================================================================= ALAWON Volume 7, Number 22 ISSN 1069-7799 March 6, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (149 lines) PATRICIA WAND TESTIFIES ON BEHALF OF LC AND GPO APPROPRIATIONS LEGISLATION INTRODUCED TO PUT CRS DOCUMENTS ON THE INTERNET _________________________________________________________________ PATRICIA WAND TESTIFIES ON BEHALF OF LC AND GPO APPROPRIATIONS On February 12, Patricia Wand, university librarian at American University and chair of the ALA Committee on Legislation, testified before the House Appropriations Legislative Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. James Walsh (R-NY). Appearing on behalf of ALA, the Association of Research Libraries, the American Association of Law Libraries, and the Special Libraries Association, she supported the FY99 appropriations requests of the Library of Congress and the Government Printing Office. The Medical Library Association also signed on to the Library statement. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Wand said the Library's FY99 budget request of $369.3 million positions the Library to realize the benefits of the digital networked environment while ensuring that important programs and services are maintained. She stated that the library associations enthusiastically support the Library's request for FY99 funding for automation projects. These include new computer workstations and equipment, computer security, preparing for Year 2000 improvements, and more. Additionally, Wand highlighted the need for additional resources for the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, the Law Library, the American Folklife Center, and the Library's improvement of security for its collections, facilities, staff and visitors. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. Wand also supported the Public Printer's FY99 budget request of $30.2 million for the Superintendent of Documents Salaries and Expenses appropriations. Wand urged the Subcommittee to fully support the many three-way partnership programs initiated by the Superintendent of Documents in which a library or institution enters into a formal agreement to provide permanent public access to a specific electronic collection. She said that without these efforts important electronic information will continue to be lost daily as files appear and disappear from agency web sites and computer servers. At the same time, Wand pointed out that the success of GPO Access cannot be measured without acknowledging the substantial costs that depository libraries expend in order to provide no-fee public access to government information in both print and electronic formats. Wand placed in the hearing record an article by Laura Tangley from the February 16, 1998 U.S. News & World Report (pp. 67+) entitled, "Whoops, there goes another CD-ROM." In the article librarians and archivists warn that computer disks, CD-ROMs and magnetic tapes are turning out to be far less durable as record keepers in many cases than simple parchment. Said Tangley, "This is a formidable threat, considering that by the year 2000 about three quarters of all federal transactions will take place electronically." _________________________________________________________________ LEGISLATION INTRODUCED TO PUT CRS DOCUMENTS ON THE INTERNET On March 4 the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, Chaired by Sen. John Warner (R-VA) held a hearing on S. 1578. The bill introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) would make available on the Internet certain information available through the Congressional Research Service (CRS) web site. Sen. McCain's proposal would require the CRS Director to make accessible to the public, via the Internet, all information available through the CRS web site that is not confidential. This includes CRS issue briefs, reports, and authorization of appropriations products. Other cosponsors of the bill include Sens. Dan Coats (R-IN), Lauch Faircloth (R-NC) and John Ashcroft (R-MO). Sen. McCain stated, "This bill gives Americans access to information on how their lawmakers make their decisions." He also declared that because CRS is funded by taxpayers the public should have access to information they produce. He further testified that since many young people use the Internet giving them access to information can help them get more involved in the legislative and political process. The cost would be minimal to CRS according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Sen. Warner expressed concern that CRS would become overburdened with requests and that he doesn't want to see constituents asking CRS for information instead of calling their Members of Congress. Sen. Warner emphasized that CRS is considered "an extension of staff" by many Members. He was willing to acknowledge that these issues could be worked out. On February 27 the Committee held an oversight hearing on the operations of CRS at which CRS Director, Daniel Mulhollan, testified about S. 1578. Mulhollan was worried that given the limited resources CRS has, making a second CRS web site available to the public as called for in S. 1578, would diminish their effectiveness in meeting congressional needs. Having constituents request documents from CRS directly would further hinder the agency's efforts, he said. According to Mulhollan there are legal concerns and copyright infringement issues that need to be addressed. Additionally, Mulhollan said giving CRS a public mission could call into question the status of confidential memoranda prepared by CRS for congressional clients, which in the past have been deemed subject to speech or debate protection by courts and administrative bodies. Gary Ruskin, director of the Congressional Accountability Project submitted a statement for the record discounting CRS concerns. In his statement Ruskin insisted that Congress should provide the American public the same access to CRS documents that the Washington insiders have. During its Midwinter Meeting in January, ALA passed a resolution about CRS publications urging that the Joint Committee on the Library, the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, and the House Oversight Committee take immediate action to assure that publicly released Congressional Research Service reports and information products are distributed in a timely manner to the general public through Federal Depository Libraries and on the Internet. _________________________________________________________________ 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. =================================================================