A.)  Congress' Initiatives

        The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) is
pleased to submit this statement on public access to government information in
the 21st century.  Because of its mission and history, summarized below, NCLIS
appreciates the complexity of the issues of continuing public access to
information while using and encouraging technological advances. NCLIS also
appreciates Congress' initiatives, including this hearing and last year's
legislative directives to examine the depository library program and legislative
information systems.

        The Members of the National Commission believe that recent advances in
electronic information and communications technologies can increase and improve
public access to and use of government information.  Thank you for the
opportunity to address issues central to the success of our democracy.

B.  The Role of the National Commission

        The National Commission was established in 1970 (P.L. 91-345) as an
independent, executive-branch agency to advise the President and the Congress on
national and international policies and plans related to libraries and
information services.  NCLIS conducts studies, surveys and analyses that
appraise the adequacies and deficiencies of current library and information
services in order to provide recommendations and advice to federal, state, local
and private agencies.

        Fourteen Commissioners are appointed by the President and confirmed by the
Senate for five-year terms. The Librarian of Congress is the 15th Commissioner.
Only five NCLIS members are professional librarians or information
professionals; the others have special competence or interest in the needs of
our society for library and information services.  As a citizens' advisory body,
NCLIS represents the public's interest and therefore wants to see that the
public is guaranteed open, uninhibited access to information created, compiled
and maintained by the federal government.

        NCLIS is a micro agency, with an annual appropriated budget of less than $1
million.

C.  NCLIS' Principles of Public Information

        Policy issues related to information access have been central to NCLIS
throughout its history.  In the 1970's NCLIS published the Rockefeller report,
National Information Policy, (1) which called for a coordinated national
information policy.  The rationale for this report was stated as follows:

        "A great number of public policy questions are being generated by advances
in computer and communications technology, by shifts in the United States
economy from a manufacturing to an information base, and by citizen demands for
clarification of their rights to have and control information."

        These same information policy concerns are central to public access to
government information in the 21st century.  Over the last two decades NCLIS has
studied many of the Rockefeller report's public policy questions.  One example
is the series of meetings and responding to the Office of Technology
Assessment's 1988 report, Informing the Nation:  Federal Information
Dissemination in an Electronic Age, (2) and resulting in NCLIS' 1990 issuance of
the "Principles of Public Information."

        In addition to information policy, the Commission has addressed the impact
of information technologies on libraries and information services, the evolving
roles of U.S. libraries, technical standards for a national network, and the
interactions of the public and private sectors in providing information
services.  Since 1988 NCLIS has worked with the National Center for Education
Statistics to improve the collection and use of statistics for academic, public,
state, school and federal libraries.

        The Commission's statute (P.L. 91-345) was amended in 1991 by P.L. 102-95 to
include the following function in Section 5 (a)(6):

        "The Commission shall....promote research and development activities which
will extend and improve the Nation's library and information handling capability
as essential links in the national and international communications and
cooperative networks."

        With this clarified authority, the Commission has recently sponsored studies
which form the basis for projecting library roles in an integrated,
multi-dimensional, technology-intensive, dynamic information environment of the
next decade.


D.)  Recent Research by NCLIS on Library Networking and the Internet

        Since the 1991 White House Conference on Libraries and Information Services,
NCLIS has sponsored programs and studies on implementing Conference
recommendations relating libraries with information network technologies.  The
first was a 10 March 1992 open forum to hear views of various groups on the
Conference recommendations.  A second open forum, 20-21 July 1992, identified
and clarified concerns of the library and information services community, both
as providers of information to be carried on the National Research and Education
Network and as creators of network-based information resources.

        One clear, consistent message from NCLIS' activities on the roles of library
and information services in the emerging national networked information
infrastructure is the need for reliable and current national and state
statistics on the extent of libraries' use of the Internet and network
services.

        While many libraries in colleges, universities and research institutes use
the Internet/NII/GII via campus links, many public libraries are in the early
stages with advanced communications and information services and networks such
as the Internet.  Current and longitudinal statistics on public libraries' use
of the Internet and analysis of their potential as network service providers for
the public are required to plan effectively to deploy advanced communications
and information infrastructure.

        In 1994 NCLIS sponsored research into the nature and extent of public
libraries' involvement with the Internet and online information services.  The
June 1994 report (3) has been widely distributed and cited and is a basis for
bills to update the Library Services and Construction Act.  The Public Libraries
and the Internet report was also the foundation for two NCLIS briefings on
libraries and the information superhighway, 21-22 September 1994.  In the first
briefing 15 state library agencies reported on statewide projects; the second
focused on federal networking activities and initiatives.

        A 1995 Commission study (4) was the basis for the work of the National
Information Infrastructure Advisory Council's MegaProject II on the costs of
involving schools, libraries and community centers in the NII. (5)

        From January-March 1996 NCLIS sponsored a second survey of public libraries
and the Internet.  Preliminary findings are summarized as follows:

*       Connectivity increased rapidly, by 113% overall (from 20.9% to 44.6%) since
1994.
*       Discrepancies in connectivity based on size of population appear to have
increased from 1994 to 1996, despite overall increases in public libraries'
connections.
*       Public libraries serving populations under 5,000 are much (58.6%) less
likely to be connected to the Internet than libraries serving populations from
100,000 to 1 million +.
*       Regions differ significantly in rates of public library-Internet
connectivity and Internet-based service offerings.
*       39.6% of the 55.4% of public libraries without Internet connections indicate
no plans for connecting to the Internet in the next 12 months.
*       For public libraries not connected in 1996, those serving smaller
populations are more likely not to be planning Internet connection in the next
12 months.
*       More than 60% of U.S. public libraries could be connected to the Internet by
1997.
*       Discrepancies among public libraries' connections and uses of the Internet
relate to
*       the extent of connectivity
*       the type of connectivity
*       connectivity costs, and
*       the provision of public access to the Internet.
*       In smaller communities of 25,000 or less, the public library may provide the
only means for the public Internet access.

        More detailed findings from this study are available on the Commission's
World Wide Web site. (6) NCLIS regards this type of current statistical
information about the rapid changes, new capabilities and discrepancies in
libraries as essential to effective planning for the public's electronic access
to all types of information, including government information.  The Commission
therefore expects to continue to sponsor such research and to encourage others
to extend and expand their work as well, with the aim of having up-to-date,
reliable statistics on all types of libraries at all times.


(E.)  Forecasts, Computer Technology

        As stated above, the Members of the National Commission believe that
advances in electronic information and communications technologies can increase
and improve public access to and use of government information.

        We also see a world where printed information and digital information
co-exist for a long time to come, in libraries generally and with the federal
government as well.  The proportions will shift, and governments and libraries
at all levels are getting ready to deal with the shifts, as shown in the above
projection that by next year more than 60% of the nation's public libraries
could be connected to the Internet.

        A general projection is that the technological advances of the last 5 to 10
years will not just continue but could multiply in the coming decade.  Any
resulting structure, however, is difficult to forecast, as the National Research
Council's report, The Unpredictable Certainty, pointed out:  ". . .the search
for a holy grail of information infrastructure does not lead anywhere, but
everywhere." (7)  The report also declared that the nation's information
infrastructure ". . .exists today but is and will always be in a state of flux."
(8)


(F.)  Forecasts, User Demographics

        User demographics could lead everywhere as well.  The end user of government
information could be considered everybody in the country, especially if a more
inclusive concept of government information is employed, in which we also
include the varied uses students can make of government information.

        Regardless of the number and variety of users, they are likely in the coming
years to share some characteristics leading to the following:
Customization or personalization of information services, information packages,
information products;
Expectation that information desired is available quickly and relatively
easily;
Increasing association of the value of the information with the timeliness of
the information;
Instant, seamless mobility and transferability of information packages or
products from one site to another electronically.


G.)  Expanding the Concept of Government Information

        The above statements on technology and users relate to the general
information infrastructure.  However, dynamically those statements apply equally
to the specific topic of federal government information.  Amid these
hydra-headed shifts generally for technology and users, libraries shift too, and
obviously the Federal Depository Library Program does as well.  There appears to
be no end to the changing for any component.
Even using the term transition can be misleading if it implies a fixed,
time-limited passage from one thing to another.

        Continuous change can be brought about by technology and also by deliberate
expansion of a system or program.  For instance, regarding expansion, what if
public school and community college libraries were included in a new world of
depository libraries?  Regarding another type of expansion, how are the
information needs of distance learners to be met, including those of enrollees
of a virtual university like western states are considering?

        As more schools are wired and more students -- in and out of physical
classrooms -- learn with the aid of computers, classrooms and libraries, media
centers and learning resource centers will become more and more important as
distributors of electronic information -- including government information.
Students may not know that the information they are getting online from the
Commission on Civil Rights or the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric
Administration or the Council on Disability or the National Science Foundation
is government information.  However, that does not change the fact that the
government-produced information needs to be as available to students as it is to
the business person, the demographer, the researcher, the physician, the
political scientist.

        We need to think more inclusively about users or potential users of
government information.  We also need to adopt a more inclusive way of thinking
of government information.  The venerable depository collections are primarily
government publications.  However, government information is much more than just
publications.  Government information can also be considered educational
information.  For instance, last year Sen. Warner and Sen. Ford announced the
Senate's Web site as ". . .an improved opportunity to provide educational
information to the public." (9)  NCLIS has a new Web site also and we view ours
as an educational tool too.


H.)  Criteria for Government Information

        The broadest understanding of government information and the widest access
to government information are not, in and of themselves, the goal.  The
government's information must, most of all, be useful, and to be useful it must
also be reliable and applicable.  Government information must be targeted and
focused and perhaps interpreted and re-packaged for the user and potential
user.

        The factor of reliability must be short-term -- that is, is the information
accurate, authentic and authorized -- and long-term -- that is, can the
information be preserved so it will be available 20 or 50 years from now and
will the information that far in the future have been preserved accurately?

        Accessibility, reliability and usability are especially challenging when the
vehicles for delivering the information are changing so rapidly.


I.)  Next Steps

        This statement submitted for the National Commission on Libraries and
Information Science has some general predictions and considerations.  This
statement does not retrace all the information and proposals already gathered by
this Committee, others in Congress, the Government Printing Office and other
parties.  NCLIS does, however, stand ready to assist the Congress, the GPO and
others in understanding how the technological and economic developments
discussed here today are affecting the public's need for information, especially
government information.

        To continue to improve and expand the ways to reach the government's
customers with timely, useful information, we need to know more about a variety
of matters, including

*       Information content that the public needs and wants
*       Information formats that the public needs and wants
*       Current practices and plans of federal departments and agencies for
producing public information
*       Cataloging, indexing and locator tools to manage and access the vast amount
of government information
*       Standards for dependability and interoperability of information and systems
Capabilities and constraints of present depository libraries
*       Effects of public policy developments (e.g., universal service provisions of
new telecommunications law) on dissemination of information, especially in
smaller, rural institutions and areas
*       Shifts in the process and cost of handling information.

        Frequently a transition to a new way of doing something increases costs
during the transition when dual systems --the new and the old -- are run to make
sure that mission-essential work continues to get done while any problems in the
new system are identified and removed.  Application of new technology may, of
course, eventually lead to reduced costs or may, at historically similar cost
levels, bring out significant qualitative improvement in use of information
developed by the government.  A better informed citizenry as well as a better
performing economy can result from improved employment of government
information.

        In fulfilling its role, Congress is concerned about fiscal responsibility
and also about maintaining and improving the national health and wealth.  Thank
you for the opportunity to participate in this important hearing about the
health and wealth that information can foster.

__________________________________
Footnotes:

(1) Domestic Council Committee on the Right of Privacy, Honorable Nelson A.
Rockefeller, Chairman.  National Information Policy:  Report to the President.
Washington, D.C.:  NCLIS, 1976.
(2) Office of Technology Assessment.  Informing the Nation:  Federal Information
Dissemination in an Electronic Age.  Washington, D.C.:  OTA, 1988.
(3) U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science.  Public
Libraries and the Internet:  Study Results, Policy Issues, and Recommendations.
Washington, D.C., June 1994.
(4) U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science.  Internet
Costs and Cost Models for Public Libraries.  Washington, D.C., June 1995.
(5) United States Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure.
KickStart Initiative:  Connecting America's Communities to the Information
Superhighway.  Washington, D.C., January 1996. pp. 96-98.
(6) http://www.nclis.gov -- under Information Policy -- National Information
Infrastructure -- "Reply Comments to the Federal Communications Commission in
the Matter of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, May 7, 1996."
(7) National Research Council.  The Unpredictable Certainty:  Information
Infrastructure through 2000.  Washington, D.C.:  National Academy Press, 1996.
p. 32.
(8) Ibid., p. 4.
(9) Congressional Record, October 20, 1995, S 15372.