disciplinary. This implies that the personnel required to manage a National Program of Library and Information Services should be equipped, technically and substantively, to cope with all aspects of planning and implementation. Welltrained professionals are needed in areas such as management, planning and evaluation, automation, media services, and outreach programs.

Schools of library and information science are aware of the need to redefine their educational programs, in order to attract exceptionally-qualified students and build the leadership needed to remold traditional librarianship into a dynamic profession. However, no concerted effort has yet been made to bring this about.

It is essential, therefore, that the National Program give consideration to both basic and continuing education of personnel at all levels, professional and paraprofessional. A new approach to educational curricula will be needed in library and information science if librarians, information scientists, library technicians, and auxiliary personnel are to learn to function as an interdisciplinary team. Expressions of need for an innovative approach, preferably an interdisciplinary one, have come from many national, regional and state professional associations, schools of library and information science, state and national libraries, and from librarians, information specialists, and their employers. An interdisciplinary approach to education does not necessarily imply that every librarian must immediately become a computer scientist or vice versa. There are many library operations that can and should continue to be performed in traditional ways. It is essential, however, that all librarians understand the potentials of the new technologies; and this is especially true for those librarians who serve the user directly. Those in contact with the user must understand the capabilities of the statewide or nationwide network with which they are working.

To achieve a technological and organizational upgrading of libraries and information centers will require new approaches to recruitment, personnel development, continuing education, technical training, trustee orientation, and other matters relating to human resources. The Federal Government has a primary responsibility to ensure that all those who will participate in the National Program have adequate opportunity to be educationally equipped and trained for their jobs. A

Federally-funded program of fellowships and training institutes. is basic to the fulfillment of this responsibility.

Objective 5. Coordinate existing Federal programs of library and information service.

The Commission recognizes that existing library and information service programs in operation by the Federal Government-such as those in the Library of Congress, the National Library of Medicine, the National Agricultural Library, and the 2,300 or more Federal libraries and information centersconstitute invaluable operating programs that are of great significance to the proposed National Program. Many of these programs are already performing centralized bibliographical, reference, and other services which are of benefit to all libraries in the country. The National Program will make use of these national services, and must ensure that they are well coordinated and continued at levels strong enough to fully satisfy the national need. These existing Federal programs would become critically important elements in the National Program, even though they remain administratively autonomous.

As stated earlier (cf. Objective 1, page 39), the Commission believes that existing categorical aid programs should continue to be administered by those mission-oriented agencies which are directly concerned with the substance of a particular problem area. The Commission believes that the variety and extent of operating and grant programs in the Federal Government are so great that any attempt to centralize them into a single agency might be not only impractical, but also unwise. Instead, the Commission proposes to involve the best resources and the best capabilities of all of the agencies of the government which can make a significant contribution to the National Program.

Public Law 91-345, establishing the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, assigns to it the "primary responsibility for developing and recommending overall plans, and advising the appropriate governments and agencies on . policy" with respect to meeting the library and information service needs of the people of the United States. In the proposed National Program, the Commission would exercise this responsibility through the development of national policy, coordination of existing programs, and creation of new programs as appropriate.

Objective 6. Encourage the private sector (comprising organizations which are not directly tax-supported)

to become an active partner in the development of the National Program.

The private sector has long been involved in using and providing information, and has built up a large body of expertise in handling information. In recent years it has initiated many new types of information services. Two distinct components of this sector can be identified as having the capacity to make special contributions to the National Program; the special libraries and information centers (in both for-profit and not-forprofit organizations); and various service organizations.

Special libraries and information centers in the private sector in business and industry, in museums and hospitals, and in other organizations of all kinds, often have important collections of material and the capability of providing quick, up-todate analytical service for their own organizations. They are user-oriented, have frequently taken advantage of new technology, and have developed tools to assist them to serve their users more effectively. They have a history of informal cooperation.

Certain segments of the private sector have developed new types of information services for sale to information users of all kinds, including libraries in the public and private sectors. Many of these services employ unconventional products which derive from applications of the new technology, such as microfiche, video cassettes, on-line, computerized data banks, facsimile transmission, and CATV. In some cases, the new services represent innovative extensions of past practices. Taken together, the new commercial and other private sector information services are growing rapidly in number, function, and value.

Since information has an economic value of its own, the use of commercial and other private sector information services is becoming accepted as a reliable and cost-effective method of obtaining information.

While little precedent exists for incorporating private sector resources and services into the country's functional information structure, it seems essential that they be made an integral part of any National Program.

Objective 7. Establish a locus of Federal responsibility charged with implementing the national network and

coordinating the National Program under the policy guidance of the National Commission.

The National Commission is a policy-making and planning body. It is not empowered by law to operate programs. What is needed, as a matter of first priority, is a locus of Federal responsibility, some agency in the Federal establishment, where policies with respect to library and information service activities can be transplanted into action. Such an agency's initial responsibilities would include: implementing a nationwide network, coordinating the National Program, and putting into practice related policies enunciated by the National Commission. It would also have authority to make grants and contracts, establish standards and encourage their adoption, and undertake other functions consistent with the Commission's policies to implement a program of national concern.

One of the most important issues to be resolved in pursuing a National Program of Library and Information Services is deciding what kind of permanent operating agency is required at a Federal level for this purpose and recommending where the agency should be located in the government.

It may not, strictly speaking, be necessary to create a new Federal agency. It may be that the proposed functions of the National Program could be assigned to several existing agencies merely by broadening their responsibilities. The important thing is that the new National Program will require new administrative and operational functions and that, at present, there seems to be no natural home to accommodate them. The Commission firmly believes that the responsibility of the agency, whether old or new, should be neither all-encompassing, nor authoritarian, nor prescriptive, nor regulatory, but rather, that it should be supportive and coordinating. This agency is seen as one which would encourage cooperative efforts at every level and which would coordinate backup national services. It would have no control whatsoever over the content of the information flowing over the nationwide network. It would, however, be backed by legislation to enable it to obtain the necessary funding from the Congress for meeting the crucial needs of the National Program. It would also be authorized

to require compliance with standards for nationwide compatibility as a condition of continued funding.

Whatever central authority is eventually established to direct the National Program, local autonomy and the maximum degree possible of local self-determination should be one of the program's major tenets. The variations of needs and existing levels of services and resources are so great that it would be difficult for a central authority to be fully cognizant of the diverse needs of all.

It is not yet clear where an agency responsible for library and information service belongs in the organizational hierarchy of the Federal Government, or whether there is an existing agency to which this role would be appropriate. Three existing national agencies have been mentioned as possibilities. (1) The Library of Congress;

(2) The Office of Libraries and Learning Resources, U.S. Office of Education; and

(3) The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science.

Recognizing the importance of the relationship between the proposed program and the private sector, some people have suggested that the new responsibilities and functions be assigned to a quasi-governmental agency organized along the lines of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

It is far from clear at the moment what the best solution might be, and the Commission, therefore, feels that these and other alternatives should be thoroughly investigated.

The Commission cannot stress strongly enough the urgency attached to finding a suitable home in government for implementing, coordinating and integrating library and information service on a national scale.

Objective 8. Plan, develop and implement a nationwide network of library and information service.

The National Commission believes that only by interrelating the pluralistic cooperative programs of the past and providing a national frame of reference for future development will the nation be able to achieve optimum exploitation of the rich information and knowledge resources in the United States.

The next section describes the main elements of the proposed nationwide network whose purpose, as indicated earlier,