ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 5 4 0 /C&RL News ■ M a y 2001 W a s h i n g t o n H o t l i n e Lynne E. Bradley Spring news Issues are flying hot and heavy this spring. Congress and the Bush Administration are in volved in the tax and budget issues, b ut many important library issues are o ut there on the public agenda. • O n March 7, 2001, Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) intro duced a bill to update the distance education provisions o f the Copyright Act to account for advancements in digital transmission technolo gies that support distance learning. The bill, S. 487, is entitled the “Technology Education and Copyright Harmonization Act” (the “TEACH Act”). The new bill closely tracks the recom mendations of the Copyright Office, which ALA w elcom ed as com prehensive and well-bal anced. The ALA Washington Office is continu ing to w ork closely with the Senate Judiciary Committee staff, other Senate staff, and the U.S. Copyright Office as this bill moves through the legislative process. We are also working with our partners in a distance education coa lition to garner additional Senate sponsorship of the bill. • We have b een working successfully for several years to fend off introduction, in either the House of Representatives or the Senate, of a database protection bill. Proponents of data base legislation, however, have repeatedly threatened to introduce legislation along the lines o f one of the bills that was considered by the House in the last congressional session (H.R. 354). O n March 29, Representative Billy Tauzin (R-Louisiana), House Energy and Com m erce Committee chairman, and Representa tive Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin), House Judiciary Committee chairman, announced that their two committees plan to w ork together to produce a database protection bill. They have invited the stakeholders to participate weekly over the next two months in o p en negotia tions on how to approach such legislation. The Washington Office will be a participant in those meetings and will w ork with our coalition part ners o n strategies for the negotiations. Lynne E. Bradley is Office of Government Relations director of ALA'S Washington Office; e-mail: leb@alawash.org • T he “Electronic D issem ination o f G ov ernm ent Publications” study rep o rt w as p u b lished o n March 30 by the G overnm ent Ac counting Office (GAO). The congressionally m andated study exam ines the im pact o f p ro viding d ocum ents solely in electronic for m at an d assesses the feasibility o f transfer ring th e Federal D epository Library program to th e Library o f Congress. As part o f the assessm en t o f the d ep o sito ry library p ro gram, GAO: 1) identified h o w such a trans fer might be accomplished; 2) identified m ea sures that are necessary to en su re the suc cess o f such a transfer; 3) identified w h e n such a transfer m ight optim ally occur; 4) ex am in ed the functions, services an d p ro gram s a n d adm inistrative su p p o rt of the Su p erin ten d en t o f D ocum ents; an d 5) ex am ined and identified th e costs for b o th GPO an d the Library o f Congress. The full report is available online at h ttp ://w w w .g a o .g o v / n e w .item s/d 0 l4 2 8 .p d f. • O n March 27, NCLIS released Volume 2 o f their final report, “A Comprehensive As sessment of Public Information Dissemination,” which includes NCLIS’s proposal to create a n ew executive branch agency to consolidate and administer governm ent information pro grams, such as the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). The NCLIS legis lative and regulatory proposals will be further discussed at ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco, but m any stakeholders from the li brary community have b een lukewarm to the initial ideas. T he re p o rt can b e fo u n d at http://www.nclis.gov/govt/assess/assess.vol2. pdf. • National Library Legislative Day (NLLD) is May 1 this year. We are pleased to learn that ACRL sponsored a special luncheon for the academic librarians participating. Even if you w ere unable to join your respective state del egations at Legislative Day, academic librar ians are encouraged to “talk u p ” library legis lative issues o n cam pus and in the larger aca demic community. For more information about Legislative Day, visit h ttp ://w w w .a la .o rg / washoff/legday.html. ■ mailto:leb@alawash.org http://www.gao.gov/ http://www.ala.org/ The U ltim ate O nline In fo rm atio n Technology Resource! D o y o u r p a t r o n s o r s t a f f w i s h t h e y h a d t h e l a t e s t t e c h n o l o g i c a l d e v e l o p m e n t i n f o r m a t i o n a n d d a t a a t t h e i r f in g e r tip s ? D o t h e y n e e d a r o u n d - t h e - c l o c k a c cess t o a c o m p r e h e n s i v e c o l l e c t i o n o f f o c u s e d I T j o u r n a l s , m a g a z i n e s a n d c o n f e r e n c e s ? I f so, t h e n y o u r i n s t i t u t i o n n e e d s a s u b s c r i p t i o n t o t h e w w w . a c m . o r g / m e m b e r s h i p / l i b r a r y Ï ! 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