ALAWON v1n17 (December 18, 1992) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/alawon/alawon-v1n17 ****Begin File******************Begin File*******************Begin File**** *************************************************************************** ALAWON ALA Washington Office Newsline An electronic publication of the American Library Association Washington Office Volume 1, Number 17 December 18, 1992 In this issue: (192 lines) FROM THE EDITOR LIBRARY EDUCATION GRANTS ERIC DATABASE COPYRIGHT UNSUBSCRIBING FROM ALAWON NATIONAL NET'93 MEETING *************************************************************************** FROM THE EDITOR This is the first of three ALAWON issues distributed on December 18. Vol. 1 No. 18 and 19 will be sent later today. *************************************************************************** LIBRARY EDUCATION GRANTS The Department of Education is inviting applications for grants under the Library Education and Human Resource Development program, part of HEA II-B. The grants will assist in covering the cost of courses of study or staff development through short term or regular session institutes. Institutions of higher education and library organizations or agencies are eligible. Applications must meet one or both of the following priorities: (1) To train or retrain library personnel in areas of library specialization where there are currently shortages, such as school media, children's services, young adult services, science reference, and cataloging. (2) To train or retrain library personnel to serve the information needs of the elderly, the illiterate, the disadvantaged, or residents of rural America. Applications will be available January 8, 1993; the deadline for submitting applications is February 24, 1993. The Department estimates that fifteen grants will be awarded, ranging in size from $35,000 to $125,000. For further information, contact Yvonne B. Carter or Louise V. Sutherland, U.S. Department of Education, 555 New Jersey Avenue NW, Room 404, Washington, DC 20208-5571. Phone: 202-219-1315. Hearing impaired people may call the Federal Dual Party Relay Service at 800-877-8339 (or 708-9300 in Washington, DC) between 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Eastern time. *************************************************************************** ERIC DATABASE COPYRIGHT In a November 3, 1992 letter, the Department of Education solicited comments to proposed changes to ERIC from ERIC users. Robert Stonehill, Director of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) announced that in November 1991, the Department of Education (ED) modified the contract for the ERIC Processing and Reference Facility, which produces the ERIC database tapes, permitting the contractor "to copyright the ERIC database and to collect modest fees--subject to ED approval--for commercial and academic usage." In his letter, Stonehill said that the decision to permit copyright of the ERIC database has "generated both some controversy and some misconceptions." The letter continues "it has been estimated that commercial usage revenues derived from the ERIC database are around $4 million per year, _but the ERIC system has never benefited from even a cent of those revenues._ (Emphasis in original) Under the previous arrangement, _all_ proceeds from the commercial use of the ERIC database have accrued to the private vendors, without any benefit to ERIC. For all of its 25-year history, ERIC has relied solely on Federal funding; however, funds have never been appropriated--or even requested--for database maintenance, improvement, and dissemination. And given the Federal budget outlook (ERIC funding was reduced nearly two percent in FY 1993), the near- term availability of such finds is unlikely." The fee structure proposed by the ERIC Facility includes the following: * A 10 percent fee on commercial online use and CD-ROM use. For example, on a connect-time charge of $36/hour, ERIC would collect a fee of $3.60/hour. * A flat annual fee of $750 for an institution of higher education or other non-profit agency planning to mount ERIC tapes to serve its faculty and students. * No usage fees for public libraries or state and local education agencies which purchase the ERIC database tapes. Stonehill estimates that these usage fees would raise between $150,000 and $250,000 annually. This income would be used strictly to improve the quality of the database, and to enhance its worldwide dissemination and use. Stonehill also states that "while this decision may result in slightly higher fees for using ERIC online through a commercial service, and will result in somewhat higher tape costs for academic institutions, ERIC will still remain one of the least expensive database services available. In fact, many ERIC end-users will not see any cost increases at all, since the costs will be borne by the institutions or vendors hosting the database." At its 1992 Annual Conference, ALA Council passed a resolution opposing copyright of the ERIC database. H.R. 4014, the Education, Research, Development, and Dissemination Excellence Act, prohibited copyright of the ERIC database and the charging of royalties and user fees. This bill was passed in the House, but the Senate did not act on it, and it did not become law. (See ALAWON Vol. 1, No. 13, October 21, 1992.) On November 25, 1992, Rep. William Ford (D-MI), Chair of the House Committee on Education and Labor, wrote to Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander: "I believe the public interest is best served if databases such as the ERIC database are in the public domain, and that federal agencies should avoid permitting contractors to establish exclusive, restricted, or other distribution arrangements." ACTION NEEDED: Although there is no deadline provided in the November 3 letter, there is still time to write the Department of Education. Comments should be submitted soon because a decision on user fees may be made in January. Write to Diane Ravitch, Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and Improvement, Capitol Place, 555 New Jersey Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20208, urging the Department of Education to withdraw its permission to copyright the ERIC database, thereby keeping this taxpayer- funded database in the public domain. Also urge the Department of Education to utilize appropriated funds for needed enhancements to the ERIC database and to reject its contractor's proposal that royalty charges and user fees be imposed to fund improvements and generate additional revenue for the contractor for its services. *************************************************************************** UNSUBSCRIBING FROM ALAWON Several people have reported difficulties in unsubscribing from ALAWON. The setting on the listserv has been changed, and you should now be able to unsubscribe by sending the message "unsubscribe ala-wo" to listserv@uicvm (Bitnet) or listserv@uicvm.uic.edu (Internet). The "set ala-wo nomail" should now work as well. If you are still unable to unsubscribe through the listserv, send a message to nu_alawash@cua (Bitnet) or nu_alawash@cua.edu (Internet) and we can remove your name from the list. *************************************************************************** NATIONAL NET'93 MEETING April 14-16, 1993 is the date of the next National Net meeting. These annual sessions focus on the Internet/NREN, and are one of the best ways to keep informed on NREN policy issues and application developments. This year's theme is Extending the Benefits, with sessions of special interest to the broadening constituencies of the network such as libraries, schools, and communities. Sessions will include extending NREN's reach, how the network of networks is evolving into a community of communities, state- level networking activities, K-12 activities, multimedia over the Internet, listening to the users, and more. Demonstrations and exhibits are included. ALA is one of the National Net'93 sponsors, along with the Association of Research Libraries, CAUSE, the Coalition for Networked Information, the Consortium for School Networking, the Computing Research Association, the Corporation for Research and Educational Networking, the EDUCOM Networking and Telecommunications Task Force, FARNET, the Internet Society, the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, and the National Science Foundation. National Net'93 will take place at the Loews L'enfant Plaza Hotel, Washington, DC. Registration before March 13 is $345. For registration or further information, contact Elizabeth Barnhart, EDUCOM, 1112 16th St., NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036. Phone: 202-872-4200; e-mail: net93@educom.edu. *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** ALAWON is an irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office, 110 Maryland Avenue, N.E., Washington, DC 20002-5675. Editor and List Owner: Fred King. Phone: 202-547-4440; Fax: 202-547-7363; Bitnet: NU_ALAWASH@CUA; Internet: NU_ALAWASH@CUA.EDU All or part of ALAWON may be redistributed, with appropriate credits. ALAWON is available free of charge and is available only in electronic form. To subscribe, send the message "subscribe ala-wo [your name]" to listserv@uicvm (Bitnet) or listserv@uicvm.uic.edu (Internet). Instructions on how to retrieve back issues of ALAWON will be published in future issues. *************************************************************************** ***End of file******************End of file******************End of file***