ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


674/C&RL News

Washington
Hotline

Lynne E. Bradley

LSTA passes!
Tremendous thanks are due 
to academic librarians who 
called their congressional 
leaders on behalf o f the Li­
b ra ry  Service and Technol­
ogy Act (LSTA). On Septem­
ber 30, Congress gave final 
approval to H.R. 4278, the 
omnibus funding measure 
putting LSTA on the law 
books for six years and pro­
viding fiscal year 1997 fund­
ing for library and education 
program s and numerous 
government agencies. The president signed the
measure the same evening. This fiscal year $136
million has been agreed upon for LSCA and
HEA II library programs, $8 million more than
Congress was originally expected to approve. 
The total includes $7.5 million for HEA II li­
brary fellowship/training activities ($2.5M) and
research and demonstration projects ($5M).

The new  LSTA is o f special interest to col­
lege and research libraries. Four percent o f any
funds appropriated are to be set aside for na­
tional leadership activities— competitive grants
or contracts for library education and training, 
research and demonstrations, preservation and
digitization, and model joint library/museum
projects. The majority o f the funds were allo­
cated to state library agencies for statewide ser­
vices and subgrants; any use o f funds for eli­
gible technological innovation or outreach
services may involve public, school, academic,
research, or special libraries.

 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 

Drastic changes proposed to FDLP
In September, House Oversight Committee chair 
Bill Thomas (R-CA) introduced H.R. 4280, the 
Government Printing Reform Act o f 1996, a 
major revision o f the sections o f Title 44, United
States Code, applying to government printing, 
procurement, dissemination o f government 
publications, and the Federal Depository Library 
Program (FDLP). The bill would also replace 
the Joint Committees on Printing and the Li­
brary with a Joint Committee on Information.

ALA and the Government Documents Round 
Table are evaluating the 68-page bill for its

Lynne E. Bradley is deputy executive director of 
ALA’s Washington Office; e-mail: leb@alawash.org.

 

p oten tia l im pact on  the 
FDLP and public access to 
govern m en t inform ation. 
Title V  o f H.R. 4280 would 
m ake drastic changes to 
Chapter 19, the law that gov­
erns the FDLP partnership 
that has p ro vided  n o-fee 
public access to government 
information through a na­
tionwide system o f nearly 
1,400 libraries. Other provi­
sions in the bill would af­
fect distribution o f publica­
tions, inclu din g the U.S. 

Congressional Serial Set, to depository librar­
ies.

Some o f the highlights o f H.R. 4280 as pro­
posed would:

• Strike from the law the statutory author­
ity for designation o f depository libraries by 
senators and representatives and by statute. 
Language in the bill could be interpreted to 
intend that libraries designated before January 
1997 could continue as depositories.

• Eliminate (apparently) the statutory au­
thority for a congressional appropriation to fund 
the distribution o f publications to depository 
libraries that are requisitioned through GPO. It 
is not clear whether this would also eliminate 
the appropriation for staff and other support 
for the program.

• Give the Superintendent o f Documents 
(SuDoc) permission to obtain government pub­
lications from “issuing components,” including 
the dissemination and republication o f govern­
ment publications, with the costs to be borne 
by the federal government entity involved. No 
mechanism for securing payment is provided.

• Eliminate statutory language requiring 
permanent retention o f government publica­
tions by some depositories. Instead o f getting 
permission from regional libraries to dispose 
o f publications after five years, selected deposi­
tories could dispose o f them only in accordance 
with regulations established by SuDoc and ap­
proved by the Joint Committee on Information.

To find H.R. 4280 on the Web, connect to 
either GPO Access <w w w .gpo.gov/> or Tho­
mas <thomas.loc.gov/>. Users without Internet 
connection can g o  to one o f many depository 
libraries offering public access workstations able 
to connect to GPO Access. ■

http://www.gpo.gov/
mailto:leb@alawash.org


November 1996/675