ALAWON v3n18 (April 13, 1994) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/alawon/alawon-v3n18 ****Begin File******************Begin File*******************Begin File**** *************************************************************************** ISSN 1069-7799 ALAWON ALA Washington Office Newsline An electronic publication of the American Library Association Washington Office Volume 3, Number 18 April 13, 1994 In this issue: (211 lines) FURTHER DATA NEEDED ON USE OF LIBRARY POSTAL RATE GOALS 2000 SIGNED INTO LAW SCHOOL LIBRARY SENATE HEARING A SUCCESS LIBRARY LEGISLATIVE DAY HEARING DEPOSITORY LIBRARY COUNCIL MEETING *************************************************************************** FURTHER DATA NEEDED ON USE OF LIBRARY POSTAL RATE The ALA Washington Office helped arrange a meeting with U.S. Postal Service officials on April 4 concerning the proposed 73.7 percent increase in the fourth-class library postal rate. See the March 25 ALAWON, Vol. 3, No. 16 issue for background on the USPS rate proposal. Organizations representing library rate mailers included ALA, Association of Research Libraries, Maine State Library, University of Maryland Libraries, Association of American Publishers, Classroom Publishers Association, and Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers. We are very grateful to the many public, state, academic, and some special libraries that provided information and data about their use of the library rate. It is obvious that the library rate is used heavily by many libraries for books-by-mail programs to reach isolated and homebound users, for delivery of books reserved by users, and for interlibrary loans. The meeting was useful for all parties, but it did not result in any immediately obvious change in USPS calculations of attributable costs for library rate mail, which accounts for only .02 percent of all mail volume. Postal officials described their methods for sampling to determine how much mail falls in each rate class. They also shared data indicating declining volume, weight, and weight per piece for library rate mail. In 1989 (on which a rate increase in 1990 was based), library rate mail volume declined from 48.4 million pieces in 1988 to 39.2 million pieces, while the weight per piece increased from nearly 67 ounces to nearly 96. Thus, in the very atypical year of 1989, revenue of $59.7 million exceeded attributable costs of $52 million. Since then, library rate volume increased to 42 million pieces in 1992, then declined to 38.7 million in 1993. However, the weight per piece has declined from its 1989 high point to 43.8 ounces in 1993. Revenue in 1993 of $42.8 million was less than attributable costs of $66.9 million, and the new rates would be based on data from 1993. ALA has filed a legal notice of intent to intervene in the postal rate case in order to preserve our options for future action. Meanwhile, postal officials indicated they would be interested in seeing any additional data on use of library rate mail, particularly data reaching back further than 1989, that indicated trends different from their own data. They would also be interested in estimates of how much volume would drop if the 73.7 percent increase were implemented. TREND DATA NEEDED: Many of you told us how you were using the library rate, and what you were mailing and spending right now or in the most recent year. Can you track volume, weight, weight per piece, and costs over the last few years? Or even better, from 1988 forward? Can you identify reasons for any major changes in your trend data? How much would library rate volume drop if the 73.7 percent increase were implemented in 1995? What other rate or delivery mechanism would you use? Or would the services for which you use library rate be discontinued? PLEASE SEND ANY OR ALL OF THIS INFORMATION BY APRIL 22. Contact the ALA Washington Office at alawash@alawash.org or by fax at 202- 547-7363, or by phone at 202-547-4440. Thanks again for your help. *************************************************************************** GOALS 2000 SIGNED INTO LAW The Senate approved the conference report on HR 1804, Goals 2000: Educate America Act, S. Rept. 103-85, shortly before the spring recess. The bill was signed into law, P.L. 103-227, by the President while he was on vacation in California. A deadline of April 1 had been imposed on appropriations for FY94 for the legislation. If the bill had not been signed into law before April 1, there would be no funding. The legislation puts into law the National Education Goals, articulated by the nation's governors. The legislation also establishes a National Education Goals Panel, a National Education Standards and Improvement Council, and describes a grant program to encourage state and local education systemic reform. Included in the law is title sec. 316, State Planning for Improving Student Achievement Through Integration of Technology Into the Curriculum. A National Skill Standards Board is established and other titles address safe schools, parents as teachers, minority-focused civics education, and the reauthorization of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI). Debate on the legislation in both the Senate and the House centered on concerns about the state opportunity to learn standards, relating to whether schools have the resources to enable their students to meet the goals. The legislation makes clear that those standards are voluntary. *************************************************************************** SCHOOL LIBRARY SENATE HEARING A SUCCESS On April 12, the Senate Subcommittee on Education, Arts and the Humanities conducted a hearing on school libraries, as part of ongoing hearings on reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Congressional witnesses were Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.), co-sponsor with Senator Paul Simon (D-Ill.) of the Elementary and Secondary School Library Media Act (S. 266), and Rep. Jack Reed (D-R.I.). Reed was the sponsor of the companion House bill, now incorporated into the House-passed ESEA reauthorization, HR 6. Author and illustrator David Macauley also testified. A professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, Macauley detailed the historical regard of civilizations for libraries and said: "Their very existence symbolizes our belief in the right of everyone to know--that access to information is an inalienable right. Without libraries, this particular right is seriously endangered." Macauley said only a major national commitment will turn the tide. "We must rededicate adequate resources to the fight against ignorance and its principle ally--illiteracy." Two school library media specialists, members of ALA's American Association of School Librarians, provided very strong testimony in support of inclusion of assistance for school library resources in ESEA. Jeanie McNamara, a doctoral student at the University of Michigan and on the faculty of the University of South Carolina College of Library and Information Science, and Dr. Carolyn Markuson of Sudbury, Massachusetts, an educational and school library consultant, testified. McNamara summarized studies correlating the existence of a strong school library media center with improvements in student achievement. She also discussed a recent study of school library media centers in twelve states which documented the lack of currency and quantity of library resources in many of these schools. The survey was conducted by ALA, and will be published soon by the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. McNamara displayed an example of an outdated resource, The International Library of Negro Life and History, which she found in both her elementary and high school libraries in Michigan. The book does not recount the death of Martin Luther King, does not include Jesse Jackson or Rosa Parks, and "Willie Mays is still playing ball." Markuson stated that Simon's bill, S. 266, holds "promise like a phoenix arising from the ashes." She described the current state of far too many libraries--with out-of-date resources and no telephones or technology connections, and said the "federal government must intervene." She cited a doctoral study of public schools in Massachusetts that found 93 percent of library collections were in only minimal compliance with state standards. Markuson had brought a student along to testify. Ten-year old Jim Wulfson of Brookline, MA, stole the show. In a very brief but articulate presentation, he indicated school libraries needed more money for up-to- date nonfiction works, up-to-date maps and globes, online encyclopedias, and more fiction. Reading, he said, "carries you away, and puts you in another state of mind." Senator Simon, who was conducting the hearing, clearly enjoyed the strong presentations of panel members. *************************************************************************** LIBRARY LEGISLATIVE DAY HEARING SENATE COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND HUMAN RESOURCES. Subcommittee on Education, Arts, and the Humanities. Hearing on "Libraries and Their Role in the Information Infrastructure." ALA leaders representing all types of libraries will present testimony on the impact of new technology and the importance of libraries being connected to the electronic information superhighway. Tuesday, April 19, 10:00 am, 430 Dirksen. *************************************************************************** DEPOSITORY LIBRARY COUNCIL MEETING The Government Printing Office has announced an open meeting of the Depository Library Council to the Public Printer to be held on April 25 through April 27. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the Federal Depository Library Program. The meeting is scheduled from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm on April 25 and 26, and from 8:30 am to 12:00 pm on April 27 at the Rosslyn Westpark Hotel, 1900 North Fort Myer Drive, Arlington, VA. The GPO published a notice of the meeting in the March 17 _Federal Register_, p. 12609. *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is an irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office, 110 Maryland Avenue, N.E., Washington, DC 20002-5675. Internet: alawash@alawash.org; Phone: 202-547-4440; Fax: 202-547-7363. Editor: Lee G. Enyart (lge@alawash.org). 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). Back issues and other documents are available from the list server. To find out what's available, send the message "send ala-wo filelist" to the listserv. The ALA-WO filelist contains the list of files with the exact filename and filetype. To get a particular file, issue the command "send filename filetype" to the listserv. Do not include the quotes in your commands. All materials in the newsletter subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. For other reprinting or redistribution, address requests to the ALA Washington Office (alawash@alawash.org). *************************************************************************** ***End of file******************End of file******************End of file***