committee to determine if there is a need for such a board, and what its purpose would be. A key question to be answered was: would a National Advisory Board on Rural Information Needs be prestigious enough to cause the private and public sector information providers and utilities to be responsive to the information needs of rural citizens and communities. The planning committee was also charged with suggesting the functions, alternative institutional locations, possible membership formats and organizational structures, and funding mechanisms of a NABRIN. The NABRIN Planning Committee will submit its final report to the Commission and the Secretary of Agriculture in April, 1985.

As further testimony to the close working relationship that has been established between the Commission and the Department of Agriculture, The Joint Congressional Hearing on the Information Needs of Rural America: The Role of Libraries and Information Technology was published in 1984 under the joint imprint of the Department of Agriculture and NCLIS. It has been widely distributed throughout the agricultural extension community as well as the library and information service communities. New requests for the hearing report are received every day.

The Commission has also encouraged organizations within the library/information community to improve services to rural citizens. The American Society for Information Science responded by establishing a Special Interest Group on Rural Information Services.

Literacy Activities

According to estimates by the U.S. Department of Education, a minimum of 26 million American adults are functionally illiterate. They are unable to complete basic tasks necessary to cope with the demands of everyday life, such as reading and comprehending written instructions, application forms, safety instructions, street signs, product labels, and job information. NCLIS has long been concerned that illiteracy in America is a major barrier preventing individual access to information, and that the Commission, in fulfilling its legislative mandate, must assist in the removal of this barrier by encouraging and promoting the use of public libraries as a locus for literacy education.

As part of its continuing effort to help alleviate the problem of illiteracy, NCLIS is working with the U.S. Army Human Engineering Laboratory in an innovative technology transfer project that achieved considerable progress during FY 1984. This project furthers the intent of P.L. 96-480, an Act "to promote U.S. technological innovation for the achievement of national economic,

environment, and social goals.. Using a computer-assisted instruction program developed by the Naval Research Development Center, the project is testing whether a

microcomputer program designed to instruct new military recruits who lack basic reading skills can be successfully used with adults and out-of-school teenagers in community volunteer literacy programs based in public libraries.

A steering committee that included representatives from major literacy groups, libraries, NCLIS, the Department of Defense, and others concerned with this area selected two initial public library demonstration sites for the project-one urban and one nonmetropolitan. Both the Literacy Resource Center of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, Maryland and the Mary H. Weir Library, Weirton, West Virginia had existing strong volunteer literacy programs and a pool of students waiting for openings. The Pratt Library chose Consumer Awareness as its subject area and subsequently added Driver Education in response to student requests. The Weir Library chose Money Management for its subject area. The computer-assisted instruction program selected for the project was developed by Drs. Robert Wisher and Thomas Duffy when they were employed by the Navy Personnel Research and Development Center, San Diego, California. Evaluation of the initial phase of the project will be performed by a team from the Carnegie-Mellon University, and a brief report on the results will be issued in 1985. The interest and potential success of this technology transfer project has led to a proposal from a group in Pittsburgh to establish a computer-based adult literacy instruction program based on the Baltimore and Weirton models but with additional enhancements.

NCLIS has been actively involved in cooperative literacy efforts for more than a decade. The Commission is a member of the Executive Committee of the Coalition for Literacy, and it continues to assist Mrs. George Bush, wife of the Vice President of the United States and a strong supporter of literacy projects, with her activities that encourage literacy programs involving libraries.

Followup on Cultural Minorities Task Force Report

The report of the NCLIS Task Force on Library and Information Services to Cultural Minorities generated a great deal of interest, especially during the 1984 annual meeting of the American Library Association (ALA). E.J. Josey, the ALA President-elect who was also chairman of the Task Force, proposed to appoint a President's Committee on Library Service to Minorities. The goal of this Committee would be to review the NCLIS report and outline what

action ALA should take on it. The Committee was established and it will report to the Association during its 1985 annual meeting. We are encouraged by the growing list of reports from the library/information community which indicates that recommendations from the Task Force have been implemented. Several graduate schools of library and information services have recently earmarked funds for minority fellowships. A number of libraries have taken positive steps to improve services to cultural minorities. Still others have expanded their collections of materials about cultural minorities. The Commission is pleased to note this response and is committed to helping implement more of the recommendations.

SATELLITE ARCHIVING REPORT

The published report of the Blue Ribbon Panel on the Information Policy Implications of Archiving Satellite Data was released during FY 1984. The 47-page report addresses the issues related to archiving of the nation's weather and land-sensing satellites, provides an overview of the needs of users of satellite data in both the public and private sectors, and summarizes the findings and recommendations of the panel.

The Blue Ribbon panel was an outgrowth of a Presidential initiative directing the Secretary of Commerce to transfer to the private sector, by competitive means, the current operational civil remote sensing systems. In response to this initiative, the Secretary of Commerce established a Source Evaluation Board to prepare a request for proposals. The Source Evaluation Board accepted most of the panel's recommendations and incorported them into its request for proposals. The panel's recommendations also had a clear impact on the archiving section of the "Land Remote Sensing Commercialization Act of 1984," Public Law 98-365, signed by the President on July 17, 1984, which authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to transfer the Landsat system to the private sector.

The report states four major principles which it calls findings, and 13 recommendations to articulate those principles. The findings included the following:

• It is in the public interest to maintain an archive of land remotesensing satellite data for historical, scientific and technical

purposes.

• The data in question are a national resource worthy of

preservation for the advancement of science and other

applications, and while the cost of archiving these data is not

insignificant, it is extremely small relative to the investment in the space segments of the satellite remote-sensing systems.

It is in the public interest to control the content and scope of the archive and to assure the quality, integrity, and continuity of the data.

• The maintenance of such an archive is, therefore, a responsibility that should be borne by the U.S. Government.

The information policy issues introduced by the report go far beyond the archiving issues discussed. Perhaps the most important policy consideration addressed in the Panel's report is the importance of protecting the needs of the public and insuring continued access to satellite data. As Dr. Richard Atkinson, Chairman of the Panel, points out in his Preface, the Panel had to "be aware of the larger national policy issues in order to address those concerning archiving." Congressman Don Fuqua, Chairman of the Committee on Science and Technology, complimented the Commission on the usefulness of the report in guiding legislation that "demonstrates our commitment to fostering

commercialization of space technologies while also protecting the needs of the public and insuring continued access to satellite data."

THE ROLE OF FEES IN SUPPORTING LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES IN PUBLIC AND ACADEMIC LIBRARIES

During FY 1984 NCLIS began a multi-year assessment of the role of fees in public access to information. The issue of fees and access to information has been of interest to NCLIS since its establishment in 1970. The issue was specifically brought to the attention of the Commission by its Task Force on Library and Information Services to Cultural Minorities. Three of the Task Force's recommendations to the Commission related to fees. During the discussion of these recommendations, members of the Commission raised several questions concerning the extent to which fees are charged, the percentage of libraries charging for any services, and the services for which fees are charged. Because the information to answer their questions was not readily available, the Commission decided that a brief overview study was needed to synthesize existing information and to indicate what data are missing. The Council on Library Resources generously agreed to fund this study. During FY 1985 NCLIS will conduct the study and publish and disseminate a report on the role of fees in supporting library and information services.

NETWORKING AND RESOURCE SHARING

The Executive Director of NCLIS participated in a meeting of representatives from the library and information community along with senior staff of AT&T to discuss the impact of the

corporation's divestiture on library networking activities. At the request of AT&T, NCLIS staff sent information which provided an overview of the current status, functions, and concerns of public libraries, and made recommendations concerning how AT&T can provide assistance from its corporate and foundation funds to assist libraries.

During 1984 NCLIS continued to work with the Network Advisory Committee (NAC) of the Library of Congress. NAC, in response to the NCLIS Public Sector/Private Sector Task Force Report, Public Sector/Private Sector Interaction in Providing Information Services, recommended that "NCLIS should prepare an inventory of past and current projects that have demonstrated the effectiveness and efficiency of public and private sector interaction, identify what made those particular projects successful, and develop guidelines for promoting or funding similar projects in the future." In response to the recommendation, NCLIS has begun the first phase, an inventory of past and current

projects.