Maloney, 'Washington Watch', LITA Newsletter v15n01
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/lita/lita-v15n01-maloney-washington

V15N1.WASHING LITANEWS
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Washington Watch
James Maloney

THE FOCUS AND CONTENT of a recent House bill and White House
initiative concerning the Internet will benefit libraries. The Boucher
bill (HR 1757), introduced in the House on June 8 and passed on July
26, 1993, accelerates "development and dissemination of applications
of high-performance computing and high-speed networking...to many
fields, including education, libraries, government...and health care."
Similar Senate legislation (S 4) is on the Senate calendar for the
fall.

   The Boucher bill fosters the creation of networks in communities to
connect institutions of higher education, elementary and secondary
schools, libraries and state and local governments to each other and
to the Internet. Hardware and the broadband connections to the
Internet are funded in the bill, along with training of teachers,
students, librarians and state and local government personnel. In the
words of HR 1757, "training programs for librarians shall be designed
to provide skills and training materials needed by librarians to
instruct the public in the use of hardware and software for accessing
and using computer networks and the Internet."

   The bill also fosters the development of digital libraries giving
thousands of users simultaneous access to information and the
development of high-speed systems for converting printed text, page
images, graphics and photographic images into electronic form.

   The bill amends the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 by
establishing an advisory committee of non-federal members, including
representatives of the research, elementary and secondary education,
higher education and library communities, consumer and public interest
groups, network providers and the computer, telecommunications and
information industries.

   The Clinton Administration launched the National Information
Infrastructure (NII) initiative in September 1993 to provide "all
Americans with access to information and to communicate with each
other using voice, data, image, or video anytime, anywhere." The
Administration will encourage private sector investment in the
information infrastructure through tax and regulatory policies that
encourage innovation and promote long-term investment.

   The Administration will also try to ensure that information
resources are available to all at affordable prices "to ensure that
all Americans have access to the resources of the Information Age."
The Communications Act of 1934 articulated a national goal of
"universal service" or widespread availability of a basic
telecommunications service at an affordable rate. The Act will be
amended to provide affordable access to advanced communications and
information services regardless of income, disability or location. The
Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information
Administration (NTIA) will hold a series of public hearings on
Universal Service and the NII beginning in Fall 1993.

   The President convened a Federal interagency Information
Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) to work with Congress and the private
sector to propose policies and initiatives needed to accelerate
deployment of a National Information Infrastructure. Three committees
of the IITF have been established: (1) Telecommunications Policy
Committee, which recently created a Working Group on Universal
Service; (2) Information Policy Committee, which has three work
groups: Intellectual Property Rights, Privacy and Government
Information; and (3) Applications Committee, to work with the HPCC
Program to fund new efforts to develop, demonstrate, and promote
applications of information technology in manufacturing, education,
health care, government services, libraries and other areas.

   Implementation of the NII is visible in the FY 1994 budget, which
includes $1.1 billion for the High-Performance Computing and
Communications Initiative, including a new $100 million program to
develop applications in areas such as education, manufacturing,
health, and digital libraries, and $50 million for NTIA grants to
demonstrate the applications of the NII for schools, hospitals and
libraries.