22, 1994 In this issue: (162 lines) ADMINISTRATION TO ANNOUNCE GOVERNMENT INFORMATION LOCATOR SERVICE DECEMBER 1 DEADLINE FOR COMMENTS ON PRESERVATION OF ELECTRONIC RECORDS EXECUTIVE ORDER DECLASSIFYING RECORDS NII ADVISORY COUNCIL SCHEDULES OPEN MEETING NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE GRANTS ANNOUNCED *************************************************************************** ADMINISTRATION TO ANNOUNCE GOVERNMENT INFORMATION LOCATOR SERVICE On December 7, the Clinton Administration will take a major step toward creating a Government Information Locator Service (GILS) to help the public locate and access information across the federal government. GILS will identify public information resources, describe the information, and help the public get it. It will include a network of decentralized, agency-based information locators. The public will use GILS directly or through intermediaries such as libraries, private information providers, and academic institutions. It will ultimately be accessible through various media including Internet, by dial-up from the Commerce Department's FedWorld system, and from the World Wide Web through the "Welcome to the White House" server. On December 7th, at 2:00 pm: * Commerce Deputy Secretary David J. Barram will announce the initiative; * Sally Katzen, Administrator of the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, will announce the issuance of an OMB Bulletin to implement the GILS; and * Ray Kammer, Deputy Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, will announce the promulgation of a Federal Information Processing Standard for the GILS. The event will also include a live demonstration of the GILS and statements by other officials and private sector representatives. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: The event will take place at 2:00 pm on Wednesday, December 7, in the White House Briefing Room, Room 450, Old Executive Office Building, 17th and Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.. Access will be through the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance at 1:30 pm. Seating is extremely limited. Attendance will be by reservation only, on a "first reserved" basis. To attend, please send an e-mail to ipc@a1.eop.gov including your full name and date of birth for clearance into the building, by December 1, 1994. Confirmation will be by return e-mail. Persons without e-mail capability may fax their reservation request to 202-395-5167, but will not receive a confirmation. *************************************************************************** DECEMBER 1 DEADLINE FOR COMMENTS ON PRESERVATION OF ELECTRONIC RECORDS December 1, 1994, is the deadline to submit comments on proposed amendments to the General Records Schedules governing electronic records. In a Request for Comments published in the _Federal Register_, October 17, 1994 (pp. 52313-6), the National Archives and Records Administration seeks comments on several proposed amendments. These proposals raise a number of issues, but items 13 (Word Processing Files) and 14 (Electronic Mail Records) are of particular significance. Under this proposal, all agencies would be permitted to destroy the electronic version of electronic mail and word processing records after they have been copied to paper or microform, or copied to an electronic recordkeeping system. This practice of destroying electronic records and only preserving paper print-outs is precisely what caused ALA to join as a co-plaintiff in _Armstrong, et al. v. Executive Office of the President, et. al_. That case is currently pending before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Comments must be received in writing on or before December 1, 1994 and should be sent to the Records Appraisal and Disposition Division, National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Rd., College Park, MD 20740-6001. Comments may be faxed to (301) 713-6852 or (301) 713-6850. Comments may also be sent to the following Internet address: jhasting@nara.gov. For further information contact: James J. Hastings, Director, Records Appraisal and Disposition Division, (301) 713-7110, ext. 229. *************************************************************************** EXECUTIVE ORDER DECLASSIFYING RECORDS On November 10, President Clinton signed Executive Order 12937 calling for the bulk declassification of almost 44 million pages of security-classified records in the National Archives (see November 15 _Federal Register_, pp. 59097-8.) The Executive Order covers approximately 21 million pages of still classified records from World War II and 23 million pages of selected records from the postwar period through the Vietnam war era. This bulk declassification represents approximately 14 percent of National Archives holdings of classified material and is the largest single group of classified materials to be declassified by NARA. *************************************************************************** NII ADVISORY COUNCIL SCHEDULES OPEN MEETING An open meeting of the NII Advisory Council will take place at the Department of Commerce Auditorium, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C., on December 6, 1994 from 8:30am to 4:30pm. The meeting will be open to the public, with limited seating available on a first-come, first-served basis. Any member of the public requiring special services, such as sign language interpretation, should contact Meggan Griggs at 202-482-1835. Future meetings of the Advisory Council on the NII are planned in 1995 on January 26 in Raleigh, N.C. and March 10 in Los Angeles, CA. The agenda for December 6 is as follows: 1. Opening Remarks by the Co-Chairs (Delano Lewis, Ed McCracken). 2. Review of Progress on Mega-projects. 3. Education and Electronic Commerce Principles. 4. Intellectual Property and Privacy Principles. 5. Universal Access Principles. 6. Discussion of Global Information Infrastructure Issues. 7. Public Discussion, Questions and Answers. Any member of the public may submit written comments concerning the Council's affairs at any time before or after the meetings. Comments should be submitted through electronic mail to nii@ntia.doc.gov or to the Designated Federal Officer at the address below. Within 30 days following the meetings, copies of the minutes of the Advisory Council meeting may be obtained through Bulletin Board Services at 202-501-1920, 202-482-1199, over the Internet at iitf.doc.gov, or from the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Room 4892, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20230. Telephone 202-482-1835. *************************************************************************** NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE GRANTS ANNOUNCED The National Institutes of Health is amending the regulations governing certain National Library of Medicine (NLM) grants to conform with the maximum award amount set forth in the regulations in the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993. That act increased the maximum award amount for an NLM grant for basic resources from $750,000 to $1,000,000. The regulations are being amended to reflect this statutory change and are effective November 16, 1994. For further information contact: Jerry Moore, Regulatory Affairs Officer, National Institutes of Health, Building 31, Room 3B11, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892-0001, telephone: 301-496-2832. *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is an irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office, 110 Maryland Avenue, N.E., Washington, DC 20002-5675. Internet: alawash@alawash.org; Phone: 202-547-4440; Fax: 202-547-7363. Contributing to this issue: Anne A. Heunue, Associate Director, ALA-WO, aah@alawash.org; Editor: Lynne E. Bradley (leb@alawash.org). ALAWON is available free of charge and is available only in electronic form. To subscribe, send the message "subscribe ala-wo [your name]" to listserv@uicvm (Bitnet) or listserv@uicvm.uic.edu (Internet). Back issues and other documents are available from the list server. To find out what's available, send the message "send ala-wo filelist" to the listserv. The ALA-WO filelist contains the list of files with the exact filename and filetype. To get a particular file, issue the command "send filename filetype" to the listserv. Do not include the quotes in your commands. All materials in the newsletter subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. For other reprinting or redistribution, address requests to the ALA Washington Office (alawash@alawash.org). *************************************************************************** ***End of file******************End of file******************End of file***