Conference Reports

Government Information Committee

The committee will begin work on a Web site that will report on news regarding government information. Members will continue to monitor various electronic discussion groups pertaining to government information and will send brief reports to STS-L. During the conference, members of the committee attended information sessions held by the GODORT Federal Documents Task Force, GODORT Legislative Committee, and the ALA Washington Office. Some developments of interest are listed below:

1. Two separate database protection bills have been introduced in the U.S. House. The library community supports H.R. 1858, the Consumer Investor Access to Information Act of 1999 because this bill is more narrowly focused and thought to provide a more balanced approach.

2. H.R. 1790, the Chemical Safety Information and Site Security Act of 1999 proposes that federal depository libraries provide access to risk management plans of chemical manufacturing plant. The US EPA had planned to make those plans available online in June, however, some federal enforcement officials fear the potential risk of making that information available to terrorists.

3. The Copyright Office released its recommendations regarding use of copyrighted materials in support of distance education, see {http://www.loc.gov/copyright/cpypub/de_rprt.pdf}.

More information on these issues is available from the ALA Washington Office Web site at {http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/wo.}

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