ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 4 7 6 / C & R L N e w s ■ J u n e 1 9 9 9 Lynn E. B ra d ley NEH/NEA a p p ro p ria tio n s In cre ase d fu n d in g is b e in g s o u g h t fo r the N a tio n a l E n d o w m e n t o f th e H u m a n itie s (N E H ) a n d th e N atio n a l E n d o w m e n t o f the Arts (N EA ). Library a dvocates are e n co urag e d to ask th e ir co ng re ssio nal representatives a n d senators to fu n d th e N E H a n d N EA at $150 m illio n each. N E H is r e q u e s t in g $ 1 5 0 m illio n fo r F Y 2 000 , a n in cre ase o f $40 m illio n fro m F Y 1999. F o r several years N E H h as b e e n fu n d e d at $110 m illio n . In FY1996 th e ir b u d ­ get w as c u t b y 36 percent. D u rin g a late A pril h e a rin g b e fo re th e H o u s e A p p ro p ria tio n s S ubc o m m itte e o n th e Interior, W illia m Ferris, ch a ir o f N E H testified th a t th e extra fu n d s req ue sted for FY2000 w o u ld h e lp offset som e o f th a t loss. H e re m in d e d th e su b c o m m itte e th a t ne xt year w ill m ark N E H ’s 35th a n n iv e r­ sary a n d th a t th is b u d g e t re q u e st “place s p a rticu la r e m p h asis o n the e d u c a tio n a l m is­ s io n o f th e a g e n c y .” N E H e d u c a t io n a l p r o g r a m s in c lu d e teacher sem inars a n d institutes th a t im p ro v e te a c h in g a n d le a r n in g o f th e h u m a n itie s , d o c u m e n ta ry te le v is io n /film s , m u se u m ex­ h ib itio n s , lib rary re ad in g g ro ups, a n d projects th at h e lp out-of-school a d u lts e n g ag e in life­ lo n g le arning . R ep. R a lp h R e g u la (R - O h io ), chair o f the su b c o m m itte e , to ld Ferris th a t the reality o f tig h t b u d g e t caps this year w ill m ak e it d iffi­ c u lt to g ive N EH extra fu n d s. O th e r m e m ­ bers o n th e p a n e l o ffe re d po sitiv e rem arks re g a rd in g the jo b Ferris is d o in g a n d stated th e y w o u ld lik e N E H to receive th e fu n d in g req ue sted . B ill Ivey , N EA c h a ir since 1998 a n d fo rm er d irector o f th e C o u n try M u sic F o u n d a tio n for 27 years, testified b e fo re th e s u b co m m itte e fo r th e first tim e . N EA also req ue sted $150 m illio n in FY2000, a n increase o f $52 m illio n fro m FY1999. “C h alle n g e A m e ric a ” is o n e o f th e n e w m a jo r N EA initiative s fo r the ne xt year. These grants w ill target c o m m u n itie s th at lack a sig- Lynne E. Bradley is d e p u ty e xecu tive d ire c to r o f ALA's W ashington Office; e-mail: leb@alawash.org n ific a n t arts presence. “C h alle n g e A m e ric a ” b u ild s o n k e y objectives o f ArtsREACH, w h ic h w as set u p to streng the n arts activity in the 20 states w ith the few est direct N EA grants. R e g u la re c o g n ize d th a t N E A w as striving to b e co m e a m ore a cco u ntable agency in h o w it uses fe de ral fu n d s a n d d istrib u te grants. H e reiterated his state m e nt th a t the request w ill b e d iffic u lt to fu lfill d u e to the tig h t b u d ­ g et caps. A lth o u g h such increases in a p p ro p ria tio n s are very to u g h in this clim ate, there is a b rig h t note. A t this w ritin g , a h e a rin g o n th e reau­ th o riz a tio n o f N E A /N E H is n o w s c h e d u le d fo r M ay 27. T here are in d ic a tio n s fro m som e c o ng re ssio n al representatives th at the battles o f th e p ast are o ver a n d th a t there is h o p e fo r re a u th o riza tio n occu rring . A c tio n n e e d e d : Please co ntact y o u r m e m ­ bers o f C ongress a n d ask h im o r h e r to fu n d N EA a n d N E H at $150 m illio n each. G iv e ex­ am p le s o f h o w y o u o r y o u r co lle g e o r u n i­ versity h a v e u s e d a g rant fro m o n e o f these agencies. A sk th e m also to s u p p o rt re a u th o ­ riz a tio n o f b o th e n d o w m e n ts . If y o u n e e d furth er in fo rm a tio n re g a rd in g co ng re ssio nal a p p ro p ria tio n s fo r lib rary pro g ram s o r o the r a c a d e m ic pro gram s o r a b o u t th e N E H /N E A r e a u t h o r iz a t io n , p le a s e c o n t a c t M a ry C o stabile, at (80 0) 941-8478 or e-mail: mrc@ alaw ash .o rg . D M C A concerns rise N o w that the D ig ital M ille n n iu m C o pyrig ht Act (D M C A ) is law , several libraries report receiv­ in g threatening letters fro m co ntent providers citing the D M C A a n d c o m p la in in g a b o u t in ­ frin g in g activities o n the Internet. T hese letters have o fte n b e e n sp e cifically ad dresse d to institu tio n s th at h ave registered w ith th e C o p y rig h t O ffic e as O n lin e Service P roviders (O S P s), a n d som e h ave b e e n very b ro a d a n d g e n e ra l in th e ir a lle g a tio n s . In particular, o u r le g a l experts advise us that the letters m ay n o t b e fra m e d a p p ro p ria te ly o r c o n ta in su ffic ie n t d e ta il a b o u t the c la im e d in frin g in g sites to q u a lify as a fo rm a l n o tifi­ c a tio n r e q u ir in g a c tio n to c o m p ly w ith (c o n tin u e d o n p a g e 4 8 1 ) W a s h i n g t o n H o t l i n e mailto:leb@alawash.org C & R L N e w s ■ J u n e 1 9 9 9 / 4 7 7 C &RL N e w s ■ J u n e 1 9 9 9 / 4 8 1 the database.— Teresa Fishel, M acale ste r C o l­ lege; fishel@ m acalester.edu G o o g le ! S e a r c h E n g in e . Access: h ttp :// w w w .g o o g le .c o m . C hances are that y o u have never he ard o f the G o o g le ! search e n g ine . It is n o t a m ajo r player in the W e b search e n g ine gam e, a n d m ost o f its p ro m o tio n has h a d to rely o n w o rd o f m o u th . T oo b ad , because G oo g le ! offers p o w e rfu l searching features, a stream line d e ­ sign, a n d ease o f use th at m ak e it a v a lu a b le research tool. A t first glance, its sim ple user interface can be m isle ad ing . W h a t goes o n b e h in d the scenes o f this search e n g ine is actually q u ite sophisticated. G oogle! is the o utco m e o f three years o f research in W e b searching at the Stanford University C o m p ute r Science D epart­ m ent b y its fo und ers, Sergey B rin a n d Larry Page. E ach search lo o k s at “over a b illio n h y p e rlink s” o n the W e b to see w h o is p o in t­ in g to w h o m , w ith the id e a th at im p o rtant W e b pages p o in t to o th e r im p o rta n t W eb pages. T he real beau ty o f G o o g le ! th o u g h , for librarians w h o teach users h o w to search the W eb, is in its front-end d esign a n d search­ in g features. T he first th in g y o u w ill n o tic e a b o u t G oo gle ! is w h a t’s n o t there. N o clutter. U n ­ lik e Infose ek, Excite, LYCO S, a n d som e o f the o the r m ajo r portals, this search e n g ine is le an a n d clean. There are n o u n w a n te d a d ­ vertisem ents, teasers, o r distracting lin k s, just a sim p le b o x fo r y o u r search query, a c o u p le o f buttons, a n d a n o p tio n to learn m ore a b o u t G oo g le ! a n d w h a t it can d o . T hat’s it. Like m a n y o n lin e lib rary catalo g s a n d p e rio d ic a l indexes, G o o g le ! assum es A N D betw e en search term s inste ad o f O R . In m ost o ther W eb search engine s, it’s the o the r w ay a ro u n d . G o o g le ! ig n o re s c o m m o n w o rd s (sto p w o rd s) such as “th e ” a n d “o f,” a n d it does n o t stem w ords. If y o u are searching fo r c o lo n cancer, y o u w ill n o t retrieve pages d e a lin g w ith co lo nie s o r co lo ne ls w ith c an ­ cer, that is, unless they in fact m e n tio n colon cancer. G oogle! is n o t perfect. It does n o t o f­ fer truncation o r true B o ole an searching, but it does offer som e other nice search features. Ju st lik e w ith any n e w search e n g ine , y o u s h o u ld alw ays read the h e lp screens before d iv in g in. G oo g le ! uses som e o f the sam e searching techniques y o u have com e to k n o w w h e n u sing the ad v a nc e d search m o d es in AltaVista, LYCOS, a n d others. O perators such as the d o u b le q u o ta tio n m arks ( “ “) that a l­ lo w y o u to search fo r b o u n d phrases, a n d the plu s sign ( “+”) a n d m in u s sign ( “-”) that a llo w y o u to require a n d p ro h ib it term s are all here. There is n o “ad v ance d search” m o d e w ith G oo g le ! The sing le search m o d e recog­ nizes a ll o f these operators. S o m e th in g u n iq u e to G o o g le ! is the “I ’m Feeling Lucky” b u tto n . C licking this a u to m ati­ cally takes y o u to the first W eb pag e returned fo r y o u r query. Som e students a n d librarians I k n o w sw ear b y it. T he lib rarian a n d p u r­ veyor o f critical th in k in g in m e m akes m e suspect. Y o u b e the judge. Search engines are getting better. Increas­ ingly, students an d other library users w an t to k n o w h o w to pe rform exact W e b searches, rather th an sift th ro ug h a th o u san d or so W eb pages. Search engines like G oogle! present an alternative to the m ajor com m ercial portals that cater to less selective users w h o search the Internet prim arily for recreation. G o o g le í’s fo ­ cus o n the searcher a n d no-nonsense design m ake it a useful instructional tool for librar­ ians.— B ry an S in clair, U niversity o f N orth C aro­ lin a a t Asheville; sin clair@ b u lld o g .u n ca.e d u ■ (W a s h in g to n H o tlin e c o n t. fro m p a g e 4 7 6 ) the D M C A safe h a rb o r p ro visio ns fo r OSPs. O f course each institu tio n needs to evaluate these letters o n a case-by-case basis as it re­ ceives th em , a n d at all tim es co nsu lt its legal co u n se l w h e n fram ing its response. T he O ffic e o f In fo r m a tio n T e c h n o lo g y P olicy is c o n tin u in g to m o n ito r the im p le ­ m e n tatio n o f the D M C A a n d to d e v e lo p m ore d e taile d interpretations o f its very h a zy a n d c o m p le x pro visio ns as they evolve. Y o u can h e lp b y se n d in g us exam ples o f letters or o ther contacts citin g the act that y o u m ay receive fro m the co nte n t providers, as w e ll as le tting us k n o w h o w y o u re sp o n d e d to th em . C o ntact R ick W eingarten, director o f the ALA O ffice o f In fo rm a tio n T e chnology P olicy, 1301 P ennsylvania A ve., N W , Suite 403, W ashington, D .C . 20004 or p h o n e (800) 941-8478 o r e-mail: rw w @ alaw ash.org. ■ mailto:fishel@macalester.edu http://www.google.com mailto:sinclair@bulldog.unca.edu mailto:rww@alawash.org