================================================================= ALAWON Volume 7, Number 74 ISSN 1069-7799 June 23, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (186 lines) -APPROPRIATIONS ACTION FOR AGRICULTURE AND INTERIOR: LETTERS OF THANKS NEEDED - DIGITAL MEDIA CONTENT FOR CHILDREN AND TEENS INTERNET SUMMIT HELD JUNE 11-12 _________________________________________________________________ APPROPRIATIONS ACTION FOR AGRICULTURE AND INTERIOR: LETTERS OF THANKS NEEDED AGRICULTURE The House Appropriations Committee reported H.R. 4101 (H. Report 105-588) on June 19, with an increased appropriations for the National Agricultural Library. The bill is scheduled for House floor action for June 23. The report language specifies "an increase of $300,000 for the purchase of periodicals, improved electronic retrieval capacity, enhanced preservation effort, and to expand agriculture network information centers." The ALA Washington Office had submitted a letter to the Subcommittee requesting an increase for NAL in view of the static funding over the last few years, the increased cost for periodicals and the needs listed above. Thanks go out to library supporters for their letters and calls. The Senate Appropriations Committee reported S. 2159 (S. Report 105-212) on June 11, 1998. Although the overall total listed for the Agricultural Research Service is higher than the House number, there is no specific reference to any increase for the National Agricultural Library. There has been no final action on the bill by the full Senate as yet, but the full Senate began consideration of the bill on June 18. Because House and Senate bills are different, there will be a conference committee appointed. ACTION NEEDED: Letters of thanks should be sent to Rep. Joe Skeen (R-NM), Chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515. Because the Senate bill does not include the increases for NAL, the Senate Appropriations Committee should be requested to approve the House level for NAL when the bills are in conference. Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee are as follows: SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE St. Pty. Senator Phone FAX AL R Richard C. Shelby 224-5744 224-3416 AK R Ted Stevens, Chair 224-3004 224-2354 AR D Dale Bumpers 224-4843 224-6435 CA D Barbara Boxer 224-3553 228-0026 CO R Ben Nighthorse Campbell 224-5852 224-1933 HI D Daniel K. Inouye 224-3934 224-6747 ID R Larry E. Craig 224-2752 228-1067 IA D Tom Harkin 224-3254 224-9369 KY R Mitch McConnell 224-2541 224-2499 MD D Barbara A. Mikulski 224-4654 224-8858 MS R Thad Cochran 224-5054 224-9450 MO R Christopher S. Bond 224-5721 224-8149 MT R Conrad Burns 224-2644 224-8594 NV D Harry M. Reid 224-3542 224-7327 NH R Judd Gregg 224-3324 224-4952 NJ D Frank R. Lautenberg 224-4744 224-9707 NM R Pete V. Domenici 224-6621 ND D Byron L. Dorgan 224-2551 224-1193 PA R Arlen Specter 224-4254 228-1229 SC D Ernest Fritz Hollings 224-6121 224-4293 TX R Kay Bailey Hutchison 224-5922 224-0776 UT R Robert F. Bennett 224-5444 224-4908 VT D Patrick J. Leahy 224-4242 WA R Slade Gorton 224-3441 224-9393 WA D Patty Murray 224-2621 224-0238 WV D Robert C. Byrd, Rnk. Mem. 224-3954 224-8070 WI D Herb Kohl 224-5653 224-9787 NC R Lauch Faircloth 224-3154 224-7406 INTERIOR APPROPRIATIONS On June 19, the Interior and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee approved its bill for FY99. The National Endowment for the Humanities would be funded at the same level as FY98 $110.7 million; the National Endowment for the Arts would not be funded; and the museum portion of funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, would be set at $23.4 million, a slight increase from FY98 appropriations of $23.2 million. According to the National Humanities Alliance, a coalition to which ALA belongs, the behavior of the subcommittee in zeroing out the Arts Endowment was similar to that of last year which resulted in several rules and ultimately in the Senate insistence on inclusion of NEA in the conference report on the Interior Appropriations bill for FY98. This year, the Chairman of the Subcommittee, Ralph Regula (R-OH) expects an up or down vote on the continuation of the National Endowment for the Arts. Congress has not passed legislation to reauthorize either NEA or NEH. The full Appropriations Committee will consider the FY99 Interior Appropriations bill on June 25, with the Senate Interior Subcommittee scheduled to markup FY99 Interior Appropriations on June 23. _________________________________________________________________ DIGITAL MEDIA CONTENT FOR CHILDREN AND TEENS INTERNET SUMMIT HELD JUNE 11-12 More than 350 educators, commercial content providers and public officials gathered June 11-12 in Los Angeles, CA to discuss ways to stimulate development of quality content on the Internet for children and teens. The Digital Media Content for Children and Teens Internet Summit was hosted by Egg Company 2 (EC2, the Annenberg Incubator Project at the University of Southern California), and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Keynote speaker Vice President Al Gore said, "The e-rate is central to the future of American education," and that the Federal Communications Commission should embrace the e-rate program. "We will fight any attempt by Congress to end the e-rate." Gore cited the Internet as an essential tool for education. He stressed that 10 million children are already online and that statistics have demonstrated that students in classrooms with computers perform 30 percent better academically than students without computers. He encouraged participants to build more public spaces on the Internet for children such as digital parks, libraries and museums. The Vice President wishes for students to have "access to every book ever printed, every painting ever painted, and every symphony ever composed." Other speakers included Jake Winebaum, president of Disney Online, who addressed the issue of online content for children and what his organization was doing to provide quality content. Larry Irving, assistant secretary for communications and information at NTIA, made opening remarks about the importance of developing quality content for children and the Administration's interest in this issue. ALA and ICONnect Committee member Marsha Korobkin, audio-visual services coordinator for San Diego City Schools, participated in the panel, "Tales from the Classroom: Educators Identify Best Practices." Korobkin discussed the ICONnect program as well as other ALA programs for children and the importance of expanding students' information literacy skills. The ALA Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) provided demonstrations of ALA's Web sites for kids, teens and parents for conference attendees. "This was an opportunity to continue ALA's involvement in the White House Internet Summit and show the kinds of things librarians are doing to build the information superhighway," said Andrew Magpantay, director of OITP. For further information and the event video/audio archives on the summit, see the conference Web site at http://whis.ec2.edu _________________________________________________________________ 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. =================================================================