For Immediate Release
July 17, 2001
For Information Contact
Woody Horton
Washington, DC - On June 29, 2001, the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) hosted a meeting at its office in Washington, D.C. for the purpose of interchanging ideas, experiences, plans, and practices, between selected key U. S. Public and private sector institutions and organizations responsible for developing or operating U.S. public information web portals, and their counterpart European Commission (EC) officials who were visiting the United States.
Nearly two dozen librarians, information professionals, and information technology professionals, representing U.S government, academia, business and industry, and State and local government organizations, met with Mary Rowlatt and Rob Davies, the two key EC officials responsible for planning, designing, developing, and bringing into operation online the EC Public Sector Information Network (PSINet is the acronym, but there is no connection to the U.S. company with the same name.)
Among those major U.S. public information portal participants represented were the Library of Congress, GPO Access, NTIS FedWorld, STATUSA, FirstGov, National Library of Medicine, the Defense Technical Information Center, and others. Representatives from private industry included Microsoft, AOL, and IBM. Also present were officials of the Software and Information Industry Association.
The meeting with EC officials was part of NCLIS plans for activating new, and extending existing direct U.S. library and information professional contacts globally. Global contacts include selected foreign governmental organizations such as the National Library Board of Singapore, as well as intergovernmental organizations such as UNESCO and the European Union. Also included are international non-government organizations such as the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), the International Council of Archives (ICA), and the International Standard Serials Numbering (ISSN) programme.
The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science is a permanent, independent agency of the Federal government charged by Public Law 91-345 to appraise the adequacies and deficiencies of current library and information resources and services and to advise the President and Congress on national and international library and information policies and plans.
NCLIS, June 29, 2001 Attendance List |
| Morning Session (Government, Academia, Public Interest Groups, Prof.Soc.) |
| Name | Organization |
| Tom Bold | National Technical Information Service/ US Dept. of Commerce |
| Joan Challinor | NCLIS |
| Eliot Christian | US Geological Survey |
| Tom Connors | National Public Broadcasting Archives |
| Nancy Davenport | Library of Congress |
| Rob Davis | MDR Partners |
| Miriam Drake | Georgia Institute of Technology Library/ Georgia Tech University |
| TC Evans | US Government Printing Office |
| Woody Horton | NCLIS |
| Susan O'Neill Johnson | The World Bank |
| Alan Vander Mallie | International Trade Administration/US Dept. of Commerce |
| Patrice McDermott | OMB Watch |
| Kurt Molholm | DTIC |
| Kenneth Nero | National Labor Relations Board |
| Sylvia Piggott | IMF/World Bank |
| William H. Price | Information Systems Consultant |
| Mary Rowlatt | Community Information Coordinator |
| Elliot R. Siegel | NIH/ National Library of Medicine |
| Susan M. Tarr | Library of Congress |
| Wendy L. Thomas | Minnesota Population Center |
| Robert S. Willard | NCLIS |
| Forrest Williams | STAT-USA/ US Dept. of Commerce |
| Afternoon Session Attendees (Private Sector, Trade Associations) |
| Chris Burns | Christopher Burns, Inc. |
| Joan Challinor | NCLIS |
| Eliot Christian | US Geological Survey |
| Rob Davies | MDR Partners |
| Miriam Drake | Georgia Institute of Technology Library/Georgia Tech University |
| Dan Duncan | Information Policy Consultant |
| Edith Holmes | The CXO Advisory Group, LLC |
| Woody Horton | NCLIS |
| Wayne Kelly | Former Superintendent of Documents/US GPO |
| Steve LeCompte | The CXO Advisory Group, LLC |
| David Leduc | Software & Information Industry |
| Al Linden | Acton Burnell |
| Eric Massant | Reed Elsevier, Inc. |
| William H. Price | Information Systems Consultant |
| Margery Reynolds | E-Government Program Manager |
| Mary Rowlatt | Essex County Council |
| Robert S. Willard | NCLIS |