NCLIS to Meet with National Museum Services Board - 1/6/97
For Immediate Release
6 January 1997
For Information Contact
Peter R. Young

NCLIS TO MEET WITH NATIONAL MUSEUM SERVICES BOARD

Washington, D.C. -- As part of its new responsibility to give general policy advice on the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) will meet in early May with the National Museum Services Board. Both groups are to advise the Institute of Museum and Library Services on cooperative efforts between libraries and museums. The first joint session is tentatively set for 7 and/or 8 May in Washington, DC.

The library-museum cooperative efforts are one of four parts of the National Leadership Grants or Contracts section of LSTA. The other three are education and training, research and demonstration, and preservation and digitization.

NCLIS agreed on the joint session and decided other matters when it met 12-13 December 1996 at the Library of Congress. Chairperson Jeanne Hurley Simon named Commissioners Mary Furlong, Frank Lucchino and Bobby Roberts to a committee to work on guidelines and related matters toward the advice the Commission may offer the Institute.

Commissioners also participated in an 11 December "Conversation with Diane Frankel, Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services," with representatives from the American Library Association and the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies. IMLS Director Frankel plans a late February forum (tentatively set for the 24th or 25th) in Washington, DC, to continue discussions with representatives of the library and information communities.

With the passage of Public Law 104-208, Ms. Frankel is an ex-officio member of the National Commission and brings the total number of Commissioners to sixteen. NCLIS is an independent agency, charged by law (P.L. 91-345) to advise the President and Congress on national and international library and information services policies and plans.