ACRL College & Researc Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

Inside Washington

Christopher Wright Assistant Director ALA Washington Office

Autumn always comes with a frenzy to Capitol Hill and this year was no exception. Just after Labor Day the muggy August weather turned abruptly to fall and the city woke up. Suddenly, after a summer that never quite retreated into customary somnolence, it was time to take stock and prepare for a new season.

But September was already on us. In rapid succession the White House invited library representatives and federal officials to meet for coffee and talk, the Senate Rules Committee approved a new Librarian of Congress, ALA asked for a continuation of aid to academic libraries with a special plea for research libraries, and the House Judiciary Committee concluded hearings and began its debate on renovating the copyright laws.

The White House meeting, which brought together some forty library and information science people to talk with the new HEW Secretary David Mathews and Office of Education officials, could be interpreted as a step toward reconciliation by the administration. While no one present is predicting any new enthusiasm for libraries on the part of the budget makers, library participants seemed to feel the discussions had restored communications and had laid the groundwork for more fruitful meetings. One White House aide even conceded over a cup of coffee that the $3 million for a White House Conference on Library and Information Services was not outrageous.

The talks came at a strategic moment. On the same day as the meeting the House voted to override the president’s veto of the FY 1976 education appropriations bill, which includes funds for libraries. And HEW was even then putting the final touches on its FY 1977 budget in preparation for review by the Office of Management and Budget. The question now is whether the White House will decide against trying to impound money in the FY 1976 budget—and whether there will be library money in the FY 1977 budget. But no one is betting a congenial Tuesday at the White House will have such far-reaching effects.

The following day, September 10, the Senate Rules Committee quizzed historian Daniel Boorstin, the president’s selection for Librarian of Congress, on his qualifications for the job and especially on his contract to write a history of the world by 1982. Boorstin assured the panel the 200,000-word one-volume work was well under way and would not detract from his duties as Librarian. Pressed further by Chairman Howard Cannon, who asked which would have to suffer if it came to a toss between his writing and the library, Boorstin swallowed, looked pained, and then whispered into the microphone “my writing, sir.” A week later the committee voted unanimously to approve the appointment, but promised to add language to the committee report stressing the point that being Librarian of Congress is a full-time job.

The next Wednesday ALA asked the House Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education to extend the existing provisions of the Higher Education Act for another five years. Reinforcing ALA’s previous statement to the Senate, Dean Russell Bidlack of the University of Michigan Library School urged the House to continue the basic grant program which buys books and other materials for college libraries and to continue the support for library education, research, and demonstration projects. The dean also asked the committee to consider adding a new Title II–C to the law, now that the Library of Congress has absorbed the National Program for Acquisitions and Cataloging into its own budget authority. Based on a proposal put forward by the Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education, the new title would provide federal money to major research libraries, both academic and public.

The next day Chairman Robert Kastenmeier heard the last public witnesses on omnibus revision of the 1909 copyright law. Kastenmeier’s subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee was still to hear Register of Copyrights Barbara Ringer review the issues brought out by months of hearings at a final session October 2, and then the seven subcommittee members will be on their own to wrestle with their bill. Meanwhile, publishers were gearing up for a massive lobbying effort enlisting the aid of authors to put the arm on members of Congress. Top on the list is a plea that the Senatepassed prohibition against “systematic photocopying” be retained.

At the same time, ACRL’s Committee on Legislation was gearing up for its own fall offensive. A three-page memorandum from committee chairperson Susan Brynteson, sent to the directors of academic libraries in the division, urged librarians to move now to tell their story to members of Congress concerning such matters as copyright, postal and telecommunications rates, and the extension of the Higher Education Act.

It promises to be a busy autumn.