Third, that with the help of new technology and with national resolve the disparate collection of libraries and information centers in the United States can become an integrated national system.

Based on these assumptions the Commission's own deliberations have focused on six areas of primary concern:

1. The needs of users.-Library and information needs are felt at all levels of society, regardless of an individual's location, social condition or level of intellectual achievement. Each citizen must feel an identity with the local point of contact for his information and be able to gain access to the pertinent part of the total information resources that interests him.

2. The deficiencies in current services.—Most libraries are crowded and understaffed. They are critically short of money; they are unable to keep pace with current demands; they have little flexibility to undertake new programs.

3. The trend toward cooperative action. In order to keep local programs alive, many libraries have formed cooperatives. Useful as these stop-gap network ar rangements have been, they are not developing according to any national standard. Without technical standards for regional network development we are in "danger of spending money on piecemeal programs that may never connect.

4. The financial base for libraries.-Because of diverse tax structures, some American communities receive library services according to their ability to pay, rather than their need. Millions of Americans who need library service-particularly the under-privileged, the culturally deprived and the geographically remote are not getting it.

5. The potential of new technology. The use of computers in libraries has already been pioneered and the principles of use are now understood but direct application has been minimal. The use of micrographics is increasing, but far from widespread. Some library experiments with telefacsimile and CATV have been fruitful, but there are only a handful of operating systems. While libraries have been acquiring audiovisual materials, there is still some reluctance to give the same attention to non-print forms of information that libraries have given to books.

6. The staffing and manpower needs of libraries and information centers.— New approaches to educational programs will be needed in library science and information science if library technicians, professionals and auxiliary personnel are to learn to plan, to creatively manage and operate and to function in non-traditional ways in our libraries and information centers.

Since libraries and information centers in the United States are not developing according to any national plan, their growth continues to be uneven and uncohesive. A new philosophy of library and information service is needed, one based on a common sense of direction and purpose and a commitment to national cooperative action.

What the National Commission proposes is a new national program for accomplishing an organizational and technological upgrading of libraries and information centers in the United States. The program advocates Federal funding for the national elements of the program and funding by the states for their jurisdictional share. It calls for the encouragement and development of private as well as public information services.

It would be premature to go into the details of the Commission's present suggestions for a new national program since they are in very tentative form. We know that our ideas will be changed and refined by exposing them to the widest possible range of public and professional opinion and criticism. Our goal, however, is clear and we are firmly committed to it. We want to give everyone in the country, regardless of social or economic condition, equal access to the rich information resources this country possesses. The task will not be easy. It will take intense professional energy to work out the complex problems inherent in such a program and to weigh the potential benefits and costs of new concepts and new solutions. A carefully planned White House Conference can contribute greatly toward this goal.

Careful planning cannot be done quickly. If the 1976 date is to be met, concerted action is required now. We conceive of the activity of a White House Conference in three parts, of which the national gathering is the climatic event. The initial phase, whose purpose is to set up the structure for the 1976 conference, would take six months. During that time the following steps would be taken: 1. Organize the appointed committee and plan its operation.

2. Recruit, hire and develop staff to support this phase and to continue throughout the conference activity.

3. Develop and test systems for program, financial and management control. 4. Develop detailed three-year plans for the regional, state and national programs mentioned below.

5. Hold ten regional planning conferences to establish the initial guidelines for the state conferences mentioned below. Plan for 25 delegates at each session. 6. Coalese the guidelines from the regional conferences into an instructional document for the 56 state and territorial conferences and for the national confer

ence.

Phase two would include the state and territorial preparatory meetings and the national White House Conference. The following steps are the basic activities of this period:

1. Increase the staff to assist with the state and national meetings.

2. Distribute and implement the instructional document for the 56 state and territorial meetings.

3. Prepare and distribute necessary program materials, research documents, study results, statistical analyses, etc., to participants and observers.

4. Hold the 56 state/territorial conferences and receive the recommendations from each.

5. Continue the planning effort adapting the national conference plan to the results coming from state conferences.

6. Prepare documentation for the national conference and its delegates. 7. Hold a five-day White House Conference for 2,800 delegates.

The final phase would amass the recommendations of the White House Conference and prepare for future activity. Some of the steps required are:

1. Reduce staff to those needed for editorial, financial and management func tions.

2. Complete all financial activity and audit the accounts.

3. Prepare and issue transactions of the conference. Transmit them to the President and Congress.

4. Summarize and analyze the conference recommendations, publish them and prepare for necessary action. Transmit the recommendations to the President and Congress with a program and timetable for implementation.

5. Integrate the recommendations into the ongoing activity of the NCLIS. 6. Terminate the conference activity.

It is the Commission's recommendation that Federal funds be appropriated and expended to cover the following:

1. Expenses and per diem for the appointed committee as proposed in the Joint Resolutions.

2. Staff salaries, operating expenses and travel funds for the Commission and staff.

3. Expenses of 25 delegates for each of 10 regional planning meetings.

4. Expenses of 150 delegates for each of 56 state/territorial meetings.

5. Expenses of 2,800 delegates for a five day national conference.

6. Expenses for preparation and issuance of necessary reports, studies, surveys and recommendations.

7. Such other expenses as are reasonable and proper in carrying out the functions of a White House Conference.

Some estimates of these costs are in preparation by the NCLIS staff. The use of Federal funds for regional, state and territorial meetings is required to assure that the quality and direction of the planning lead progressively toward the national conference. A basic level of participation from each state can be expected only if the Federal government accepts the responsibility for providing incentive funding. With Federal participation, the state conferences can be guided to develop around congruent themes that will lead cohesively toward the national conference.

House Joint Resolutions 734 and 766 honor the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science by making it responsible for directing the White House Conference on Library and Information Services. The Commission will receive the assignment enthusiastically and begin at once to carry out the details of planning and organization.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I shall be pleased to try to answer any questions from you or the members of the committee.

Mr. BURKHARDT. My name is Frederick Burkhardt. I am here as Chairman of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science.

I would like to add to the statement that I have submitted to you the following sentence: My views do not represent those of the administration, which I understand are being separately conveyed by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science favors the White House Conference which is called for in House Joint Resolutions 734 and 766.

The Commission does so wholeheartedly and in the expectation of useful results. It is going to strengthen the work that the National Commission is trying to do.

It will draw the attention of the American public to the problems of libraries and information services as no other vehicle can possibly do.

It will be enormously helpful in finding out what are the needs of the people of the United States. Not only will it raise the problems and focus attention on those problems, but it will also provide ideas for their solution.

One of the things this Commission has found most useful in its work has been the regional hearings we have been conducting in various parts of the country.

We find the sense of immediacy and urgency that the people feel and the variety of their needs and the variety of their ideas has been tremendously stimulating to the Commission: We have derived a great deal of help from those hearings.

We have been trying to get as close as we possibly can to the actual

users.

The White House Conference would deepen and broaden our perspective. It would bring about a forum for a rising set of solutions and priorities, as well as procedures for getting on with the job that would be uniquely important.

I cannot think of a better way to celebrate our bicentennial year than with a White House Conference on Libraries.

In my statement, I have also mentioned that this White House Conference would be enormously important to the Commission in its work on a national program for library and information services. We have started to draft such a program and we have put forth a tentative statement which is now being discussed by librarians and bv users, by technical people. We are in the process of revising this. By 1976 we would have a program that would be sufficiently worked out to become a major item on the agenda of the White House Conference at all levels. The Conference would be to put our plans, as we hope they will be at that time, before a very large public with very different needs and varieties of informational services in their States and regions. We would submit this document for their proposal and criticism, and I cannot think of any better way of getting a national program than one that was submitted to the people of the United States directly.

Also, in my statement I have put down an outline of the steps that would be required, it seems to us, for the planning and the holding of such a conference. Since House Resolutions 734 and 766 honor the National Commission by making it responsible for directing the White House Conference on Library and Information Services, we felt we should put down as clearly as we could now what we think would have

to be gone through in the planning. I will not go into the details, but it is a rather lengthy set of steps that would be involved.

We have also done some tentative estimating on costs and, again, I cannot give you any specific figure, but if there are questions about budget, I have someone here who can answer any questions that you might have.

I think the important thing to mention about this planning is that the financial support at the Federal level is terribly important in the planning because this will make it possible for a general set of guidelines to be prepared and for some kind of cohesive planning to be done which will bring together and coordinate all of the various State conferences and also help to get equal treatment and discussion in the various States.

Since their resources differ, if we are to have adequate conferences in each State, Federal funds would be used to equalize and bring about this same standard and quality of meetings in each State.

We visualize a series of meetings and conferences that would culminate in a large White House Conference in the end with perhaps 2,500 to 2,800 federally sponsored delegates.

In our tentative planning we have drawn on the experience on the White House Conference on Aging which I believe was a very successful one and which produced many useful recommendations and results. I am certain this White House Conference on Libraries and Information Services will, likewise, produce many useful recommendations and results.

That concludes my statement, Mr. Chairman, but I will be very happy to answer any questions that I can.

Mr. BRADEMAS. Thank you very much, Dr. Burkhardt.

We should like to have you along with two other witnesses respond as members of a panel and then we shall have two subsequent panels. Perhaps before we put questions to you, Mr. Harlan and Miss. Lowrie will come up to the witness stand and then we will put questions to all three of you.

Our next witness is an old friend of the Chair's also president of the American Library Society in South Bend, Ind., Mr. Harlan.

STATEMENT OF JOHN B. HARLAN, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN LIBRARY SOCIETY

Mr. HARLAN. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.

My name is John B. Harlan. I am president of the American Library Society, an educational organization founded in 1970 to promote the advancement of the library and information sciences; to aid the library and information professions; and to protect the freedoms of access to information, the press, and speech.

It is a pleasure and an honor for me to be able to testify before the Select Subcommittee on Education on behalf of the executive board of the American Library Society in support of House Joint Resolution 734, House Joint Resolution 766, and related resolutions, to authorize and request the President to call a White House Conference on Library and Information Services in 1976.

Libraries and information centers play an invaluable role in American life. Through providing access to information and ideas of great

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