Federal Library and Information Center Committee Library of Congress Washington DC 20540-4930
FLICC Spring Membership Meeting Highlights
Soaring to Excellence Teleconference for Library Technicians
Alvin and Heidi Toffler, Futurists and Authors of Future Shock, The Third Wave, Power Shift, and Creating a New Civilization: Politics of the Third Wave appeared at the March 24, FLICC Forum on Federal Infomation Policies. They delivered their view of the impact of the Information Age and describe the toll that technological advances are taking on the world as we know it. Alvin and Heidi Toffler, Futurists and Authors of Future Shock, The Third Wave, Power Shift, and Creating a New Civilization: Politics of the Third Wave appeared at the March 24, FLICC Forum on Federal Infomation Policies. They delivered their view of the impact of the Information Age and describe the toll that technological advances are taking on the world as we know it. As a consequence of technological advances, Toffler explained we are facing:
In their books, the Tofflers have identified three great eras in civilization: the agrarian revolution, the industrial revolution, and the current knowledge revolution. Toffler, whose wife Heidi joined him for a question and answer session, said the third wave began in the United States in the mid-1950s and has led to the demassification of society.
Technology has enabled activities such as mass production, mass consumption, mass media, mass entertainment and mass education to become more individualized. For example, technology lets manufacturers make production changes at the push of a button. That ability will evolve so that custom production becomes the form of the future. Another example is television, which has evolved from three channels to 30 channels or more. "The information universe is becoming demassified," Toffler said, adding that variety in society is also increasing.
Computers are a prime example of the demassification movement. Decades ago, mainframe computers were run by data priests who furthered the bureaucratization process. "Then came the PC explosion and the dispersal of information power to 40 million desktops," Toffler said. Previously, the major factors of production were considered to be land, labor and capital. Now, the central factor of production has become knowledge. "We have an increasingly super-symbolic society," he said. If you have the right information, you need less land, labor and capital to create your product. One of the major benefits of that development is that information can be shared as land could not. With information, Toffler said, "we can both use it, and if we're smart we can make more."
Organizational structures have also changed as information has permeated the lower ranks. Employees have become empowered because they have the information that they need to do their jobs. "Firms have become electronic organisms," Toffler said, and the processes and relationships have become more transient. A drawback, however, is that information becomes more perishable. It must be used quickly or it becomes useless. Some earlier weaknesses in computer systems; inadequate interactivity, inadequate mobility, inadequate convertability, poor connectivity, the lack of intra-intelligent systems and the lack of extra-intelligent networks - have been overcome. With these changes, we are building a technological mural system for the planet. The high level of change also makes possible new levels of abstraction, new use of language, deeper specializations, cross-specializations, novel juxtapositions, deeper concepts of causality, more rarified intellectual debates and more "what if" thinking.
History is entering a new zone of geopolitical turbulence, Toffler said, but we need to look to the tools and opportunities for improvement that the third wave is giving us. During the third wave, food production has grown and the percentage of illiteracy has fallen. Members of society need to prepare themselves "to survive the biggest wave in history," he said, by intelligently applying the tools of knowledge.
During the question-and-answer session, the Tofflers discussed the impact that the third wave might have on education. Heidi said she believed that education needs to be further individualized. Alvin said that information, media and computers can make valuable changes in education as they enter homes and put more opportunities for education there.
LC Specialist Provides Update on PRA Reauthorization, GILS, A-130 Issues The May 18, FLICC Quarterly Spring Membership Meeting provided a comprehensive legislative update of the 104th Congress. Harold Relyea, specialist in American National Government for the Congressional Research Service (CRS) at the Library of Congress (LC) outlined information policy issues facing the 104th Congress.
The reauthorization of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) was finalized by the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate on April 6 and scheduled to be signed by President Clinton on May 22. Relyea said the legislation is not the sweeping measure that might have been enacted. Paperwork reduction goals were set at 10% per fiscal year for FY96 and FY97 and the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OMB-OIRA) was reauthorized for six years.
The PRA reauthorization also provides a legislative mandate for the Government Information Locator Service (GILS) created by the administration in 1994 and in effect overturns a judicial decision in Dole vs. United Steelworkers. Congress decided that the court's ruling that OIRA's authorization to review is limited to information collected by agencies and not third parties was a misreading of Congressional intent. Relyea reported that the PRA may be further modified during the current session by legislation being sponsored by Sen. William Cohen (R-ME) that would establish information officers in federal agencies. H.R. 1271, the Family Privacy Protection Act of 1995, passed the House on April 4. The measure would prohibit federally funded programs from collecting a variety of information from a minor without prior consent of a parent or guardian. There is no Senate counterpart to the legislation.
The continued existence of the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP) is on the line and it has been targeted in the rescission bill H.R. 1158 and the House budget resolution. GPO also faces downsizing. H.R. 1024 would privatize the GPO and eliminate the JCP. Another proposal affecting public printing is H. R. 24 which simply requires appropriate committees of the House to report legislation to transfer certain functions of the GPO. The House budget resolution raises many information questions relating to the continued existence of such agencies as the departments of Commerce, Education, and Energy. Information functions are vulnerable and programs could be eliminated or transferred elsewhere. Peter Weiss, policy analyst, Executive Office of the President, OMB, said that, as prime author of Circular A-130 on "Management of Federal Information Resources," he was grateful that the PRA reauthorization essentially confirmed A-130 and reauthorized OMB-OIRA. Weiss sees an emerging national consensus on information policy over the past decade. There is a basic consensus on federal policy and the issue now is: what does this mean for state/local dissemination? More will be heard about the fact that the federal government can not assert copyright while state and local governments can. The PRA reauthorization also provides that the OMB director will establish an interagency committee to develop GILS standards and it is expected to convene in a few months.
The administration's recent nationwide on-line meeting involved over 300 access sites and over 100,000 citizens participated. There were 3000 substantial comments and a technical report is being prepared.
In the area of government printing reform, the administration and key Hill players believe three developments need to occur simultaneously: the industrial plant operation at GPO needs to be examined carefully and some downsizing needs to occur; the procurement process must improve and the administration is not opposed to a centralized purchasing agent; the executive agencies need to reinvent their printing processes. Weiss said both the executive and legislative branches were dead serious about taking advantage of what the private sector has to offer. Weiss said the executive branch supports the viability of federal depository libraries and believes the function of the Superintendent of Documents needs to be performed in the future but has no opinion on where in the government that function should exist. Weiss and Relyea indicated a decision on GPO could be forthcoming within a couple of years.
Doria Grimes, chief, Contracts Operations, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, federal library delegate to the 1995 White House Conference on Library Information and Services Task Force (WHCLIST), reported that three resolutions were passed on April 10 at the WHCLST Annual Meeting in Washington DCs. The first two urge Congress to increase support for technology for libraries and to fund the National Archives and Records Service preservation initiatives. The third urges the President and Congress to support library roles in any merger involving the Department of Education. Strategies being developed for 1996 include serving as a resource to state representatives regarding such federal issues as downsizing and providing insight into telecommunications issues.
Executive Director Susan Tarr said FLICC's Vision 2000 remains under development. Tarr plans to lead FLICC members and the FEB through the SWOT (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats) analysis. (See Board Talk, ) The process will be used to determine the federal library role in the next five years as well as provide specific items for FLICC's 1996 performance plan.
The recent Soaring to Excellence Teleconference Series focused on requirements and issues affecting library technicians in today's library environment. The teleconference video tapes now are available from FLICC and can serve as a core program for developing your high-performance library team. Soaring to Excellence was sponsored by the Association of College and Research Libraries, National Institute for Library Personnel, Learning Resources Center and Library Technical Assistant Program, and College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL. It was made possible by a grant from the Department of Education, Library and Human Resource Development Program. Topics include: