ARLIS/NA Public Policy Committee: Members

TO: ARLIS/NA Executive Board
FROM: Public Policy Committee Co-Chairs: Hinda Sklar & Katherine Poole
RE: PUBLIC POLICY COMMITTEE - PROGRESS REPORT
DATE: August 2, 1996

The ARLIS/NA Public Policy Committee is building on its successful first meeting in Miami on April 27. The committee membership is as follows: Susan Davi (Head, Collection Development, University of Delaware Library); William B. Keller (Resources Services Librarian, Johns Hopkins University); Natalia Lonchyna (Senior Reference Librarian, Ryerson & Burnham Libraries, Art Institute of Chicago); Pat M. Lynagh (Assistant Librarian, National Museum of American Art, National Portrait Gallery); Jill Patrick (Director, Library/AV Services, Ontario College of Art); Stephen A. Patrick (Head, Documents/Law/Maps Dept., East Tennessee State Univ.); Katherine Poole (Rotch Visual Collections Librarian, M.I.T.); Barbara Rottenberg (Director of Policy, Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN)); Hinda Sklar (Assoc. Dean for Information Services, Loeb Library, Harvard Graduate School of Design); Pat Taylor Thompson (Head, Art Library, Michigan State University); and Sarah Travis (Visual Resources Dept., Frances Loeb Library, Harvard Graduate School of Design). The Board Liaison is Maryly Snow.

A decision was made to liaison with the following committees ARLIS/NA: Collection Development Committee, Cultural Diversity Committee (P. Thompson), International Relations Committee, North American Relations Committee, Standards Committee, Technology Education Committee, Technology Relations Committee. In addition we will liaison with the VRA Ad Hoc Committee on Intellectual Property Rights (K. Poole). Liaisons are being nominated from each committee and we will work to establish ways of addressing mutual concerns.

At the first meeting it was agreed that ARLIS/NA would respond to the US Copyright's Office's suggestion that ARLIS/NA be represented in the Committee on Fair Use (CONFU) hearings on Digital Images in Washington, DC. The search for a representative included many discussions, contacts and a request from the Public Policy Committee and Visual Resources Division posted on May 13 to ARLIS-L, but with no results until late May when Gregory P.J. Most, from the National Gallery of Art Slide Library, agreed to represent ARLIS/NA. He has been attending the hearings ever since and during this time he has received input on the guidelines from interested ARLIS/NA reviewers such as Norine Duncan and Henry Pisciotta.

The CONFU participants hope that the draft on digital images will be completed by the general meeting in September, and that all fair use guidelines will be completed by November. The current draft, titled "Educational Fair Use Guidelines for Digital Images," was issued on July 1, 1996, and has been posted on the CAA web page (http://alberti.mit.edu/caa/The_Profession/CEI/confu11.html ). On July 9 the Public Policy Committee issued a request on ARLIS-L for comments on the draft noting that we are particularly interested in hearing from visual resource professionals. As yet we have only a few responses from the ARLIS/NA membership. The Committee plans to consider all relevant input, including a report from our CONFU representative and feedback from the Visual Resources Division, in developing the recommendations on the CONFU guidelines. It is interesting to note that although several groups have signed off on the draft already, some groups such as CAA and VRA have elected not to and are rejecting the guidelines. The Committee's goal is to bring a summary of the draft along with the recommendations to the Executive Board, through our Board Liaison, Maryly Snow, by the end of August, in time for the Sept. 4 and Sept. 6 CONFU meetings.

The Public Policy Committee chairs will be working with our Board Liaison, Maryly Snow, to determine procedures for coordinating ARLIS/NA responses to key issues that arise. The possibility of the Public Policy Committee having signature authority on responses that have very immediate deadlines is to be discussed. Thus far the committee has sent out several responses to time sensitive legislative issues directly affecting the support for libraries, for example funding for libraries and library-related initiatives.. These issues appeared clear cut and included: 1) call for expanded representation during negotiating sessions on the topic of on-line service provider liability, NII Copyright Protection Act of 1995 [Feb. 27, 1996]; 2) call for inclusion of libraries in the wording of the US Dept of Education's draft document, "Building on What We've Learned: Developing Priorities for Educational Research," the blueprint for funding of educational R&D resources for the next 5-15 years [August 3, 1996]; and 3) endorsement of support, ex. proposed Kerrey amendment, to restore funding to TIIAP, NTIA's Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program (Senate had zeroed out the budget for this program) [August 2, 1996]. For more controversial issues a different approach could be developed, for example letters, recommendations or position statements could be composed by the Committee, sent to the Executive Board for review and acted upon as approved, amended or directed.

Several Public Policy Committee members are continuing to monitor various resources on legislative issues which might be of concern and are selectively forwarding these alerts to ARLIS-L, for example, Stephen Patrick has sent out several ALAWON bulletins recently. The Committee plans to poll the membership to solicit feedback on priorities and areas of concern. It is clear, however, that the Committee will be concentrating its energies on the CONFU hearings for the near future.

The Committee's Web page has been designed and mounted by committee member, Sarah Travis, and is now available at two locations on the ARLIS/NA Homepage: Committees & Appointments (http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/arlis/04.cmtes.html) and Information Policy & Law Resources (http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/arlis/08p.law.html). This page provides information on the committee and much useful information on resources and many links to significant Web pages.

The Committee plans to participate in an AskARLIS session at the annual conference in San Antonio which will focus on reviewing the work of the external relations committees. The program proposal was entered by NARC/IRC.

Respectfully submitted by,

Hinda F. Sklar
Katherine Poole
Co-Chairs
Public Policy Committee

Changes last made on: March 17, 1998