would lower the cost of each search for those organizations. Federally-sponsored depositories for little-used materials and Federal support for the interlibrary loan services of large special libraries were recommended by university and special librarians and by planners from private information industries. The second draft of the National Program, whose contents are summarized in the first section of this Annual Report, has benefited greatly from the comments, criticisms and recommendations received in the Regional Hearings. The Southwest Regional Hearing brought to the attention of the Commission a problem only barely touched upon in prior hearings: the lack of library facilities on Indian reservations. Specific needs of the Indian people for information were presented in well-documented statements, and the problems of financing services were delineated in full. The commission responded by inviting representatives of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to a regular Commission meeting in Washington to explain the Bureau's role in providing library service and by appointing a committee of Commission members to look further into the matter. Written testimony for the two regional hearings came to the Commission in great variety and profusion. Suggestions abounded for innovative programs and plans to help citizens find the information they need. A collection of photographs of historical and cultural objects that constituted a catalog of Texas history was described. There was the testimony of a Tucson librarian whose practice was to take Indian patrons to the bookstore so they could choose books for the library. There was a letter from a librarian struggling to find material in Spanish for patrons who needed information on raising vegetables. There was a faculty report from a School of Library Science about helping Indian students devise their own curriculum including a cataloging system appropriate to the Indian culture. There was news of workers in mental hospitals carefully choosing and using audio-visual materials in creative ways. There were maps of bookmobile routes crossing the plains to isolated communities. - And there were details of new ventures combining school and public libraries in a single institution. Dedicated people wrote to the Commission: - An Oklahoma farmwife couldn't come to the hearing because it was planting season but took time from her work to tell the Commission the kinds of information her family needs. A teacher conducted street interviews so she could tell the Commission why people in her part of Louisiana don't use libraries. - A vacationing woman penned ten pages about children's needs from the deck of a sailboat. Senator Ralph Yarborough told of his continuing work to promote funds for school and public libraries in the years since he shepherded the original Library Services and Construction Act through Congress. There were other highlights: a thorough review of the information needs of geo-scientists, a preview of telecommunications a decade hence, a video-taped mini-hearing on library and information needs in New Mexico, a wise caution on the ill-effects of overusing fragile and rare materials for interlibrary loans and an erudite discussion of the exponential growth of publication and what it portends for information handlers. The grestest wealth of testimony came from librarians and trustees and information people and city and state officials who described their activites and told the Commission of their needs and their plans and their hopes for their future service now that national planning is underway. Two more hearings are planned for 1974-75; one (for the Mountain States) in Denver on September 18, 1974, and the other, the last in the current series, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the Middle-Atlantic States. RELATED COMMISSION ACTIVITES From the beginning it has been expected that the members of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science would give substantial time and effort to the Commission activites. Commission members have accepted this requirement, serving on various committees or task force groups to fulfill assignments made by the Chairman. Frequently they have performed functions that would have been staff jobs in a larger organization. This individual depth of involvement has produced a cooperative working spirit that might not otherwise have evolved. In the paragraphs that follow, some of the work on the committees is reported. COPYRIGHT A Copyright Information Committee was formed in 1971. Its work-accelerating in the last two years-has been to keep generally informed on the development of new copyright legislation. With respect to the draft legislation, the Commission committee has sought an opportunity to bring together the publishers and the librarians under conditions that could produce a workable compromise of their difference. The purpose of such a meeting would be to produce a position document for the guidance of the Federal legislative committees dealing with the new bill. The Senate is expected to pass an amended version of a copyright bill (S-1361) by early fall. The sections in the amended version relating to the use of copyright materials by libraries continue to suggest difficulties that will be encountered. Of particular relevance to libraries are the sections describing limitations on exclusive rights including fair use and reproduction by libraries. The bill states that fair use determination will be based on the purpose and character of the use; the nature of the copyrighted work as a whole; the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. It goes on to affirm that rights of reproduction and distribution extend to the isolated and unrelated reproduction or distribution of a single copy of the same material on separate occasions. These rights, it says, do not include the systematic reproduction or distribution of single or multiple copies whether made on one occasion or over a period of time. Since the bill fails to specify which library photocopying practices constitute the making of single copies as distinguished from systematic reproduction, and its provisions could be interpreted to forbid many of the usual practices of research libraries in serving their clients, a letter was sent to the appropriate committees and to Senator John McClellan setting forth this viewpoint of the Commission and asking that the language be clarified. A central effort of the Commission, however, will be to seek through discussion an accommodation between the parties affected-authors, publishers, librarians, and users. LIBRARY SERVICE TO AMERICAN INDIANS The problems faced by the average citizen in gaining access to information or even to a library are miniscule compared with the same problems for American Indians on many of the reservations where they live. This situation was made abundantly clear by Indian people testifying in Santa Fe, New Mexico, San Antonio, Texas, and by others writing to the Commission offices. Library service appears to be either nonexistent or extremely inadequate, because provision for it is not a state responsibility and because no agency of the Federal Government is funded to provide such service. The need to remedy this lack of service to Indians is a special requirement demanding quick action. To determine the proper direction for such action, the Commission appointed a fact-finding committee to gather information and provide a plan. The Commission heard presentations by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and the Bureau of Indian Affairs on library service to Indians. The Commission-in light of the reports-asked the BIA to appoint an officer responsible for library affairs and to formulate and publish a new long-range program for library service. WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON LIBRARY The introduction of legislation requesting the President to call a White House Conference on Library and Information Services is an activity supported by the Commission. A national conference in Washington, D.C., preceded by state and regional conferences would stimulate a national discussion about the value of libraries and information resources in our society and help to define the appropriate roles of local, state and Federal governments in the support of these precious national resources. Such a discussion would be very helpful to the Commission in its planning objectives. Since the legislation gives the Commission the role of planning and conducting the Conference, the Commission was invited to testify to the Senate and House Committees regarding S. J. Resolution 40. The Commission Chairman presented the Commission's testimony asking that the resolution receive favorable consideration and action. The Senate passed the resolution on November 20, 1973. To expedite action, the bill was brought to the House floor on June 4, 1974, under a suspension of the rules, but failed by 24 votes to carry the two-thirds necessary for passage. The bill will be brought to the House again for a vote under the rules before the close of the 93rd Congress. Passage by the simple majority required is expected. PUBLIC STATEMENTS ADOPTED The Commission members voted unanimously to place two statements (see below) on the record and be fore the public. The first deals with the continuing need for Federal funds to develop and sustain library programs. The second supports the National Program for Acquisitions and Cataloging in the Library of Congress. STATEMENT ON LIBRARY FUNDING "In its effort to work toward improved library and information services, the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science has closely monitored changing library funding patterns including revenue sharing. Recent reports including studies of the U.S. Department of Treasury and other governmental organizations and professional associations indicate that libraries are last in funding among the eight priority areas eligible for general revenue sharing. Though individual libraries have benefited from revenue sharing, the overall funding pattern has provided only a small fraction of the amounts available in earlier years from categorical funds." STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL PROGRAM "The output of serious recorded informational material in books and other formats in many languages has increased dramatically in recent years, and this increase is expected to continue. Access to the world's knowledge as it is recorded is vital to the United States and to industrial, governmental, social, environmental, educational, business and scholarly interests within this nation. It is essential, therefore, to expand and improve the national program for collecting, cataloging and making available the worldwide production of recorded knowledge. A Library of Congress activity, the National Program for Acquisitions and Cataloging (NPAC), has already saved the nation's scholarly libraries from an inability to collect comprehensively in important foreign areas. It has also saved them from the incalculable expense of duplicate, repetitive cataloging of these materials. The Library of Congress must be provided with the means to further this important work. The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science commends to the Congress of the United States the NPAC as the best available cost-effective method for providing access to the worldwide information required for present and future generations of United States' citizens and scholars." ADMINISTRATION AND ORGANIZATION President Nixon appointed two new members to the Commission in July 1973. Mrs. Julia Li Wu of California |