ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Washington Hotline

Carol C. Henderson

Reinventing government

The September report of Vice-President Gore’s National Performance Review, “From Red Tape to Results: Creating a Government That Works Better & Costs Less,” described hundreds of actions and recommendations designed to cut red tape and produce better government for less cost. Information technology and electronic government were emphasized. Details are gradually becoming known, and supplementary reports are expected. This column highlights two areas of recommendations that would have a profound effect on library services and on public access to government information.

Library program eliminations

The report recommends elimination or consolidation of more than 40 Department of Education programs and freeing up resulting savings for use in other educational programs. The report cites the HEA Act II-C research library program as an example of a program that has served its original purpose, and says university endowments should be used to build library collections. In fact, the II-C program is designed to help major research libraries make their resources more accessible to users outside their own primary clientele—an appropriate federal role. The administration was poised, as this column was written, to submit a request to Congress to rescind or defund all FY94 funds just appropriated for a number of ED programs. The six library programs on the rescission list include, in addition to LSCA public library construction and library literacy programs, all currently funded HEA II programs (see table).

The administration is highlighting libraries as a key element in its “National Information Infrastructure: Agenda for Action” (see Pat Wand’s article in this issue). However, the National Performance Review would eliminate most programs targeted to assist libraries to use electronic technologies and networks to develop, access, and share resources. The requested library program eliminations, proposed earlier in Clinton’s FY94 budget, have already been rejected by Congress. These proposals are not a new “reinventing government” idea, but a resurrection of previous administrations’ unsuccessful attempts to eliminate libraries from Department of Education priorities. The ACRL Legislative Network was among the groups being called to action.

Government printing & depository library program

The report’s recommendation to “Eliminate the Government Printing Office’s Monopoly” is a continuation of a long-standing controversy over government printing policy. Implementation would require Congress to amend Title 44 printing requirements, and ignores the fact that the GPO already contracts out most executive-branch printing. Following a recommendation to assure public access to federal information, the report states: “Give the executive branch agencies responsibility for distributing printed federal information to depository libraries. Require agencies to inventory the federal information they hold, and make it accessible to the public.” After seeing a draft of the “reinventing support services” section, ALA President Hardy Franklin wrote to Vice-President Gore to tell him of ALA’s concerns about the printing recommendations. Franklin said the radical restructuring of the Depository Library Program called for requires evaluation and thorough examination before going forward, and pointed out that the proposed decentralization would result in increased costs and less efficiency for all participants: “There would be neither a single point of access to publications for depository libraries, nor a single mechanism for administering the Depository Library Program.” ■

Carol C. Henderson is deputy executive director of ALA’s Washington Office; bitnet: cch@alawash.org