_________________________________________________________________ ALAWON Volume 7, 104 ISSN 1069-7799 September 14, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (95 lines) SENATE COMMITTEE PROVIDES DETAILS ON LSTA FUNDING _________________________________________________________________ SENATE COMMITTEE PROVIDES DETAILS ON LSTA FUNDING The Senate Appropriations Committee has issued its report (S. Rept. 105-300) on the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriation Bill for FY99 (S. 2440), providing more detail on the recommended funding for the Library Services and Technology Act. As reported in a previous ALAWON, the Committee recommended $156,340,000 for LSTA, $10 million more than the FY98 level and the Administration's request. However, $9.3 million of the increase is the total of nine specific projects the Committee report "urges" the Institute of Museum and Library Services to fund from the National Leadership Grants program of LSTA. These projects include: $750,000 to the University of Idaho to provide geospatial and numerical data to rural communities; $1 million to the University of South Carolina, Spartanburg, to expand library services through telecommunications capabilities; $1.5 million to the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, to enhance a scientific journal, manage an international program, and provide a science education program; $750,000 to an unnamed institution for a historical project to document the treatment of Italian-Americans during WWII; $2 million to the New York Public Library for digitization to improve online access to library collections; $500,000 to Libraries for the Future for community-library collaboratives in underserved inner cities; $1.5 million to the Milwaukee Public Museum for an educational program for youth featuring earth's biological diversity; $1 million to the University of Miami for preservation of a collection of Cuban materials; and $300,000 to the State Historical Society of Iowa to transcribe and preserve oral history interviews of Iowa labor history. Of the $156,340,000 for LSTA, the Senate bill would provide $15 million for National Leadership Grants, and would override the law's requirement that 3.75 percent of LSTA funds be for the NLG program. However, despite the Senate report's "urging" language, the law also provides that NLG awards be made competitively. The majority of LSTA funds are allocated to state library agencies for statewide library and support services and subgrants to all types of libraries for technological innovation and outreach services. The Senate bill would provide $135,391,000 for state grants, slightly more than the current level. The bill would also provide $2,561,000 for library services to Indian tribes, and $2.9 million, the amount requested by IMLS, for federal program administration. The House Appropriations Committee had earlier recommended level funding of $146,340,000 for LSTA in its bill (H.R.4274). Both House and Senate are trying to get these bills to the floor in the short time remaining in the session. _________________________________________________________________ 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: Carol C. Henderson Claudette W. Tennant All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. _________________________________________________________________