Explores the integral role of libraries in the evolving information and communications infrastructure. Also discusses information services value measurement within the changing library and information services environment.

The 1994 Forum on Library and Information Services was planned to provide an opportunity to explore the role of libraries in the evolving information and communications infrastructure. This report on the proceedings of the Forum begins with the agenda and a list of the participants. Two roles of the Department of Education relating to libraries and the Internet/National Information Infrastructure (NII) are then examined. The next three sections are structured around: (1) the federal perspective; (2) the state, local, and institutional perspective; and (3) measuring the value of information services. Each session is divided into four parts: panel presentations with a moderator; discussants who offer comments on the panel presentations and the topic; open group discussion; and a summation to identify issues and needed actions. The report concludes with a review and evaluation of the forum highlighting implications of development and changes in library and information services for data collection and analyses, and a luncheon presentation on implementing the Institute for Postsecondary Education, Libraries, and Lifelong Education. Four appendices present a draft of a statement on libraries and the NII for public comment; descriptions of the Louisiana Libraries Network Project and the Blacksburg (Virginia) Electronic Village; and a summary of a current study of the costs and beneficial impacts of library functions. (JLB)

This now famous White Paper provides rules for our digital highway.Ó Examines each of the major areas of intellectual property law, focusing primarily on copyright law & its application & effectiveness, especially subject matter & scope of protection, copyright ownership, term of protection, exclusive rights, limitations on exclusive rights, copyright infringement. Holds Internet service providers legally accountable for copyright & other infringements by their users. Judges are beginning to use this document to form case law.

Over the next five to 10 years, wireless technologies will dramatically reshape the communications and information infrastructure of the United States. New radio-based systems now being developed will use advanced digital technologies to bring a wide array of services to both residential and business users, including ubiquitous mobile telephone and data services and many new forms of video programming. Existing wireless systems, including radio and television broadcasting, cellular telephony, and various satellite and data networks, will also convert to digital technology. This will allow them to improve the quality of their services, expand the number of users they can serve, and offer new information and entertainment applications. Before the benefits of these wireless systems can be realized, however, technical, regulatory, and economic uncertainties must be resolved. This report examines the role wireless communication technologies will play in the evolving National Information Infrastructure (NII), examines the challenges facing policy-makers and regulators as wireless becomes a more integral part of the telecommunications and information infrastructure, and identifies some of the longer term implications of the widespread use of wireless systems and services.

The Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space held a hearing in Billings, Montana, on rural America's access to the National Information Infrastructure (NII) and uses of NII in the provision of rural education and services. An Assistant Secretary of Commerce discussed the development of the Internet, problems in rural access to the Internet and other information technologies, a federal grant program that helps rural communities to gain such access, and the effects of deregulation on rural access. A researcher outlined the potential impact of technology on rural schools, including opportunities for new distance learning models, for new models of student learning, and for improving teacher development. A health services administrator described the Eastern Montana Telemedicine Network, which delivers specialist physician consultation through video conferencing, delivers mental health consultative services, offers continuing medical and higher education programming to rural communities, and provides community outreach and telebusiness opportunities to geographically isolated communities. The computer systems and telecommunications director at Salish Kootenai College discussed the problems of providing telecommunications technology to tribal colleges on American Indian reservations and related problems involving rural telephone cooperatives, inadequate telephone service, and obsolete laws governing the delivery of utility services. Representatives of communications companies discussed the potential role of NII in promoting rural development and delivering rural services, and the need for continued Congressional action to support telecommunications competition. (SV)

Distributed to some depository libraries in microfiche.