_________________________________________________________________ ALAWON Volume 7, Number 136 ISSN 1069-7799 October 30, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (87 lines) [1] ELECTRONIC RECORDS CASE ARGUED IN APPEALS [2] CONGRESS FOLDS USIA INTO THE STATE _________________________________________________________________ [1] ELECTRONIC RECORDS CASE ARGUED IN APPEALS COURT On October 20 oral arguments in the case of Public Citizen v. John Carlin, Archivist of the United States were presented to three judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The U.S. Department of Justice attorney asked the panel of appeals court judges to reverse the October 1997 decision by U.S. District Judge Paul Freidman which declared General Records Schedule 20 "null and void." Public Citizen Attorney Michael Tankersley argued that GRS 20 has created a "print-and-delete" policy that ignores the importance of saving documents in their original format. A ruling is anticipated within the next few months. GRS 20, issued by the Archivist in 1995, authorized agencies to delete the only electronic version of agency word processing and e-mail records after the records have been copied to paper or microform. In 1996 Public Citizen and other organizations, including ALA, filed suit against the Archivist, the Executive Office of the President, the Office of Administration, and the United States Trade Representatives. In the suit the plaintiffs charged that GRS 20 must be set aside because the Archivist failed to make the determination concerning the value of the records required by statute. In October 1997 Judge Friedman agreed with the plaintiffs and found that the Archivist exceeded the limits Congress placed on the use of general schedules, and ordered the National Archives to establish a policy for archiving electronic records. NARA is working on a replacement for GRS 20 while the government appeals the year-old Friedman ruling. In a related development, Judge Friedman lifted a September 30, 1998 deadline he gave the Archivist to develop a system for preserving the government's burgeoning quantities of e-mail and word processing records. The ruling set no new deadline, and permitted Carlin to tell federal agencies they can continue following their "present disposition practices for electronic records" until the government's appeal of Friedman's earlier ruling has been resolved. _________________________________________________________________ [2] CONGRESS FOLDS USIA INTO THE STATE DEPARTMENT Included in the massive omnibus appropriations bill passed as Congress adjourned, P.L. 105-277 (H. Rept. 105-825), was a reorganization of international affairs agencies. The United States Information Agency was abolished and its operations were folded into the U.S. Department of State. USIA programs, such as educational and cultural exchange programs, will be directed by a new Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy. USIA Director Joseph Duffey is a likely candidate for the position. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has until April 1999 to submit to Congress a detailed plan for the reorganization and reassignment of employees. _________________________________________________________________ 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, go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/ subscribe.html or 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: Anne Heanue All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. _________________________________________________________________