July 20, 1970 - 3 Pub. Law 91-345 travel ex 84 STAT. 442 (b) Members of the Commission who are not in the regular full-time Compensation, employ of the United States shall, while attending meetings or conferences of the Commission or otherwise engaged in the business of the penses. Commission, be entitled to receive compensation at a rate fixed by the Chairman, but not exceeding the rate specified at the time of such service for grade GS-18 in section 5332 of title 5, United States Code, 35 F.R. 6247. including traveltime, and while so serving on the business of the Commission away from their homes or regular places of business, they may be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, as authorized by section 5703 of title 5, United States Code, for persons employed intermittently in the Government service. (c) (1) The Commission is authorized to appoint, without regard to the provisions of title 5, United States Code, covering appointments in the competitive service, such professional and technical personnel as may be necessary to enable it to carry out its function under this Act. (2) The Commission may procure, without regard to the civil service or classification laws, temporary and intermittent services of such personnel as is necessary to the extent authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, but at rates not to exceed the rate specified at the time of such service for grade GS-18 in section 5332 of title 5, United States Code, including traveltime, and while so serving on the business of the Commission away from their homes or regular places of business they may be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, as authorized by section 5703 of title 5, United States Code, for persons employed intermittently in the Government. service. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS SEC. 7. There are hereby authorized to be appropriated $500,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1970, and $750,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1971, and for each succeeding year, for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this Act. Approved July 20, 1970. 83 Stat. 190. Professional and technical personnel, appointment. 80 Stat. 378. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: HOUSE REPORTS: No, 91-240 accompanying H.R. 10666 (Comm. on Education Vol. 115 (1969): May 23, considered and passed Senate. Vol. 116 (1970): April 20, considered and passed House, amended, in lieu of H.R. 10666. June 29, House agreed to conference report. Appendix II Toward a National Program for Introduction The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science proposes a National Program for Library and Information Services based on five assumptions: First, that the total library and information resource in the United States is a national resource which should be strengthened, organized and made available to the maximum degree possible in the public interest. This national resource is the cumulated and growing record of much of our Nation's and, indeed, the world's total cultural experience-intellectual, social, technological, and spiritual. Second, that all people of the United States have the right, according to their individual needs, to realistic and convenient access to this national resource for their personal enrichment and achievement, and thereby for the progress of society. Third, that with the help of new technology and with national resolve, the disparate and discrete collections of recorded information in the United States can become, in due course, an integrated nationwide network. Fourth, that the rights and interests of authors, publishers, and other providers of information be recognized in the national program in ways that maintain their economic and competitive viability. Fifth, that legislation devised for the coherent development of library and information services will not undermine constitutionally-protected rights of personal privacy and intellectual freedom, and will preserve local, state, and regional autonomy. In consonance with these assumptions, the Commission has developed two major program objectives: (1) to strengthen or create, where needed, the human and material resources that are supportive of high quality library and information services; and (2) to join together the library and information facilities in the country, through a common pattern of organization, uniform standards, and shared communications, to form a nationwide network. The Need for a National Program for Library and Information The Resources Information, whether in the raw form of empirical data or in the highly processed form we call "knowledge," has come to be regarded as a national resource as critical to the Nation's well-being and security as any natural resource, such as water or coal. The wealth of popular, intellectual, scholarly, and research resources in the libraries and information facilities of the United States is one of the great strengths of the Nation. But like many resources, knowledge resources, uncoordinated in growth and usage, are being wasted. In advanced societies, a substantial part of the culture is handed down to successive generations in recorded forms. This resource consists 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 and sounds. For example, a significant part of the country's information is now on film, on video tapes, and in computer files. As the Nation's knowledge grows and the number of records increases, our dependence upon the records increases, and the need to gain access to them becomes more crucial. No society can advance beyond a certain point without effective access to its collective memory of record; or, conversely, an advanced society that loses control of the record will regress. The Need for Access Ready access to information and knowledge is essential to individual advancement as well as to national growth. People are individuals, each with unique informational, educational, psychological, and social needs. The need for information is felt at all levels of society, regardless of an individual's location, social condition, or intellectual achievement. The Commission is especially aware that much more must be done to understand and to satisfy the needs of special constituencies, such as ethnic minorities, the economically disadvantaged, the uneducated, the physically handicapped, the very young and the very old, as well as scientists, scholars, doctors, businessmen, and other professionals. The right information provided when it is needed, where it is needed, and in the form in which it is needed, improves the ability of any individual, or business, or government agency, to make wise decisions. The Challenge America has an abundance of recorded information. However, this precious resource is concentrated in a relatively small number of locations, often inaccessible to millions of people, and is lying largely untapped. The challenge is to find the means for making these resources available to more people through a system which will provide effective identification, location, and distribution services. Many local library facilities, designed for other times and conditions, can no longer cope with the everincreasing volume of information produced in this country and abroad, nor can they satisfy the rapidly changing needs of our society. The deteriorating ability of some information facilities to meet essential needs is alarming. The Nation must take steps now to strengthen and organize these resources into a coherent nationwide system, or it might soon face information chaos. The Influence of Technology Libraries are affected by four new technologies: computers, micrographics, telecommunications, and audiovisual media. The use of computers, audiovisual media, and micrographics has already been pioneered, but the direct application of computers has been focused mainly on housekeeping functions. The computer's potential for recording, analyzing, and retrieving information itself has not yet been fully explored. Community Antenna Television (CATV) promises the subscriber, by means of many channels, two-way communications of both pictures and sound, facsimile services, and access to data processing. The Nation's future ability to handle information will depend on how well and how rapidly we can integrate new technological methods and devices with the mainstream of information activities. A Threshold Issue Resolution of the complex problem of copyright is crucial to cooperative programs and networks among libraries as well as to the creativity and economic viability of authorship and publishing. The judicially constructed doctrine of "fair use" provides only a partial answer, and the eventual solution must reconcile the rights and interests of the providers of information with those of the consumers. New understandings about copying from network resources, especially in the context of new technologies for reproduction and distribution, are needed to enable the library community to satisfy its legal and moral obligations to the author and publisher while meeting its institutional responsibility to its patrons. The Rationale for Federal Involvement The national program blends user needs for information with information technology in order to provide equity of access to what is, in fact, a major national resource. The implementation of a workable national program will require close cooperation between the Federal Government and the states, between the state and local governments, and between Federal and state governments and the private sector. Such cooperation is most appropriately fostered through Federal legislation. Current Problems of Libraries There are almost 90,000 libraries in the United States today. They vary in size and complexity from small village facilities with only a few shelves of books for recreational reading to large research libraries with magnificent collections on many subjects. Collectively, they are the foundation on which a nationwide network should be built. The current problems of Federal, public, special, school, college and university, and research and state libraries, are detailed in the full text of the national program. The following principal concerns are generalized from testimony taken at the Commission's regional hearings, from research studies and reports, and from conferences with professional and lay groups. (1) The growth of libraries in the United States has been fragmented and uneven, leading to waste and duplication of the national knowledge resource and, for lack of common standards, creating obstacles to a cohesive national system. (2) The distribution of library service is correlated with that of population and financial support. While some people have easy access to rich resources, others still lack the most elementary forms of service. (3) The problems of people who lack even the most basic information services or are served only marginally must be identified and addressed. (4) There is a limit to self-sufficiency in the ability of any library, even the largest public or research library, to satisfy its constituents. (5) Special libraries with work-related goals serve at present only limited clientele. (6) Greater collaboration should be developed among libraries and the commercial and other private sector distributors of the new information services. (7) Funding at every level is inadequate. A major change in Federal policy is needed to ensure mutually reinforcing funding formulas. (8) New Federal legislation should give local libraries the incentive to join larger systems outside of their immediate jurisdictions. Some Concerns of the Private Sector The phrase "private sector" includes libraries and other organizations, for-profit and not-for-profit, that produce, process, and distribute information. Through publishing, indexing, abstracting, and other services, they perform vital functions in information transfer. The "information industry" directly or indirectly affects all elements of society, and the Commission considers it essential that information activities in the public and private sectors work in harmony with one another in consonance with the national interest. A major concern of the private sector is its economic viability in view of the possibility that the sharing of resources through networks implies a loss of potential sales. Librarians, on the other hand, claim that networks will lead to greater information use and, hence, to increased sales. The Commission believes that the creators and consumers of information cannot exist without each other and that precautions should be taken to protect the economic balance between them. Another cause of alarm in the private sector is the dominance of the Federal Government as the largest single producer and disseminator of information in the United States. The question is whether the Federal Government or the private sector should publish and disseminate information produced with public funds. The Commission believes that policy guidelines about the use of private agencies for the dissemination of public information are needed. The third major concern of the private sector is the copying of copyrighted materials from network resources, as noted above. The Trend Toward Cooperative Action Present Networking Activities Librarians have long shared resources by such means as union catalogs and interlibrary loans. During recent years, encouraged by Federal and state leadership and funding, they have begun to evolve more formal, contractual "systems," "consortia," or "networks," a few of which, such as MEDLARS (Medical Literature Access and Retrieval System), already benefit from computer and telecommunications technology in the provision of regional and local services from national resources. Typical of evolving networks are the intrastate programs in Washington, Ohio, Illinois, New York and California, and the interstate programs in New England, the Southeast and the Southwest. Increasingly, the search for fruitful ways to share the public knowledge resource crosses geographical, jurisdictional and type-of-library boundaries. Although none of the existing library networks has reached full potential, a few have demonstrated the viability of resource sharing through electronic networking. An example is the not-for-profit Ohio College Library Center that now serves over 600 library terminals from a single computer at Columbus, Ohio. This system allows participants to access a large database containing over one-and-one-half million catalog records, for the purpose of producing cards for local library catalogs, locating books in other libraries, and, eventually, providing such other services as search by subject, control of circulation records, and collection of management information. Barriers to Cooperative Action (1) The information agencies in the public and private sectors are growing more diverse, and the components-the libraries, the publishing industry, the indexing and abstracting services, the educational institutions and the various government agencies-have had little experience in working together toward a common national goal. |