Fiscal Year 1984 Highlights

• NCLIS published the report of its Blue Ribbon Panel on the Information Policy Implications of Archiving Satellite Data, which is helping to promote access to the data derived from the nation's weather and land-sensing satellites.

• The Commission began an investigation into the role of fees in supporting library and information services in public and academic libraries. The resulting overview study will examine the extent to which fees are charged, the services for which they are charged, and the number of libraries charging for services; and it will summarize arguments against and in favor of fees.

• In a cooperative technology transfer program with the Department of Defense, NCLIS launched two initial library demonstration sites, one urban and one non-metropolitan, to help combat illiteracy in our country.

• The Commission issued a statement in response to A Nation at Risk noting the report's omission of the importance of library and information resources in lifelong learning. The Commission urged that all students be provided with school library media services of strong quality and that they be taught critical information skills.

To foster communication and increase private sector support for educational programs in the library/information field, NCLIS established & Roundtable on Support for Education of Library and Information Professionals.

• The Commission cosponsored the first international seminar on Information and Productivity in conjunction with the British Library Research and Development Department and the Library and Information Services Council of the United Kingdom.

• In a new program to improve library and information services to the elderly, NCLIS negotiated an agreement with the U.S. Administration on Aging to work cooperatively at the federal level. The Commission also encouraged the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies to survey the current state of library/information services to older Americans.

• The Commission laid plans for a combination working information center/theme exhibit for the 1985 conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in Chicago. Coordinated by NCLIS, the center will be made possible through public/private sector cooperation.

• As secretariat to the U.S. National Committee for the UNESCO General Information Program, NCLIS advised the State

Department on alternative mechanisms to further international programs in the library/information/archival area.

• In cooperation with the Department of Agriculture, the Commission established and chaired a fifteen-person planning committee to study the need for a National Advisory Board on Rural Information Needs.

• The Department of Agriculture and the Commission were copublishers of the proceedings of a Joint Congressional Hearing on The Changing Information Needs of Rural America-the Role of Libraries and Information Technology.

• NCLIS published an article summarizing a special study, carried out with the cooperation of the International Business Machines Corporation, of the implications of demographic changes in our society for libraries and the changing information needs of U.S. citizens.

Introduction

he National Commission on Libraries and Information

four principal areas:

access to information

⚫ the improvement of library/information services to meet changing needs

⚫ the contributions of information technology and

productivity to our society, and

• library/information policy, planning, and advisory

activities.

These four major program areas have a common theme: the crucial importance of information for our educational system, for lifelong learning, for the needs of special components of our population, for our economy, and for our Learning Society as a whole.

During 1984 America turned its attention to the quest for excellence in the nation's elementary and secondary schools. A Nation at Risk, the report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, alerted U.S. citizens to a decline in the quality of their basic educational system and sparked discussion and controversy among educators and many other groups. Designating 1984 as the "Year of Excellence in Education," the U.S. Congress passed a resolution that authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation encouraging parents, teachers, administrators, government officials, and the population as a whole to observe the year with activities aimed at restoring America's educational system to a position of preeminence.

One of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science's first actions in the fiscal year was to appoint an ad hoc

committee chaired by Commissioner Gordon Ambach to draft a response to A Nation at Risk. The resulting statement, adopted unamimously by the Commission, emphasized the report's total omission of the role of library and information services in elementary and secondary education, and recommended the strengthening of school library media services for teaching skills of finding and using information effectively.

The ability to find and use information successfully is in fact a cornerstone of a program of educational excellence for the U.S. In a society that daily becomes more information-oriented and more dependent on the effective use of knowledge, the ability to find and use information is as fundamental and necessary a skill as the ability to read and write. NCLIS is helping to promote greater awareness of the importance of this skill in the Learning Society. Libraries and information centers perform a critical function in developing and fostering this ability in all of our citizens. They are an essential part of our educational environment, and they play a central and time-honored role in lifelong learning. NCLIS has also accepted the challenge of helping libraries and information centers gain full recognition for the important educational role they perform.

The importance of library/information professionals and other knowledge workers to a strong economy is another area in which the Commission is helping to raise public awareness. During Fiscal Year 1984 NCLIS launched a new program to help support the education of information professionals in the U.S. An informal roundtable was convened to foster communication among educators, industry leaders, and others to increase private sector understanding and support for educational programs in the library/information field. The first U.S./U.K. Seminar on Information and Productivity, co-sponsored by NCLIS in July 1984, also examined the contributions of information professionals and their educational needs.

In the area of improving library and information services to meet changing needs, NCLIS made significant progress during the fiscal year. Major programs addressing the information needs of elderly citizens, rural residents, and an estimated 26 million functionally illiterate Americans were advanced through new projects and cooperative activities. The Commission is focusing on the changing needs of these and other major population groups as they are increasingly affected by social, economic, demographic, and other factors.

Working closely with the entire library/information community, the Commission also continued to fulfill its mandate to advise both the Executive and Legislative Branches on matters relating to national library and information policies and plans for building a Learning Society. NCLIS provided extensive technical advice and

assistance to Members and committees of Congress on legislation relating to libraries and information, and it intensified its policy, planning, and advisory work with numerous agencies of the Executive Branch. The Commission looks ahead to continuing and expanding its four principal program areas in the coming fiscal year, and to launching new initiatives in such areas as censorship, information for governance, national information policy, and

international cooperation.