ALAWON v6n97 (November 10, 1997) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/alawon/alawon-v6n97 ================================================================= ALAWON Volume 6, Number 97 ISSN 1069-7799 November 10, 1997 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (141 lines) -JEANNE HURLEY SIMON ELECTED FOR A SECOND TERM AT NCLIS -POSTAL RATE COMMISSION DENIES ALA REQUEST FOR "STAY" IN POSTAL RATE CASE -JUDGE RULES AGAINST NATIONAL ARCHIVES ON ELECTRONIC RECORDS REGULATIONS _________________________________________________________________ JEANNE HURLEY SIMON ELECTED FOR A SECOND TERM AT NCLIS According to the November 6 Congressional Record Summary [S 11902], Jeanne Hurley Simon of Illinois was nominated to be a member of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science for a second term expiring July 19, 2002. Simon is currently chairperson of NCLIS. An attorney by training, Simon is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association, the District of Columbia Bar Association, the Women's Bar Association of Illinois, the American Library Association, the Association of American University Women, the League of Women Voters, and the Women's National Democratic Club. NCLIS is a permanent, independent agency of the federal government charged with advising the executive and legislative branches on national library and information policies and plans. It was established in 1970 with the enactment of Public Law 91-345. The Museum and Library Services Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-208)established that the Commission shall have the responsibility to advise the Director of the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) on general policies with respect to the duties, powers and authority of the IMLS relating to library services. _________________________________________________________________ POSTAL RATE COMMISSION DENIES ALA REQUEST FOR "STAY" IN POSTAL RATE CASE On November 4 the Postal Rate Commission (PRC) denied the motion of the American Library Association and the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers requesting a "stay", or delay, of the pending postal rate case proceedings. Although the PRC plans to permit additional time to allow participants the opportunity for further inquiries, the PRC hopes that the remainder of the proceeding can be completed by April or May 1998, within the 10 months designated for it to complete its work. The Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers and ALA jointly filed the motion to stay proceedings on October 16. The delay was requested until: -The USPS submits a rate request that complies with the PRC's rules for rate-setting requests, and -Interested parties receive an adequate opportunity to review the material and submit standard "discovery" (e.g., questions and answer) of the USPS refiled case. The litigation team working with the Alliance and ALA has been attempting for weeks to analyze the USPS data that the agency claims prove that the costs of nonprofit and library rate mail have increased much faster than the costs of commercial rate mail. In their motion to "stay" the proceedings, the two organizations asserted that the USPS has failed to comply with PRC rules, and that the rate case is so disorganized that participants are deprived of a meaningful opportunity to scrutinize and challenge the data that purportedly justify the requested postal rate increases. INTERROGATORIES Both ALA's attorney in the rate case and the Office of the Consumer Advocate have filed a series of "interrogatories", or questions, to the USPS about the underlying cost data used by USPS to request a 26.53 percent increase in a typical 3-pound library rate package. If the USPS current proposal is implemented, the library rate for the 3-pound package would be $2.48, a 117.5 percent increase in a little more than three years. USPS has yet to explain how the library rate, a preferred rate, can exceed the commercial book rate for a piece of the same size, shape and weight. In one of its questions, ALA asked USPS to identify any audits, studies, changes in costing data and collection systems, and other efforts taken since the last rate case in 1994 to improve the accuracy of USPS attributable cost data for library rate mail. USPS responded that "There were no efforts directed specifically to measurement of the costs of Library Rate." In mid-October, ALA's attorney filed notice that ALA intends to cross-examine USPS witnesses. _________________________________________________________________ JUDGE RULES AGAINST NATIONAL ARCHIVES ON ELECTRONIC RECORDS REGULATIONS U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman on October 22 declared "null and void" a regulation issued by Archivist of the United States John W. Carlin that allowed federal agencies routinely to destroy electronic versions of word processing and electronic mail records once they had been copied on paper. The decision came in Public Citizen v. John Carlin, a case in which ALA was a co-plaintiff with the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians and others. Plaintiffs were represented by Public Citizen in the suit that challenged General Records Schedule 20 issued by the Archivist in 1995. Judge Friedman's opinion stated that "the Archivist has abdicated to the various departments and agencies of the federal government his statutory responsibility under the Records Disposal Act to insure that records with administrative, legal, research or other value are preserved by federal agencies." The Judge also said, "Simply put, electronic communications are rarely identical to their paper counterparts; they are records unique and distinct from printed versions of the same record." Further he stated that the law, "carefully limits agency discretion in destroying records by requiring the Archivist to approve any determination that a record should be scheduled for destruction...." Judge Friedman emphasized that electronic records need to be evaluated to distinguish valuable electronic records from unneeded ones, and that the plaintiffs recognize that it will be necessary to destroy some electronic records. Defending the regulation, the government argued that it was sound because such government-wide rules were meant for records of a common form, such as "electronic" media. The government has 60 days from the date of the court's ruling to decide whether to appeal. _________________________________________________________________ ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc @ala.org. To unsubscribe, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/ washoff/alawon. Visit our Web site at http://www.alawash.org. ALA Washington Office 202.628.8410 (V) 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F) Washington, DC 20004-1701 800.941.8478 (V) Lynne E. Bradley, Editor Deirdre Herman, Managing Editor Contributors: Carol C. Henderson Anne Heanue All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================