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INTRODUCTION

This is the third Annual Report of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science covering the period July 1, 1973 to June 30, 1974. It is also the first report to a new President.

The Commission continued a high level of activity on a variety of fronts. It:

Studied and weighed the information developed from the prior year's activities, together with new information and synthesized it into a picture of library and information service needs, adequacies and deficiencies, and requirements for action. The document embodying this picture is "A National Program for Library and Information Services." Subjected the National Program concepts to critical analysis, both from within the Commission itself and from the library and information community and the information-using public, to help ensure that the Commission's perceptions, plans and recommendations to the President and the Congress are firmly grounded in reality and reflect the best ideas that can be brought to light, within the Commission's charter and resources. Carried out a program of regional hearings and mini-hearings to solicit reactions to particular aspects of the Commission's developing program, to provide a forum for bringing current or new problems and possible solutions to the Commission's attention, and to help stimulate planning and other activities by the participants themselves.

Completed an initial study of the nation's needs for library and information service and made arrangements for publication and dissemination of the findings through the Government Printing Office. Sponsored three studies by contractor organizations, in support of the National Program planning, in the areas of (1) continuing education for library and information science personnel; (2) current and future funding for public libraries; and (3) operation of future bibliographic centers and document resource centers.

Carried out other studies and continued its program of communications with government agencies, professional societies, trade associations and other organizations important to the solution of the nation's library and information service problems. This report describes these activities and presents some of the major conclusions and recommendations emanating from them.

NATIONAL PRIORITIES. THE NEED
FOR A NATIONAL PROGRAM

It is very easy to offer verbal support to the notion of a free flow of information for everyone. It is also easy to think that such a flow already exists and that there is no need for improvement. The array of thorny problems facing our Republic in the atomic age make it difficult to realize that very high priority must be given to the orderly development of information services. Yet these services are essential to the solution of every other critical problem. This was recognized by the Congress when it established the Commission.

In defining the purpose of the Commission, the Congress stated its view that information is critical to every other national priority. This being so, information must, itself, be made an objective of highest priority. This report of the Commission is focused on that objective.

In June 1973 the Commission established an internal committee with the responsibility for developing a document that would address the major issues facing the nation with respect to libraries and information services. This committee was chaired by Joseph Becker with the following Commissioners as members: William Baker, Frederick Burkhardt, Carlos A. Cuadra, Leslie W. Dunlap, John Lorenz (for L. Quincy Mumford), and Bessie Boehm Moore. The combined efforts of the members of the committee resulted in a preparation of a first draft of a National Program Document which gave the Commission's view of the current library and information problem, as well as the possible approaches to the solution.

One major purpose of developing the National Program Document was to provide a common focus for eliciting additional information from librarians, information specialists, and interested citizens throughout the country. The first draft was circulated widely during the year, and thousands of comments were received by the Commission from individuals, from testimony taken at regional hearings and from opinions gathered at open forums conducted through the professional press and at association meetings.

By June of 1974 the Commission was able to publish a synopsis of a second draft of the document which reflected the ideas and critical comments by the many organizations and persons in the public and private sector. The full second draft, "A National Program for Library and Information Services, A Synopsis of the Second Draft Proposal" will be available in the fall of 1974. This latest draft

proposal calls upon Federal and state governments to bear permanent responsibility for preserving and maintaining the knowledge resources of the country and suggests a program plan for achieving the goal.

The Commission's aim in the year ahead will be to seek the widest possible reaction to the second draft, not only from librarians and information specialists but from lay users and from the private sector. The next draft will include a section that will address the current problems confronting nonlibrary elements of the information community and will outline a suggested role for the private sector in the future national program.

More than 20 specialists are being commissioned to analyze selected topics and issues related to the National Commission's proposed National Program for Library and Information Services. The specialists will be asked to appraise the ideas and plans in the program from their own perspective, and to provide a concise analysis of the implications of the proposed program in their area of expertise. The Commission anticipates publishing the resulting papers. They will also be available through the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information Resources system.

The synopsis of the second draft of the "National Program for Library and Information Services" follows. Copies of the National Program Document are available through the Commission at 1717 K Street, N.W., Suite 601, Washington, D.C. 20036, or through the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.

NATIONAL PROGRAM FOR LIBRARY
AND INFORMATION SERVICES

A Synopsis

INTRODUCTION

In order to strengthen, integrate and sustain for all people the records of civilization, the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science proposes a new National Program for Library and Information Services based on these assumptions:

1. The total library and information resource in the
United States is a national resource which should
be developed, organized and made available to the
maximum degree possible in the public interest.
2. All people have the right, according to their indi-
vidual needs, to realistic and convenient access to
this national resource for their personal enrich-
ment and achievement.

3. With the help of new technology and with national
resolve, the disparate and discrete collections of re-
corded knowledge in the United States can become
in due course an integrated nationwide network.
4. The rights and interests of authors, publishers and
other providers of information can be incorporated
into the national program in ways which maintain
their economic and competitive viability.

5. Legislation can be devised for the coherent devel-
opment of library and information services that
protects personal privacy and intellectual freedom,
and preserves maximum possible local, state and
regional autonomy.

THE NEED FOR A NATIONAL PROGRAM FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES

THE RESOURCE.

In any advance society, a major part of its culture is cumulated and handed down to the generations in the form of records. These records consist of books, journals and other texts; of audio and visual materials; and of smaller units of data that can be separately manipulated, as by a computer. In recent years these records have become increasingly varied through technological extensions of written words, pictures, sounds and other symbols. As the totality of knowledge grows and as the number and variety of records increase, the dependence of society upon them becomes ever more crucial. Whether mankind progresses or regresses in the future will depend in large measure on the command of the collective memory of record.

Such command can occur only if the resources of multitudes of diverse public and private agencies that create, store, process and distribute the record are melded into a new national program-the publishing industry, the information industry, the indexing and abstracting services, the communications media, the information centers and the thousands of public, school, academic and special libraries in government and business, in the professions and in such institutions as museums, prisons and hospitals.

THE NEED FOR ACCESS.

Ready access to recorded knowledge is indispensable to individual advancement and to national growth. For the individual, the resource helps to solve immediate problems in his daily life and work, to further this continuing education, to enrich his understanding of the arts and sciences, to satisfy his curiosity and to pass leisure

time. These benefits should accrue to all people, regardless of their location, social or physical condition, economic status, or level of intellectual achievement.

For business, industry, government and other organizations, the prompt supply of information is essential to planning and decision-making. For business, information helps to forecast markets, develop new products and adapt new technologies. For government at all levels, it helps to ensure that the public welfare is wisely fostered. THE INFLUENCE OF TECHNOLOGY.

Four new technologies affect the nation's ability to handle its records-computers, micrographics, telecommunications and audio-visual systems. The use of computers and micrographics in libraries has already been pioneered. Films, filmstrips, slides, discs, video tapes, audio and video cassettes are already well used in many libraries. Computers have been applied so far mainly to library housekeeping functions; their potential for storing, analyzing and retrieving information has not yet been fully explored. Advances in telecommunications such as Community Antenna Television (CATV) promise to bring two-way, interactive communication between the home or office and multiple sources of information.

THE RATIONALE

FOR FEDERAL INVOLVEMENT.

The Federal Government must be involved in a new National Program for Library and Information Services because library and other information resources are national as well as local concerns. The resource in its totality belongs to the people and adequate means must exist to make this knowledge available to the people whenever it is needed. A workable program for its dissemination therefore requires close cooperation between the Federal Government and the states, between state and local governments and between the public and private sectors. Such cooperation can be fostered only by means of Federal initiative and legislation.

COPYRIGHT.

The resolution of the complex national problems of copyright is crucial to cooperative programs. The judicially constructed doctrine of "fair use" is only a partial answer, and the eventual solution must reconcile the rights and interests of authors, publishers and other providers of information with those of the user. New understandings about copying from network resources, especially in the context of new means of reproduction and distribution are

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