AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT GRANTS & CONTRACTS SEPTEMBER 1995 - FEBRUARY 1998

Pursuant to clause 2 (g)(4) of the Rule XI of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the Committee on Appropriations requires (to the greatest extent practicable) each nongovernmental witness who plans to give oral testimony to submit a written statement including a curriculum vitae and a disclosure of the amount and source (by agency and program) of any Federal grant (or subgrant thereof) or contract (or subcontract thereof) received during the current fiscal year or either of the two previous fiscal years by the witness or by an entity represented by the witness.

ASSOCIATION OF RESEARCH LIBRARIES

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT GRANTS AND CONTRACTS

$114,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to complete a cooperative project to provide online access to bibliographic records for preservation microform masters. (1996)

$99,760 from the U.S. Department of Education for a leadership career development program intended to foster minority librarians for advancement. (current)

Mr. WALSH. Thank you. I think you would be interested to know that we are about to reprogram an additional $79,000 to the Government Printing Office at Mr. DiMario's request for additional bound copies of the Congressional Record.

Ms. WAND. Wonderful. Do you know whether this will mean that all the depository libraries will be able to receive their copies as they have historically, up until 4 years ago?

Mr. WALSH. Staff advises me that this would cover the regional libraries, and that the Government Printing Office would then take a look at resources that they have within their current budgets to see if they can help the other libraries.

Ms. WAND. That is the best news I have heard in a long time. Mr. WALSH. Good. Are there any other questions?

Mr. Cunningham.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. There was something that disturbed me that I was not aware of; I didn't realize that a CD-ROM was only good from 5 to 50 years. I have done a lot of lithographs and I know that the acid-free paper does last, but also ink goes away, so we sign those things in graphite, in pencil, instead of pen.

Is there permanent ink that does not go away after a certain period of time, so we have those documented? Because I know the value of electronic equipment just for space, but is there any research into looking into saving those things electronically? You could take your Law Library and you could burn it and we could start over and be much better, I think. I'm kidding.

Ms. WAND. There is research going on in this issue. But the conclusion at this point in time is that preserving on acid-free paper is the most reliable long-term storage media.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Do they use pen or pencil?

Ms. WAND. Print.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. We have a Federal depository in California State University-San Marcos in my district, and they are just getting it started. They are ecstatic about it. They had a group of people come in and see the different offerings that we have.

But just besides the Library here, one of the focuses in education that we had that was a bipartisan bill, called the 21st Century Classrooms Act, where we encourage private enterprise invest in computers and they give them to the schools. In some cases the schools were having to throw them away because they didn't have the upgraded software and they couldn't use the computer. So we have a corporation called Detweiler Foundation that receives the computer from industry, so they get an expanded tax write off for the business. So the business buys a new computer. Detweiler takes the newly donated computer, they then use prison labor and military brig labor to upgrade it so they learn a skill, and then it goes to the school. We are going to try and do the same thing with our public high schools and public libraries, so people have more

access.

In the welfare bill there is not enough money for training for people, so where do they go? It is the libraries. That is one of the areas that we want work in and to help as much as we can, not just here in Washington, D.C. But I think it is fantastic, what you are doing. Ms. WAND. Thank you. It sounds like you have a wonderful model program going that might be emulated in other places.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. The Detweiler Computers for Schools program is in 21 States now and they are expanding. The President signed it, Bill Archer in the Committee on Ways and Means put it through, so we have a tax break for it. We had offsets for it. It is really doing well.

Ms. WAND. Congratulations.

Mr. WALSH. Thank you very much.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Ŏne last comment. I am sorry, Mr. Chairman. I worked on the special education bill when I was Chairman in education. I visited down, not even in my district, but in San Diego in an area where they have special education children and physically handicapped working. There is a gentleman there that was totally nonsighted, but uses a voice-activated computer. I would like to see more of that. I know it is expensive, but I would like to see more of that software and technology to come into it, because I have a lady named Holly Caudill who was paralyzed in a car accident when she was 18. She works full-time, but all of her income goes just to take care of her physical needs, and something like this, with the technology, really helps those people. They don't want to be on welfare; they want to work, but we need to help them. So anything you can do in this particular area for the physically handicapped

Ms. WAND. Adaptive technology is phenomenal.
Mr. WALSH. Thank you very much.

WITNESS

JANET S. ZAGORIN, CHAIRMAN, STANDING COMMITTEE ON THE LAW LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION

Mr. WALSH. Next is Janet S. Zagorin, Chair of the Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress, the American Bar Association. Welcome.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Strike my comment about burning the Law Library.

Ms. ZAGORIN. Thank you. I brought my lawyer.

Mr. WALSH. The horse has left the proverbial barn on that one. Ms. ZAGORIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also have the privilege of being accompanied by former Congressman Orton, who is a member of my committee of the ABA.

Mr. WALSH. Glad to have you back with us.

Ms. ZAGORIN. On behalf of the ABA, I really want to thank you for letting us speak. I don't want to reiterate my testimony. I would ask that you would put it into the record.

Mr. WALSH. We have your testimony and we will put it in the record. If you would summarize, it would be terrific.

Ms. ZAGORIN. As you know, the ABA has established this committee because we wanted to support the Law Library, not for the private bar, but because we think it is an essential institution of the United States for the citizenry, not just of the United States, but in today's world for the global world.

I don't think there is any institution in the United States that at this moment in time is more important in terms of expressing the United States' commitment to the rule of law. If you come to the Law Library, if you work with the Law Library as it serves