================================================================= ALAWON Volume 7, Number 3 ISSN 1069-7799 January 7, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (55 lines) IMLS ISSUES APPLICATION GUIDELINES FOR NATIVE AMERICAN AND NATIVE HAWAIIAN LIBRARY SERVICES UNDER LSTA FCC EXEMPTS NONPROFIT SCHOOLS, COLLEGES, LIBRARIES FROM REQUIREMENT TO CONTRIBUTE TO UNIVERSAL SERVICE _________________________________________________________________ IMLS ISSUES APPLICATION GUIDELINES FOR NATIVE AMERICAN AND NATIVE HAWAIIAN LIBRARY SERVICES UNDER LSTA Application guidelines for two specific parts of the Library Services and Technology Act have been issued by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Native American Library Services program provides assistance for improved library services to meet the needs of Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages through basic library services grants, technical assistance grants, and enhancement grants. A Native Hawaiian Library Services Grant is available to organizations that primarily serve and represent Native Hawaiians to support library services to the Native Hawaiian community. The LSTA statute, as recently amended by technical and conforming amendments (P.L. 105-128, December 1, 1997), provides that 1.75 percent of LSTA appropriations be reserved for library services to Native Americans. The legislative history of S. 1505, the technical amendment bill, indicates that Congress expects that a portion of the Native Americans' set aside (or.25 percent of LSTA funding) be used for services to Hawaiian Natives. The total appropriated for LSTA for fiscal year 1998 is $143,340,000. The guidelines for these programs are available on the IMLS web site at http://www.imls.fed.us/guidelines/nalser.pdf (or nhlser.pdf for the Native Hawaiian guidelines). A December 5, 1997 Federal Register notice (pp. 64404-05) offered an opportunity for public comment to the Office of Management and Budget on the paperwork burden of these application guidelines. The deadline is February 3, 1998. Sometime after that date, actual application deadlines will be announced by IMLS. _________________________________________________________________ FCC EXEMPTS NONPROFIT SCHOOLS, COLLEGES, LIBRARIES FROM REQUIREMENT TO CONTRIBUTE TO UNIVERSAL SERVICE The Federal Communications Commission clarified on December 30 that nonprofit schools, colleges, universities, libraries, and health care providers are exempt from any obligation to contribute to universal service. Earlier, there had been confusion about whether colleges and universities, in particular, would be required to contribute to the universal service fund to the extent that they provide interstate telecommunications on a non-common carrier basis. While the FCC has "permissive authority" over "other providers of interstate telecommunications," the Commission concluded that the public interest would not be served if the FCC were to exercise its authority in this instance. The FCC cited two reasons for this conclusion. First, many of these entities will be eligible to receive universal service support, and "it would be counter-productive to the goals of universal service" to require recipients to contribute because it would, in effect, reduce the support they receive. Second, the FCC said "it would be inconsistent with the educational goals of the universal service support mechanisms to require colleges and universities to contribute to universal service." The Commission will treat nonprofit schools, colleges, universities, libraries and health care providers as telecommunications end users, and thus they will not be required to contribute to the universal service fund even if they derive revenues from the provision of interstate telecommunications to others. This FCC decision was part (paragraph 284) of an end of year order providing a number of clarifications and mid-course corrections on issues raised by petitioners and commenters on the Commission's previous three orders on universal service issues. The FCC's Fourth Order on Reconsideration (FCC 97-420) was issued December 30, 1997. (FCC orders are available electronically from the FCC at www.fcc.gov/ccb/universal_service/) ALA had earlier written separately and together with the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and several other national higher education organizations in letters to the FCC indicating that colleges and universities, school and libraries, should not be subject to a requirement to contribute to universal service. _________________________________________________________________ ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc @ala.org. To unsubscribe, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/ washoff/alawon. Visit our Web site at http://www.alawash.org. ALA Washington Office 202.628.8410 (V) 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F) Washington, DC 20004-1701 800.941.8478 (V) Lynne E. Bradley, Editor Deirdre Herman, Managing Editor Contributors: Carol C. Henderson All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================