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of these
infrastructure problems.
Unfortunately, the Bill was not passed and the closing of the last
Congress. There is hope, however, that it will be reintroduced this
Spring.
Specifically, Gore's bill would have ensured that the technology
developed by the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 is applied
widely in K-12 education, libraries, health care and industry,
particularly manufacturing. It would have authorized a total of $1.15
billion over the next five years.
According to a press release from Senator Gore's office,
"The Information Infrastructure and Technology Act charges the White
House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) with
coordinating efforts to develop applications for high-performance
computing networking and assigns specific responsibilities to the
National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space
Agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the
National Institutes of Health. It would expand the role of OSTP in
overseeing federal efforts to disseminate scientific and technical
information."
"The bill provides funding to both NSF and NASA to develop
technology for 'digital libraries'-- huge data bases that store text,
imagery, video, and sound and are accessible over computer networks
like NSFNET. The bill also funds development of prototype 'digital
libraries' around the country."

The public needs NREN because 300 baud used to be fast and low-
resolution graphics used to be pretty. Now we get impatient waiting for
fax machines to print out a document from half a continent away, when
a few years ago we would have been content to wait days or weeks for
the same article to arrive by mail. We are satisfied with technology
until it starts to impede our lives in some way. We wait impatiently,
sure that we spend half our lives waiting for printers, and the other half
waiting for disk drives. Time is a commodity.
I can envision that little girl walking into the public library with the
following request: "I'm doing a school report on the Challenger disaster.
I need a video clip of the explosion, a sound bite of Richard Feynman
explaining the O-ring problem, some neat graphics from NASA, oh,
and maybe some virtual reality mock-ups of the shuttle interior. Can
you put it all on this floppy disk for me, I know it's only 15 minutes
before you close but, gee, I had band practice." This is why public
libraries need NREN.
We would do well to remember the words of Ranganathan, whose basic
tenets of good librarianship need just a little updating from 1931:
"[Information] is for use." "Every [bit of information], its user." "Every
user, [his/her bit of information]." "Save the time of the [user]." "A
[network] is a growing organism."
And so is the public library. A promising future awaits the public
library that can be proactive rather than reactive to technology.
Information technology is driving the future, librarians should be at the
wheel. It is hoped that the new Administration in Washington will
provide the fuel to get us going.
_______________________________ SIDEBAR
------------------------------------------------------- Excerpts from S.2937 as
introduced July 1, 1992 102nd Congress 2nd Session IN THE
SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
Mr. GORE (for himself, Rockefeller (D-WV), Kerry (D-MA), Prestler
(R-SD), Riegle (D-MI), Robb (D-VA), Lieberman (D-CT), Kerrey

(D-NE) and Burns (R-MT)) introduced the following bill; which was
read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science and
Transportation.
A BILL To expand Federal efforts to develop technologies for
applications of high-performance computing and high-speed
networking, to provide for a coordinated Federal program to accelerate
development and deployment of an advanced information infrastructure,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the
"Information Infrastructure and Technology Act of 1992".
SEC. 7. APPLICATIONS FOR LIBRARIES. (a) DIGITAL
LIBRARIES.--In accordance with the Plan developed under section
701 of the National Science and Technology Policy, Organization and
Priorities Act of 1976 (42 U.S.C. 6601 et seq.), as added by section 3 of
this Act, the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration, the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency, and other appropriate agencies shall develop technologies for
"digital libraries" of electronic information. Development of digital
libraries shall include the following: (1) Development of advanced data
storage systems capable of storing hundreds of trillions of bits of data
and giving thousands of users nearly instantaneous access to that
information. (2) Development of high-speed, highly accurate systems
for converting printed text, page images, graphics, and photographic
images into electronic form. (3) Development of database software
capable of quickly searching, filtering, and summarizing large volumes
of text, imagery, data, and sound. (4) Encouragement of development
and adoption of standards for electronic data. (5) Development of
computer technology to categorize and organize electronic information
in a variety of formats. (6)