ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


121

W A S H I N G T O N  H O T L I N E  by Carol Henderson
Deputy Director 

ALA Washington Office

Witnesses testifying at a March 10 hearing on the impact of the proposed
federal budget reductions on library services included college librarian For­
rest Brown, director of the library of St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minne­
sota. He spoke to the House Post-Secondary Education Subcommittee on "how 
federal aid through several programs has helped one fairly typical‚ small 
college library during the last two decades." St. Olaf has recieved $58,403 
from the Higher Education Act II-A College Library Program. Other programs 
Brown mentioned were the Library Services and Construction Act Title III (In­
terlibrary Cooperation)‚ the National Endowment for the Humanities‚ and the 
National Science Foundation.

The National Archives and Records Service (NARS)‚ facing a 16% budget 
cut, was the focus of oversight hearings March 2 and 4 before the House Sub­
committee on Government Information and Individual Rights. The impact of the
budget cut on NARS is almost doubled, because 41% of its budget is tied up in
fixed costs charged by its parent organization, the General Services Adminis­
tration, for NARS facilities, including regional centers and presidential li­
braries. About 140 staff have been let go; interlibrary loan of microfilm 
reels of census materials from the Fort Worth Records Center has been elim­
inated, and the staff of the National Historical Publications and Records 
Commission is down from 23 to 8.

The hearing opened with two of the most well-known users of the archives
Alex Haley and Barbara Tuchman. Tuchman compared the budget cuts to "the 
burning of the Library of Alexandria in the 3d century B.C." The General 
Accounting Office witness summed up GAO's recent evaluation of NARS' preser­
vation activities: "The patient is alive but the vital signs are weak, and 
the prognosis is guarded at best." Archivist Robert Warner, walking a deli­
cate line between support of the administration and responsiveness to the 
subcommittee, admitted that many functions were being reduced or postponed.
GSA administrator Gerald Carmen announced that charges for NARS facilities 
would be adjusted downward by $5 million, which would "eliminate the need 
for significant furloughs of archives staff."

A Society of American Archivists representative testified that attempts 
were being made to replace the current archivist, despite the fact that the 
position has never been considered a political appointment. Several inter­
ested organizations urged consideration of legislation making NARS an inde­
pendent agency, such as S.1421 which is pending in the Senate. Arguments 
given for independence included a previous GSA administrator's attempts to 
disperse records to regional centers‚ a current GSA-imposed reorganization 
which would move the records management function out of NARS‚ and the inabil­
ity of the archivist to defend his budget directly to the Office of Manage­
ment and Budget or to Congress. Over the last five years NARS’ staff has 
decreased by 1%, while reference requests increased by 80%. GSA is one of 
the few agencies which has not appealed the 16% cut to Congress.

ALA is filing a statement for the hearing record with emphasis on the 
elimination of the interlibrary loan service, maintenance of the archival 
government publications collection transferred to NARS from GPO, and the 
National Historical Publications and Records Commission whose grant programs 
need re-authorization.

 

 
 

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