LIBRARY BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS

The Architect of the Capitol (AOC) is responsible for the structural and mechanical care and maintenance of the Library's buildings and grounds. In coordination with the Library, the AOC has requested a capital budget of $9,405,000, an increase of $6,238,000. The AOC capital budget includes funding for six projects totaling $6,350,000 in appropriations, that were requested by the Library. Library-requested projects, as well as AOC identified projects, are prioritized based on critical need and in accordance with both the Library's Strategic and Security Plans. The six projects support four important areas: (1) the security of our collections by providing additional electronic card readers, alarm devices, and other protections ($1,400,000); (2) the preservation of the Library's collections as a result of improved environmental conditions for exhibit space ($450,000); (3) the support for and oversight of initial construction efforts at the National Audio-visual Conservation Center ($500,000); and (4) the acquisition of additional storage space by funding a second collections storage module at Fort Meade, Maryland ($4,000,000). Properly storing the Library's collections in secure, safe, and environmentally sound facilities is the most important step toward preserving our collections for future generations.

I urge the Committee to support the Architect's Library Buildings and Grounds budget and his position that reinvestment in the existing infrastructure is necessary and a prudent measure for the long-term support of legislative branch operations.

AUDIO-VISUAL CONSERVATION CENTER

The Library's House and Senate oversight committees have approved a Master Plan option for the renovation of the National Audio-visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, which provides for the donor to retain ownership of the center through Phase I (2001). As a result, the Library requests an increase of $290,000 to fund fiscal 2000 operating costs, which are estimated to be $509,000. When ownership of the Center is transferred to the AOC, these operating costs will be reallocated between the AOC and the Library, in accordance with normal Library Buildings and Grounds budget practices. In August 1998, the Library began to store film at the center.

NATIONAL FILM PRESERVATION FOUNDATION

The Library is requesting an increase of $250,000 to fund the government's matching grant in accordance with section 209 of Public Law 104-285. To date, the National Film Preservation Foundation has received pledges totaling $1.2 million ($500,000 in actual receipts) from private persons and State and local governments. The $250,000 increase would fund the government's matching share and support the preservation of our film heritage.

JAMES MADISON BUILDING WORKSTATION MODERNIZATION PROJECT

The Library is requesting an increase of $1,528,000 to begin a five-year accelerated workstation modernization project in the James Madison building. We have replaced employee workstations in the Thomas Jefferson and John Adams buildings with modern furniture and equipment as a result of the renovation project. Furniture and equipment installed 20 years ago in the James Madison building, during an era of typewriters and long before the introduction of personal computers, must now be replaced to provide for ergonomically correct workstations in all three of the Library's Capitol Hill buildings. Poor workstation design contributes to the risk of injuries and lower staff productivity. An increase is required to complete the project within five years instead of the 16 plus years the current level of resources would require.

PROPOSED LEGISLATION

During the 105th Congress, the Library's oversight and Appropriations Committees agreed upon authorizing legislation for the American Folklife Center (AFC) and the National Audio-visual Conservation Center. The Library is moving expeditiously to secure all appointments to the AFC board and to realize the master plan for the Culpeper site approved last December. During the last Congress, we also secured legislation for a commemorative coin to be issued in April 2000 in observance of the Library's Bicentennial. In discussing the Library's plans for its Bicentennial with our oversight committees, we stressed the continuing need for the Library to have improved statutory authority for its revolving and reimbursable funds. The 105th Congress approved a revolving fund to improve the accountability and statutory basis for the Cooperative Acquisitions Program. We will be seeking similar authority during this Congress to address the business operating needs of the Federal Re

search Division and FEDLINK, each of which serves a wide constituency within the Federal government. The bill is our top legislative priority for the 106th Congress.. Passage of such legislation would address a critical element of our five-year legislative plan to improve and stabilize the Library's business operations.

OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL

The Library requests an increase of $139,343 to fund two professional auditors in the Office of the Inspector General. The two auditors would concentrate on reviews of the Library's physical security and automated systems, both areas of critical importance to our operations.

LIBRARY'S BICENTENNIAL

The Library will use its Bicentennial in the year 2000 less to celebrate our past than to leave a legacy for the future. We have crafted—almost entirely with privately raised funds a multi-faceted Bicentennial Program "to inspire creativity in the years ahead by stimulating greater use of the Library of Congress and libraries everywhere." Bicentennial projects include: reconstituting Thomas Jefferson's original library through private donations; a "Favorite Poem" project spearheaded by the Library's Poet Laureate; a national photography contest, "Beyond Words: Celebrating America's Libraries," jointly conducted with the American Library Association; and a "Local Legacies" project to document unique local traditions from congressional districts throughout the nation for possible inclusion in the American Folklife Center's collections.

The kick-off event later this year for the Bicentennial will be a symposium on the Frontiers of the Mind in the 21st Century, which will bring together at the Library leading thinkers in various disciplines to talk about the way their field will change in the 21st century. The concept of "Gifts to the Nation" is central to the Bicentennial effort. The Library itself is a Congressional “Gift to the Nation." Sharing the Library's collections and information about the Congress with Americans in their local communities through an expanded National Digital Library is the Library's major gift to the nation.

SUMMARY

The Library's budget request for fiscal year 2000-a net increase of 5.5 percent over fiscal 1999 or $20 million—supports the building blocks for realizing our strategic priorities. Most of this increase ($16.6 million) is needed to fund mandatory pay raises (driven largely by the January 2000 pay raise of 4.4 percent) and unavoidable price-level increases.

By funding the Library's fiscal year 2000 budget request, the Congress would support the major transition of staff and operations that must take place to permit the Library to head into the 21st century with the foundation in place to provide the maximum service to the Congress and to its constituents.

For fiscal year 2000, we submit a budget request that will enable the Library of Congress to continue to make major contributions to the work of the Congress and to the creative life of the American people.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MARYBETH PETERS

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: I appreciate the opportunity to present the budget request of the Copyright Office for fiscal year 2000. For more than 100 years the role of the Office has been one of leadership in the establishment of U.S. copyright policy and service to the nation. The record has been one of solid achievement, and this year is no different.

During fiscal year 1998, the Copyright Office continued to advise the Congress on national and international issues and provided valuable assistance to the United States Trade Representative and other executive branch agencies.

It also continued to create and maintain the on-line catalog of copyright and mask work registrations and recorded documents, to administer the various compulsory licenses and statutory obligations, to further the effort to create a workable automated registration, recordation and deposit system, and to offer technical, legal, and educational assistance in the international arena.

The Copyright Office's public services include, responding to copyright information and reference requests in person, over the telephone, through written correspondence, and electronically through the Web; producing and supplying Copyright Office forms, circulars, studies, regulations, and other publications in paper and digital format; maintaining a 24-hour forms hotline and fax delivery service; providing up-todate information digitally via the Copyright Office Website and through an electronic mailing list.

In fiscal year 1998, the Office processed 644,639 claims, representing over 800,000 works, registered 558,645 claims, representing more than 700,000 works, recorded 14,368 documents, that included more than 250,000 titles, and responded to 395,456 information requests. It transferred to the Library approximately 850,000 copies of works at a value of $26,991,775. The Office collected $15,559,001 for registration, recordation and related services and approximately $217,000,000 in royalty fees for compulsory licenses.

Fiscal Year 1999 Focus

In fiscal year 1999, the Copyright Office will focus on five activities: Maintaining and enhancing the policy role of the Copyright Office in domestic and international copyright matters; continuing the development, testing, and implementation of the Copyright Electronic Registration, Recordation, and Deposit System (CORDS); improving the efficiency and timeliness in registration processing and in providing

copyright reference and information services; enhancing the security of copyright deposits and records through the application of anti-theft devices to the collections and the adoption of other measures; and implementing Copyright Office fee setting legislation.

Policy Role

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), enacted on October 28, 1998, supports and enhances the policy role of the Copyright Office in domestic and international copyright matters. The DMCA resulted in the most extensive changes to Copyright Law since the general revision in 1976. It was the result of nearly two years of intensive activity in the Congress, and the Copyright Office was privileged to work extensively with committees in both the House and Senate throughout the legislative process.

Not only did the Copyright Office play a significant role in advising the Congress on matters relating to the DMCA, but the Act itself ensured that the Office will continue to play a leading role in copyright policy in the future. Section 401 of the Act confirms the authority of the Copyright Office to carry out the policy and international functions that it has carried out under more general statutory language for

many years.

On several of the substantive issues addressed in the DMCA the affected parties were very far apart, requiring Congress to craft a number of delicate compromises. One of these compromises establishes a new important and difficult activity for the Librarian of Congress and the Register of Copyrights-an ongoing administrativerulemaking proceeding to evaluate the impact of the law's new prohibition on circumventing technologies that protect works from unauthorized access to determine whether users of "particular class[es] of works" would be hindered in their ability to make noninfringing uses of such works by virtue of the new anti-circumvention rules. If so, the Librarian, upon recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, will exempt such persons from the ban on acts of circumvention.

There were a number of issues that were not ripe for resolution in the DMCA. Several matters under consideration from distance education to encryption research-required further study. All six of those studies will be carried out either under the auspices of the Copyright Office or with the Office's participation within the next two years.

Copyright Electronic Registration, Recordation, and Deposit System (CORDS)

In fiscal year 1999 the Office will continue the development, testing, and implementation of CORDS, which, when fully developed, will allow all Internet users to submit electronically claims to copyright, copies of copyrighted works, and documents such as assignments and licenses.

CORDS has no other prototypes available to build on; it is breaking totally new ground, and is doing so in a rapidly changing technical environment. It involves the use of many new technologies emerging with the growth of the Internet, including applying digital signature technology that authenticates the source and integrity of communications with far more depth of reliability and security built into it than basic FTP (file transfer protocol) or Email communications-based systems.

In January 1999, the Library of Congress and the Copyright Office signed a landmark cooperative agreement with UMĨ that enables electronic submission of applications and deposits of doctoral dissertations and master's theses. This historic agreement also makes UMI the first partner to submit large numbers of copyright claims (20,000 annually, 400 per week) electronically through CORDS, which will be processed online.

In the fiscal year 2000 budget request, the Copyright Office requests funding for (1) hiring one automation specialist (GS-13) and (2) increasing digital storage capability for CORDS. This will permit the Office to receive and process an increasing number of claims electronically at a substantial savings in staff time and physical storage space.

Registration Operations

The Copyright Office's goal is timely, quality service. Throughput time is a major concern to the copyright community. Despite valiant efforts by supervisors and staff, registration has gone from the norm of six to eight weeks in 1993 to six to eight months today. This is clearly unacceptable. Annually, we process approximately 650,000 claims to copyright covering more than 800,000 works and more than 1,000,000 deposit copies per year, received with a fee in most cases, to be processed and routed through many stations in a function-based operation. At the end of fiscal year 1993, the Office had an inventory of 30,000 registration claims to be processed. Normal on-hand ranges for claims to be examined have historically been 30,000 to 45,000.