in reporting the same item (Network Planning Paper #6); limited modeling and computer simulations of alternative network and database configurations; and development of proposed modifications to the existing MARC authorities format. Several of the tasks supported by the Commission are still in process; completion of those is anticipated in the coming year.

School Library/Media Centers

While the report of the Task Force established by the Commission to examine the role of school library/media centers in a national network was completed late in the previous year, publication did not occur until this fiscal year. The report, The Role of the School Library Media Program in Networking, has been in high demand and went into a second printing before the year was out, giving evidence to the broad and great interest, on the part of school library media personnel and others, in participating in national library network development.

Effort this year has concentrated on bringing the findings and recommendations of the report to the attention of those communities and organizations most critical to the implementation of the report's findings. An implementation committee has been formed consisting of representatives from Federal, professional and not-for-profit organizations concerned with networks, multi-type cooperation, schools, education and media; each of the participants has been asked to identify ways in which their organization can work with the NCLIS to carry out the report's recommendations. In addition, presentations have been made at the annual meeting of the American Association of School Administrators, at the American Library Association annual conference, and at the annual meeting of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, using a slide-tape presentation on the project developed by a member of the Task Force.

Perhaps the two most significant outgrowths of the project to date are the very fruitful and precedent-shattering first joint meeting held between the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) and the National Association of State Educational Media Professionals to discuss implementation of the report, and agreement by the Chief State School Officers to adopt for inclusion in their publicly distributed policy statement, a statement in support of school library media centers as components of a national network. These events give proof of the growing recognition and acknowledgement by all concerned that school library media centers have a significant role to play in national network development.

American National Standards Committee Z39

In the previous year, NCLIS assisted in funding an examination of the scope, procedures, organizational location and financial sup

port of Z39, the standards committee which deals with standards pertaining to library work, documentation and related publishing prac tices. The study was prompted by the retirement of its voluntary director and the resulting need to find a new organizational home for the Committee. This year, NCLIS re-affirmed its support of standardization activity by again providing funds to Z39. The funding will assist the Council of National Library and Information Associations (CNLIA, formerly the CNLA), secretariat for Z39, in accomplishing the changeover to the new mode of operation recommended in the report, American National Standards Committee Z39: Recommended Future Directions issued by the Task Force which had been established through the combined efforts of the National Science Foundation (NSF), NCLIS and the Council on Library Resources (CLR), to assess Z39's function and operation. The report has recommended several substantial changes, including: that a paid full-time director be obtained; that the Committee members be elected; that its scope be broadened; and that multiple funding sources be found in order to provide a broader base for the increased activity recommended by the Task Force.

CNLIA has taken immediate action to implement these recommendations: a new and permanent office for Z39 has been established in the Washington, D.C. area; a director has been hired; and a sixmember Council, providing a balanced representation among the principal communities served by Z39, has been elected.

Work on developing new multiple funding sources is still under

way.

State Library Agency Consulting Skills Institute

Strengthening the state library agencies, one of the objectives of the NCLIS Program Document, was supported by the NCLIS in the current year through the co-sponsorship, with the U.S. Office of Education, of a series of consulting skills institutes for state library agency personnel. This year's effort is a continuation of that begun during the previous fiscal year when two seminars on management skills were offered to state librarians under the auspices of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh.

Both the content and organization of this year's program differed from the previous one: this year, skills for consultant staff, rather than agency managers, were addressed, and this year, two separate regionalized institutes, followed by a single follow-up session, were held, rather than the single-site meetings for two separate management levels held last year. The regional meetings were held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Denton, Texas; the combined follow-up meeting was held in Rochester, Minnesota.

The purpose of this series of institutes was to provide training in

the basic communications and human relations skills necessary for effective consulting. Focus was on skills in interpersonal communications between consultant and client; group dynamics and patterns of group interaction; organizational behavior theory and intervention strategies; and the consultant role in facilitating library development and cooperation throughout the state. Among the long-range benefits of the project are the development of a new set of skills that will enhance the professional effectiveness of participating librarians, and the enhancement of the image of the state library as facilitator of library development.

One direct outcome already in evidence is the formation, by the Western States Council, of a Consultants Services Design Team to design further learning activities for Western state library agency personnel and to conduct an inventory of skills and resources among member-state consulting staff. This was a direct outgrowth of the information sharing and exchange provided through the consultant skills institutes.

The institutes were enthusiastically received by the participants, in no small part because of the outstanding abilities of the institute director, Dr. Sara Fine of the University of Pittsburgh faculty. State library agency consultants are called upon to interact with a wide variety of people by the very nature of their tasks, and the addition to their “arsenal of weapons" that was provided by the institute was clearly felt to be invaluable.

Liaison Activity

The Commission continued its active, but largely informal, program of maintaining contact with allied Federal, professional, public and private organizations and associations, both to garner information on behalf of the Commission and to provide input to others' deliberations.

Staff participated in development, by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), of the library part of the NTIA paper on information policy issues; in meetings of OE's Federal Interagency Committee on Education; in the Copyright Office-sponsored meeting on off-air taping; in the Library of Congress' Network Advisory Committee; and in the planning of the U.S. Office of Education's Office of Libraries and Learning Resources (OLLR) Conference on Networking for Networkers, held in Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 30-31, 1979. The Commission also serves as informal advisory body to the OLLR.

Other organizations with whom contact is frequent include the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), the American Library Association (ALA) and its Washington Office, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the American Society for Information Science (ASIS), the Council of National

Library and Information Associations (CNLIA), the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), the Federal Automated Data Processing Users Group (FADPUG), the Federal Information Managers Group (FIMG), the Federal Library Committee (FLC), the Information Industry Association (IIA), the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Special Libraries Association (SLA).

Commissioners themselves are also active in establishing and maintaining contact with sister agencies and organizations, meeting with groups such as the Education Commission of the States and the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on International Scientific and Technical Information Programs (CISTIP), giving major addresses at professional conferences and meetings, and testifying before Congress on library appropriations.

Through the efforts of the Chairman, the Commissioners were privileged to meet members of the White House Domestic Policy staff at the White House during their March, 1979 meeting in Washington, D.C. The President's Assistant for Domestic Affairs and Policy, Stuart Eizenstat, Richard Hardin, Special Assistant to the President for Information Management and Director of the Office of Administration, Richard Neustadt, Deputy Special Assistant for Media and Public Affairs, Al Stern, Associate Director for Domestic Affairs and Policy, and Edward Zimmerman, Special Assistant to the Director of the Office of Administration, described for the Commissioners some of their concerns, and voiced their strong interest in continuing to receive advice and input from the Commission. The Commissioners were also given a tour of the library and information center of the Executive Office of the President by Sara Kadec, Assistant Director for Information Management and Services, and her staff.