A new pledge of $1.5 million in funding for the National Digital Library effort came at a Library luncheon meeting recently.
Raymond W. Smith, chairman and chief executive officer, Bell Atlantic Corp., announced the pledge on behalf of his company before talking to reporters on Friday, Jan. 27, in the Madison Building's Visitors' Orientation Theater. Mr. Smith's announcement brings the total amount of private money raised for digitizing LC collections to $14.5 million.
Dr. Billington had already announced, on Oct. 13, gifts of $13 million in private funding for the Digital Library efforts: $5 million from John Kluge, president of Metromedia; $5 million from the Lucile and David Packard Foundation; and $3 million from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Thirty leaders from the world of high-tech business and one computer science professor joined House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), Rep. Ron Packard (R-Calif.) and the Librarian for lunch and a look at treasures from the Library's collections in the Digital Library Visitors' Center.
The corporate leaders then heard from LC Chief of Staff Suzanne Thorin and Laura Campbell, director of the Library's National Digital Library Program, on the proposed efforts to digitize collaboratively 5 million items relating to American history by the year 2000.
At a press conference after lunch in the Visitors' Orientation Theater, Rep. Gingrich urged that Congress designate $15 million over five years as "seed" money toward the creation of a public-private partnership to fund a National Digital Library that draws heavily, but not exclusively, on LC's collections. On hand were reporters from Agence France Press, CBS, Knight-Ridder Newspapers and The New York Times.
"Our money will be matched on a three-to-one basis by the private sector and together we will in fact work to create what is, in a sense, the first world library because it will be on the Internet available on a worldwide basis. The human race will have access to the Americana collections and will have an opportunity to learn," Rep. Gingrich said.
He asked Rep. Packard, who is chairman of the House Appropriations Legislative Branch Subcommittee, to "find $3 million a year for five years" in public funding for this effort. Rep. Gingrich said he hoped that $15 million in public funding will spark a "public-private partnership" and draw an additional $45 million in private donations for a total of $60 million in five years for the digital library.
Saying he was not yet sure where his committee will find the money, Chairman Packard echoed Mr. Gingrich's hope that the digitized collections would be made available to public libraries and schools around the country and, eventually, to every American home.
"The thing that's important," Mr. Packard said, "is that this becomes seed money for Ray Smith and his people to come up with an additional $45 million for a total of $60 million to fund the project over five years. That makes it very doable in the private sector and it won't all come from the taxpayers. It can't all come from the taxpayers. ... With that kind of help it's a pretty good investment."
Mr. Smith, who joined the Speaker, the Librarian and Chairman Packard in talking to reporters, was enthusiastic about the project: "Just as the chairman said, we don't know exactly where we'll get the [rest of the private] money either, but we do have a tremendous amount of interest today and all across corporate America. There couldn't be a better project than to bring this wonderful collection ... into every single library and school."
Rep. Gingrich said that if this "pilot project" of digitizing were successful, it could be a model for later efforts to digitize collections in science, history, politics and medicine.
Corporate leaders attending the luncheon were: James A. Abrahamson, chairman, Oracle Systems Corp.; Dick Brass, senior vice president for corporate affairs, Oracle Systems Corp.; Colleen Broderick, MCI Communications Corp.; Charles Brumback, chairman and chief executive officer, Tribune Co.; Greg Clark, president, News Technology Group; Dennis Cook, president and chief executive officer, DECTEC Inc.; John F. Cooke, president, the Disney Channel; Edwin L. Cox, chairman, the Edwin L. Cox Co.; Andrew Eiseman, head of technology and quality, U.S. West Broadband and Multimedia; Robert F. Erburu, chairman, president and chief executive officer, the Times Mirror Co.; J. Michael Farren, vice president for government affairs, Xerox Corp.; George Favoloro, director of technology planning, COMPAQ Computer Corp.; O. Gene Gabbard, Access/On Multimedia; David D. Hiller, senior vice president for development, Tribune Co.; Donald G. Jones, president, Cyberstar; Glenn R. Jones, chairman and chief executive officer, Jones Intercable; Michael Kolowich, president, Interchange Online Network; Susan Levy, manager of community relations, R.R. Donnelly & Sons Co.; James N. Longson, executive vice president and general manager, Compton's NewMedia; Terence Lund, director and R&D marketing liaison, Digital and Applied Imaging, Eastman Kodak Co.; James C. McGroddy, senior vice president of research, IBM; Stephen Nease Jr., director of engineering development, Black Entertainment Television; Martin Nisenholtz, director of content strategy, Ameritech Corp.; Norm Rickard, president, Xerox Business Services; William Schrader, chief executive officer, Performance Systems International; Bill Shute, executive director of federal relations, SBC Communications Inc.; Raymond W. Smith, chairman and chief executive officer, Bell Atlantic Corp.; Paul Sybrowsky, president, Ameritech Library Services; Thomas Tauke, executive vice president for government affairs, NYNEX; David Weatherell, chairman and chief executive officer, CMG Information Services; and Yelena Yesha, professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland.
