campaign statement on the White House Conference which said, in part: "If we are to succeed in developing libraries to their full The Conference makes its final report and recommendations to the President, and his continuing support is crucial to its ultimate success. The Conference Goal Public Law 93-568 sets forth the following goal for the White House Conference: "To develop recommendations for the further improvement of the Nation's libraries and information centers and their use by the public" consistent with seven considerations set forth in the law: 1. "Access to information and ideas is indispensable to the development of human potential, the advancement of civilization, and the continuance of enlightened self-government. 2. "The preservation and the dissemination of information and ideas are the primary purpose and function of libraries and information centers. 3. "The growth and augmentation of the Nation's libraries and information centers are essential if all Americans are to have reasonable access to adequate services of libraries and information centers. 4. "New achievements in technology offer a potential for enabling libraries and information centers to serve the public more fully, expeditiously, and economically. 5. "Maximum realization of the potential inherent in the use of advanced technology by libraries and information centers requires cooperation through planning for, and coordination of, the services of libraries and information centers. 6. "The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science is developing plans for meeting national needs for library and information services and for coordinating activities to meet those needs. 7. "Productive recommendations for expanding access to libraries and information centers will require public understanding and support as well as that of public and private libraries and information centers." The entire text of the law calling for the Conference may be found in Appendix IIIA. Conference Participation In a sense, the White House Conference can be described as a kind of "national town meeting." To ensure participation from a broad spectrum of Americans in the White House Conference, the law provides that the fifty states, six territories, American Indians on or near reservations, and the District of Columbia each conduct a preWhite House Conference to develop issues and select delegates to the National Conference. Two-thirds of the participants at the state and territorial conferences and at the White House Conference must be lay citizens-users and potential users of library and information services-and one-third must come from the library and information science community. The 568 official delegates to the National Conference are chosen by a formula based on the size of their respective Congressional delegations. An additional 105 delegates-at-large will also participate as official delegates. The 428 non-voting delegates will include 238 alternates from the states and territories. Advisory Committee To provide guidance to the Commission in carrying out its responsibilities regarding the White House Conference, Public Law 93-568 authorized the establishment of a 28-member Advisory Committee. Members are appointed by the President, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Chairman of the NCLIS. The Advisory Committee is composed of business, professional, civic and government leaders. During the year, the Advisory Committee met three times. Subcommittees have been formed to consider particular aspects of the conference. These include subcommittees for Public Information, for Special Constituencies, for State/Territorial matters, and for Issues. A listing of the members of the Advisory Committee may be found in Appendix IVA. State and Territorial Pre-Conferences A key element in the White House Conference process is the series of pre-conferences held in states and territories across the nation. Through these pre-conferences, the great diversity of advice and thinking that begins at the grass-roots can be incorporated into the deliberations of the Conference itself. As of September 30, 1978, eighteen state and territorial conferences had been held. The first was held in the state of Georgia in mid-September 1977. Seventeen more occurred during the current Fiscal Year, and a final thirty-nine will be held between October 1, 1978 and April 30, 1979. The planning and conducting of each pre-conference is the responsibility of the respective state and territorial library agency, but very extensive technical assistance and support is provided to each agency by WHCLIS staff members explicitly assigned to particular state conference planning activities. The conference staff has diligently prepared a set of advisory memoranda to assist in almost every aspect of pre-conference planning. Such topics as public relations, arrangements, delegate selection, and preparation of final reports have all been covered in much detail. These memoranda help to provide broader consistency and to give a welcome boost to the planning process. While the primary product of a pre-conference is usually a set of resolutions for consideration at the White House Conference, the pre-conferences have often had a direct and beneficial effect on the states themselves. Rational planning of library programs at the state level has been significantly enhanced as a by-product of the preconference activity. A complete list of the pre-conferences and their dates can be found in Appendix IIIB. Theme Conferences Three "theme conferences" have also been planned to further assist the delegates in understanding issues at the Conference itself. The first of these theme conferences-a conference on funding-has already occurred. This conference looked at Federal funding patterns and priorities for library and information services as they relate to trends in Federal, state, and local funding generally. It was perhaps auspicious that the first part of this conference was held during the same week as the passage in California of Proposition 13. Since much of the present funding for public libraries is derived from the property tax, this matter was of special concern. Two more theme conferences will be held before the White House Conference. A conference on governance will be held in Pittsburgh in November 1978, and a conference on literacy will be held in Washington during April 1979. Observations and suggestions made at each of these three conferences will be brought together for scrutiny by the delegates in their deliberations at the White House Conference. Involvement of Professional Organizations NCLIS has invited professional associations and special interest groups in the library and information services field to identify their particular issues and concerns. These groups provide still another source of important input for the White House Conference. The informed opinion of the professional community is a valuable asset to the Conference, and the Commission hopes that the specialized experience and awareness of this community can be presented in a structured way for consideration by the delegates. Several groups, including the American Society for Information Science, the American Library Association, and the Special Libraries Association, have indicated their intention to write issue papers and other background documentation for the White House Conference. Conference Staff Activities With the pre-conference phase of the overall conference process well underway, the WHCLIS staff responsible for conference planning is now beginning to turn its attention to details of the White House Conference itself. Since it is a major expectation that the Conference will recommend policy directions for the 1980's, considerable care must be taken to ensure that delegates to the Conference are prepared to participate effectively. In order to accomplish this, one aspect of planning involves giving close attention to the informational materials that will be provided to each delegate. Fact sheets, filmstrips, overviews, booklets, and background papers are all part of the information package now being designed. As the final pre-conferences are held, pre-conference issues and recommendations must be distilled and thematically structured in a form which facilitates understanding and ready discussion. Speakers and discussion leaders must also be identified. Details of room scheduling, travel arrangements and other logistic considerations, while seemingly routine, require careful attention. The Conference staff has been moving along steadily in all these areas by developing a comprehensive set of plans that will allow delegates to devote their energies fully to the important tasks which they will be called on to perform. Ongoing Commission Activities As a permanent, independent agency of the Federal government, the Commission has continuing responsibilities for overseeing the improvement of library and information services. To fulfill these responsibilities, the Commission engages in a variety of activities as part of its regular business. To bring specific problems into focus, the Commission frequently establishes a task force made up of members of the particular community most directly involved with the problem at hand. During the year, three previously established task forces concluded their work and issued final reports. One of these task forces dealt with the role of school libraries as part of a nationwide network. The other two task forces both addressed problems of standards, though from very different points of view. The first of these developed a proposed standard for computerized communication, while the second looked at the overall standardization process as carried out by one of our national standardization committees. The recommendations of these task forces are each contained in their final reports and serve to guide both the Commission and the community at large. Besides these task forces, important findings were contained in two reports produced by special study projects established by the Commission. The first of these deals with the difficulties of obtaining reliable bibliographic access to nonprint materials. The second project was completed during the previous Fiscal Year but its report was not published until the current year. This study deals with library photocopying in the United States, and provides a benchmark against which the impact of the new Copyright Law can be measured. Other work sponsored by the Commission includes the establishment of an Advisory Committee for a National Periodicals System. This Committee will give the Commission valuable advice on methods to improve access to the periodical literature. Also, an important study on the configuration of a nationwide bibliographic data base was begun. This summary touches the highlights of the more significant efforts the Commission has been involved in during the current year. Task Force on the Role of the School Library Media Program This task force was formed as a result of an expressed concern that the role of school library media centers has not been fully considered |