NCC Washington Update, Vol. 2, #10, March 27, 1996
by Page Putnam Miller, Director of the National Coordinating
Committee for the Promotion of History <pagem@CAPACCESS.ORG>
1. Access to The Nixon Tapes
2. Reauthorization of The Institute for Museum Services
3. Senate Copyright Hearing Postponed
4. Historic Preservation Hearing
5. Omnibus Spending Bill
6. Working Group on Interlibrary Loan Meets
1. Access to Nixon Tapes -- In a New York Times article on March 27
Tim Weiner reported that after decades of litigation an agreement may
soon be reached in the litigation over the release of the Nixon tapes.
Of the almost 4,000 hours of tapes made from February 1971 to July
1973, only 63 hours have thus far been released. Although the
National Archives completed its review of these tapes in 1987 and
determined those portions that should be withheld for personal and
privacy reasons, access to the tapes has been bogged down in seemingly
endless litigation and negotiations between the National Archives and
Nixon and his family. Weiner states that a settlement may be reached
by next month; yet he notes that it will probably "lead to the tapes'
slow and inexorable release." Although the terms of the settlement
are unclear, indications are that it will probably involve re-
reviewing of tapes, and some close to the case estimate that it will
still be a number of years before the public has access to all the
tapes. The 1974 law which established the federal government's claim
to these tapes stated that the National Archives was to make them
available to the public "at the earliest reasonable date."
2. Reauthorization of Institute for Museum Services -- A small
portion of S. 143, the Workforce Development Act, deals with the
authorization of the Institute of Museum and LibrarServices. While
the reauthorization of the Institute for Museum Services is also a
part of the Senate bill that includes the reauthorization of NEH and
NEA, it appears that legislation will not be passed in this Congress.
However, the Workforce Development Act and its parallel bill in the
House, H.R. 1617, the Careers Act, are now in Conference Committee,
and its passage seems quite likely.
3. Senate Copyright Hearing Postponed -- The Senate Judiciary
Committee had planned to hold a hearing on March 27 for public
witnesses to testify on S.1284, the National Information
Infrastructure Copyright Protection Act, a bill to adapt copyright law
to the digital, networked environment of the information highway. Due
to consideration of the Wilderness Bill, the hearing was postponed
until late April. The hearing will include testimony from about five
witnesses, including Robert Oakley of the American Association of Law
Libraries, who has been a participant in the meetings of the
Conference on Fair Use (CONFU) and who will address "fair use" issues.
The Senate Judiciary Committee anticipates holding additional hearings
on this matter in May.
4. Historic Preservation Hearing -- On March 20, the House National
Parks Subcommittee, chaired by Representative James Hansen (R-UT),
held a hearing to consider several bills, including one reauthorizing
the Advisory Council on Historic Preservtion. There was concern
expressed about how to streamline the Council's 106 process, but even
industry witnesses who had some problems with the 106 process
supported the reauthorization of the Council.
5. Omnibus Spending Bill -- The House and Senate are currently
meeting in Conference to work on the details of the Omnibus Spending
Bill. On Friday, March 29, funding will expire for those agencies for
which Congress has yet to pass appropriations bills. The Congress
hopes to pass and send to the President by March 29 the Omnibus
Spending Bill which includes funding for the rest of this fiscal ar
for those agencies without appropriations bills. The House version of
this bill does includes an amendment introduced by Representative
Ernest Istook (R-OK) that calls for the addition of extensive record
keeping requirements for nonprofit organizations that receive federal
grants.
6. Working Group on Interlibrary Loan Meets -- On March 27 the
Conference on Fair Use's (CONFU) Working Group on Interlibrary Loan
held a meeting to seek a better understanding of how interlibrary loan
would work in the digital era. There was a wide-ranging discussion of
current interlibrary loan traffic and costs, of the responsibilities
of requesting and supplying libraries, of the value of interlibrary
loan to students and faculty, of the relationship of a library's
interlibrary loan offices with its acquisitions office, and of the
fears of publishers of how interlibrary loan in the digital era may
have a negative affect on the market place.
Although many publishers expressed the view that future technologies
andhe increased use of licenses would eliminate the need for
interlibrary loan, the library and scholarly representatives asserted
that there would continue to be a need for interlibrary loan in the
future for interlibrary loan provides access to material that is hard
to find, a significant amount of which can no longer be purchased.
Despite the differing viewpoints, the sharing of information proved
useful.
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