ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries September 1991 / 513 Washington Hotline Carol C. Henderson Deputy Director, ALA Washington Office (202) 547-4440; (A LA0025) HEA Funding. The attention the Higher Education Act reauthorization process has drawn to library programs, and the fine testimony o f library witnesses last spring is bearing fruit in actual dollars. The bill (HR 2707) containing funding for F Y ’92 for these programs has been passed by the House and is awaiting a floor vote in the Senate. Both House and Senate appropriators were impressed with data concerning shortages o f librarians and library educators. Both versions would provide $5 million for the HEA II-B library fellowship and training program— a 668 percent increase! The research portion o f II-B would remain at the current $325,000, as would the II-C research library grants at $5,855,000. For the II-D college library technology program, the House provided the current level o f $3,904,000. The Senate would increase this to $6,404,000, but appears to have in mind an Iowa State University project in funding subcommittee chairman Tom Harkin’s (D-IA) state for the $2.5 million increase according to S. Rept. 102-104 on HR 2707. The House, but not the Senate, would provide $500,000 for first time funding o f the HEA V I-A section 607 provision in the international education title. This provision authorizes grants to institutions of higher education or public or nonprofit, private library institutions or consortia o f such institutions for the acquisition of, and provision of access to, periodicals published outside the United States. NREN. On July 11 the House passed by voice vote HR 656, the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991, which would create a National Research and Education Network. Federal agencies are to work with state and local agencies, libraries, educational institutions and organizations, and private network service providers to ensure that researchers, educators, and students have access to the network. The NREN is expected to provide access to electronic information resources maintained by libraries, research facilities, publishers, and affiliated organizations. In the Senate, a compromise version o f two NREN bills, S. 272 and S. 343, is emerging, and is expected to be passed this session. GPO WINDO. On June 26 Rep. Charles Rose (D-NC), Chairman of the House Administration Committee and the Joint Committee on Printing, introduced HR 2772, the GPO Wide Information Network Data Online (GPO Windo). The bill would establish online access to public government information through the Government Printing Office. This GPO Windo would be a single account, one-stop-shopping way to access and query federal databases, complementing, rather then supplanting, other agency efforts to disseminate information. Fees for the information available through GPO Windo would approximate “the incremental cost o f dissemination of the data” for most subscribers. The legislation would permit depository libraries to connect to, access, and query GPO Windo databases without charge. The 514 / C&RL News proposal was developed by ALA, working with other library associations and public-interest organizations. L C F E E B I L L . On June 27 Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-RI), Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Library, introduced at the request of the Librarian of Congress a bill (S. 1416) to provide authority for LC to provide fee-based library research and information products and services. No comparable House bill has been introduced. ALA Legislation Committee Chair E. J. Josey reported to the ALA Council on July 3 about year-long discussions between ALA and LC officials to improve the LC draft and address library community concerns. Josey cited several significant improvements and safeguards added to the draft. While applauding the process by which LC sought library community comments, Josey reported that the Legislation Committee continued to have reservations about the potential scope of services that might be developed under the terms of the legislation. ALA President Patricia Glass Schuman wrote to Senate and House committee chairs on July 29. The letter said that ALA recognized that LC has a legitimate need to update its statutory authority; that ALA appreciated the fact that LC sought advice and comment from the library community on the proposal; that despite improvements made by LC since the initial draft, ALA still has serious concerns about the broad scope of fee-based activities which may be allowed; and that ALA urges that hearings be held before any action is taken on this legislation. ACRL makes staff changes T a y lo r ap p o in ted p ub licatio n s p ro g ra m o ffic e r Mary C. Taylor was appointed ACRL publica­ tions program officer effective July 1 ,1991. Taylor will manage ACRL’s non-periodical publishing ac­ tivities, provide advisory services, and manage the statistics project. Taylor comes to ACRL from O C L C ’s Online Com­ pu ter Library C en ter Office of Research where she was communications and information services manager. She managed the communications pro­ gram, edited the Annual R ev iew o f O C L C R e­ s e a r c h , w rote for the M ary C. TaylorO C L C N ewsletter, man­ aged information services projects, and managed the Library and Information Science Research Grant program. She has also been active in the Central Ohio Chapter o f the American Society for Information Science, most recently serving as the chair. Taylor succeeds Mary Ellen K. Davis, who b e­ came editor and publisher of C irR L News in F e b ­ ruary. 1 9 9 1 - 9 2 A LA M in ority F e llo w t o w ork w ith A C R L Sheila Ann Delacroix has been selected as the 1991-92 American Library Association Minority Fellow. Delacroix’s one-year fellowship appoint­ ment will be spent at ALA Headquarters in Chicago where she will work with ACRL as well as pursue an individual project. Delacroix will work closely with ACRL president Anne K. Beaubien to implement activities designed to recruit talented individuals (particularly those with a science and social science background and those from underrepresented mi­ nority groups) to academic librarianship. Delacroix is currently head of reference services, Sou th eastern Louisiana University Library, Hammond, Louisiana. Prior to this, she was assis­ tant librarian in the Reference Service Depart­ ment, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; library assistant at the Duke University Libraries; and librarian at Shelton State Community College, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Delacroix received her bach­ elor o f science degree with a major in mathematics September 1991 / 515 from Dominican College, New Orleans, and a master of library service degree from the U niversity of Alabama. She is currently serving as vice-chair/ chair-elect of the Louisiana ACRL chapter. New assistant editors o f C&RL News nam ed Pam Spiegel has been named assistant editor of C&RL News and will be responsible for production and layout of the magazine, as well as all copyediting and proofreading. She will also be responsible for layout and produc­ tion of Rare Books and M an u scrip ts L i b r a r ­ ianship. Spiegel has been an ALA employee for five years, beginning as apro- duction assistant for ALA Books, then becoming editorial assistant for C irR L News, where she worked for ayear in 1988- 89 before leaving to have a baby (a girl named Pam Spiegel Julia). She has also done extensive freelance edi­ torial work for many ALA departments, and for several other Chicago-area publishers. Ted Bales has been named classified ads man­ ager of C&RL News and he will be responsible for the flow of all ad copy, layout, and billing. He has worked at C &RL News for over a year as edito­ rial assistant. Bales is also a professional actor who is curxendy starring in two Chicago productions: the innovative, audience- participation piece called Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, and a new two-act comedy called Portrait o f a Shiksa. He also appeared in the Hollywood film My Bodyguard. Ted Bales Both Spiegel and Bales are half-time employees sharing the position last held by Karen Christopher, who left in May. F o r m e r A C R L staffer Nelson to d ire c t OLOS Mattye L. Nelson, formerly education officer for ACRL, is the new director of the Office for Library Outreach Services (OLOS). Her appointment was effective on July 15, 1991. OLOS promotes the provision of library service to the urban and rural poor and to those who may be discriminated against, encourages the development of special materials for such service, and supports librarians in develop­ ing effective outreach programs. ■ ■ (continued fr o m page 511) Before joining the Council in 1991, Penniman served as director of Information Services Group and, prior to that, as libraries and information sys­ tems director at AT&T Bell Laboratories. He has served as vice president for planning and research for OCLC, where he also established the Research Department in 1978. He has worked as a research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria and as an information scientist at the Battelle Memorial Institute in Co­ lumbus, Ohio, where he was also associate manager of the Information Systems Section responsible for the development of the BASIS online retrieval and data management system. His professional activities include being chair­ man of the board of Engineering Information, Inc. ‚ and past-president of the American Society for Information Science. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and is a member of ALA, the Special Libraries Association, and the Association for Computing Machinery. Penniman holds an undergraduate degree in en­ gineering and a Ph. D . in behavioral science, and has published over 50 articles and papers in the areas of information systems research, development, and operation. ■ ■ Register in November Preliminary program and registration mate­ rials for the Sixth National Conference will be available in November. The registration rate for ACRL members is $135 and $255 for non­ members. Additional conference information is available from the ACRL office, (800) 545- 2433, ext. 2516.