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(FWD) NCC Washington Update, Vol 8, #1, January 11, 2002



Apologies for the formatting--it's been one of those days... Holly

> NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 8, #1, January 11, 2002
> by Bruce Craig <rbcraig@nccph.org
> National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History (NCCPH)
> *****************
>
> 1.  A Message From the Director
> 2.  President Bush Signs Education Authorization Act
> 3.  Partial Release of Reagan Presidential Records Announced
> 4.  Essay on Scholarly Publishing Generates Debate
> 5.  Jefferson Lecturer Announced
> 6.  CIA Declines to Release Historical Documents
> 7.  SAA and Others File Amicus Brief in Eldred v. Ashcroft Case
> 8.  News Bits and Bytes: NARA Releases Report on Recordkeeping; Garfinkel
> to Retire; Eisenhower Library Releases Recordings; Smithsonian Collections
> Management Directive
>
> 1.  A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR
> On January 4, during the annual meeting of the American Historical
> Association in San Francisco, the NCCPH Policy Board convened and approved
> a five-year strategic plan for the NCC (copies will be published and
> distributed to member organizations in coming weeks). Perhaps the most
> important development for the NCC is that as soon as the paperwork has been
> filed and approved by the Internal Revenue Service, and once a new board of
> director members have been elected, the NCCPH will cease to exist and the
> organization will be reconstituted as a non-profit organization with a new
> name - the "National Coalition for History" (NCH).  An updated mission
> statement pledges that advocacy, education, and the promotion of the cause
> of history and archives will continue - as always - to be the principle
> thrust of the organization.  But in the coming months, you will also begin
> to see a series of minor but important changes in the way the NCC conducts
> its business including some changes in the NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE.  I'm sure
> you will all be pleased with the improvements.  Keep posted!
> Bruce Craig
>
> 2.  PRESIDENT BUSH SIGNS EDUCATION AUTHORIZATION BILL
> On January 8, 2002 President Bush signed into law legislation that
> dramatically overhauls the nation's education system.  The measure - the
> centerpiece of Bush's domestic program when he took office a year ago -
> represents a political compromise that provides billions more in federal
> funds than was sought by Democrats, while granting GOP demands to give
> local officials increased flexibility in spending the money. After months
> of arduous negotiation between the White House and Congressional leaders,
> the measure sailed through the Senate 87-10 less than a week after the
> House bestowed its blessing on the legislation by a vote of 381 - 41.
>
> The bill authorizes $26.5 billion in federal spending on elementary and
> secondary education in the 2002 budget year - about $8 billion more
> than  in 2001.  It's $4 billion more than Bush requested, but nearly $6
> billion less than many Senate Democrats wanted. The bill allocates nearly a
> billion dollars over six years on a variety of reading initiatives. The
> measure also requires annual math and reading tests for millions of
> students in an effort to boost classroom performance. Failing schools would
> receive increased funds for a period of time and students in failing
> schools would be able to use federal funds to pay for independent tutoring
> or transportation to another public school - but not to pay tuition at
> private schools.
>
> In general, since the introduction of the measure shortly after Bush took
> office, the bill has enjoyed good bipartisan support.  Sen. James Jeffords
> (I-VT), however, who headed the Senate's education committee until he left
> the  Republican Party last May, stated that the $26.5 billion plan falls
> short by not giving enough money to schools, especially for costly programs
> to help disabled students. The bill was also opposed by school board and
> superintendents' groups, who  say state and local education budgets will be
> strained by its demands.
>
> In Title II Part C (subpart 4) of the bill one finds a provision entitled,
> "Teaching of Traditional American History" which incorporates into law
> Senator Robert Byrd's (D-WV) Senate amendment #402 (passed in the Senate
> May 10, 2001) to S.1.  The language authorizes "Such funds as may be
> necessary for FY 2002 and each of the 5 succeeding fiscal years" for the
> teaching of traditional American history grant program.  To this end, the
> House and Senate have also concluded their conference on the FY 2002 Labor,
> Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill (H.R. 3061).
> Included in the conference report is a specific allocation of $100 million
> for the second year of the "Teaching American History" initiative that is
> authorized under provisions of the "No Child Left Behind" education act.
> Now that the conference report is approved, that measure goes to the
> President for his signature.
>
> 3.  PARTIAL RELEASE OF REAGAN PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ANNOUNCED
> On January 3, 2002 the Bush administration authorized the release of some
> 8,000 pages of a total of over 68,000 pages of Reagan Administration
> records that were required by law to be released in January 2001.  Opening
> of the records was delayed by the Bush Administration, which imposed new
> restrictions on release of Reagan's presidential records in the recently
> signed executive order 13233.
>
> According to a National Archives press release (see
> http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2001/12/reagan.html), "In accordance with
> Executive Order 13233, representatives of former President Reagan and
> President Bush have reviewed these records and have chosen not to assert
> any constitutionally based privilege." According to White House counsel
> Alberto R. Gonzales, whose op-ed appeared in the December 19, 2001 issue of
> the Washington Post (see:
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3912-2001Dec19.html),
> "Today's action shows that President Bush's executive order can and will
> work as intended to facilitate appropriate and expeditious release of
> presidential records consistent with the Constitution and the [presidential
> records] act."
>
> In fact, some of the materials slotted for release may well be being held
> back by the Administration. A visit to the Reagan library on December 28,
> 2001 by NCC Director Bruce Craig revealed that while the release includes
> alphabetical name and subject files for over fifty individuals and about a
> dozen presidential offices whose names or offices begin with the letters
> "A" - "F", some potentially controversial files may be being held back as
> they were not included in the release (For an inventory of records
> released, see http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/p5inv010302.htm).  Name files
> for prominent and influential Reagan advisors such as Judge Robert Bork,
> Deputy Assistant to the President Lee Atwater, future Education Secretary
> William Bennett, and Assistant to the President for National Security
> Affairs Frank Carlucci among others, are not included in the first release.
> According to Reagan Library archivists, no FOIA requests may be on file for
> these individuals (and hence no P-5 exemptions were processed for
> clearance), or these files simply may not yet have been cleared by the
> White House and will be released sometime in the future.
>
> A sampling of eight boxes of the 8,000 page release reveals that the P-5
> exemption materials (the P-5 exemption states: "release would disclose
> confidential advice between the President and his advisors, or between such
> advisors;" see Section (a)(5) of the Presidential Records Act) includes
> important communications relating to a wide variety of domestic and foreign
> policy issues. For example, the P-5 materials relating to future
> Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole when she was assistant to the
> president for public liaison, is unusually large and rich when compared to
> the number of privilege claims in the papers of other policy
> advisors.  Dole freely gave advice on wide ranging matters of concern to
> the Reagan White House including the Administration's abortion policy,
> attitudes toward "liberal" union leaders, and Reagan's image as a "mans
> man" which she feared was hurting his appeal to women voters.
>
> There is still no official word when the remaining 60,000 pages of records
> will be released. According to some informed sources, the White House
> intends to release all the remaining papers by the end of January just
> prior to the filing of a required response to the law suit brought by
> historians and public interest organizations who are seeking to overturn
> Bush's Executive Order 13233. The critics allege that it violates the
> provisions of the Presidential Records Act.
>
> If the lawsuit has done nothing else, it  has helped catapult the release
> of the Reagan presidential records into a Bush Administration
> priority.  Even if all the records are released in coming weeks and months,
> however, Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group based in Washington that
> is providing legal counsel for the suit, intends to continue its court
> challenge of the executive order.
>
> 4.  ESSAY ON SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING GENERATES DEBATE
> According to an essay recently published by the Knight Higher Education
> Collaborative universities and colleges should establish policies declaring
> peer-reviewed work in electronic form suitable for consideration in
> promotion and tenure decisions.  The publication, based on the Roundtable
> on Scholarly Communication in the Humanities and Social Sciences jointly
> convened in March 2001 by the Association of Research Libraries, the
> National Humanities Alliance, and the Knight Collaborative with support
> from the National Endowment for the Humanities also advocates that active
> and continuing partnerships are needed to help ensure viability as markets
> and technology recast the dynamics of scholarly publishing.
>
> According to the essay, "developing venues of electronic publication in
> conjunction with existing modes of print publication offers a means of
> expanding the size of the audience that the humanities and social sciences
> might address."  But as the essay recognizes, scholars may be reluctant to
> adopt electronic publishing if it jeopardizes their chances for promotion
> and tenure.  Scholars need assurances that scholarly work addressed to a
> broader audience and peer-reviewed scholarship published in electronic form
> will be considered legitimate forms of scholarly
> activity.  University policies can help accelerate the cultural shifts
> needed to make this happen states the report.
>
> "This round table focusing on the humanities and social sciences grew out
> of a series of conversations that have taken place in conferences,
> roundtables, and National Humanities Alliance committee discussions over
> the past several years," notes Duane Webster, Executive Director of the
> Association of Research Libraries.  "We hope the essay will encourage
> active discussion in the broader community and the development of
> innovative partnerships in electronic publishing."
>
> Individual copies of the December 2001 issue of Policy Perspectives can be
> obtained from the Institute for Research on Higher Education, University of
> Pennsylvania, 4200 Pine Street, 5A, Philadelphia, PA 19104-4090; phone
> (215) 898-4585. The issue is available on the Web at
> <www.irhe.upenn.edu/pubs>.
>
> 5.  JEFFERSON LECTURER ANNOUNCED
> The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently announced that
> Henry Lewis Gates, Jr. will be the 2002 Jefferson Lecturer.  Gates is the
> W.E.B. DuBois Professor of Humanities at Harvard University where he also
> serves as chair of the Afro-American studies department. Widely published
> in literature and  African-American history, he is among the best known
> American scholars.
>
> The Jefferson lecturer is selected each year through a  review process
> conducted by the National Council on the Humanities (NCH), the NEH's
> presidentially appointed advisory committee. In 2001, playwright Arthur
> Miller presented a controversial lecture that focused on politicians as
> actors against the background of the 2000 Presidential election. While many
> appreciated Miller's take on events, there were also many vocal critics who
> felt that the talk strayed too far into partisan  politics. With Professor
> Gates, the NCH members and others should have the best of both sides of the
> argument - a very  distinguished and productive scholar and a well known
> public figure.
>
> The Jefferson Lecture will be delivered on Friday,  March 22, 2002 at the
> 1,000 seat atrium at the Ronald Reagan Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in
> downtown Washington D.C.  The annual advocacy event that takes place around
> the Jefferson Day event that is organized by the National  Humanities
> Alliance and co-sponsored by more than twenty organizations is now
> scheduled for March 21 -22 .  There will be a reception for new NEH Chair,
> Bruce Cole on the 21st, with Congressional visits on the 22nd.  For more on
> the annual Jefferson Day advocacy event, tap into:
> http://www.nhalliance.org/jd/
>
> 6.  CIA DECLINES TO RELEASE HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
> According to "Secrecy News" a publication of the Federation of American
> Scientists, Project on Government Secrecy, the Central Intelligence Agency
> (CIA) is seeking to increase its control over the historical record of U.S.
> foreign policy by refusing to release four sets of documents to the State
> Department until State historians agree to new CIA conditions governing
> publication of foreign policy documents.
>
> Four Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) volumes are affected.
> CIA officials told State historians in October that they were "under
> instructions [from the Director of Central Intelligence] not to proceed
> with business as usual" because of Agency concerns about the release of
> historical documents concerning intelligence.  The CIA is demanding the
> adoption of a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Agency and
> the State Department Office of the Historian before authorizing the release
> of the published volumes. Insiders report that the new MOU would
> significantly enhance CIA authority over the production and content of the
> FRUS series.
>
> According to the latest minutes of the State Department Historical Advisory
> Committee, historian Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman "observed that those
> [document] packages were, in effect, being held hostage." Rutgers historian
> and Committee member Warren F. Kimball said, "The CIA was making it
> difficult to work with them under the threat of 'blackmail'." Robert
> Schulzinger, chairman of the Advisory Committee, said the CIA's proposed
> Memorandum of Understanding "altered the way in which the Foreign Relations
> series is published and released to the public." Further, it "curbed the
> authority of historians compiling the volumes and the authority of the
> Advisory Committee to offer advice." Marc Susser, the Historian of the
> State Department, emphasized that FRUS "is the State Department's
> publication, and we cannot let CIA take over the series." State Department
> officials have 6 months to settle still outstanding issues in the draft MOU.
>
> The dispute is described in detail in the minutes of the October 15-16
> meeting of the State Department Historical Advisory Committee that were
> approved for release at a recent Committee meeting. For the minutes of the
> Committee tap into: http://www.fas.org/sgp/advisory/state/hac1001.html#cia
>
> 7.   SAA AND OTHERS FILE AMICUS BRIEF IN ELDRED V. ASHCROFT CASE
> In 1998 Congress passed the Copyright Term Extension Act increasing the
> duration of copyright from life of the author plus fifty years to life of
> the author plus seventy years. The effect was to stop for twenty years the
> addition of any work to the public domain. As Roy Rosenzweig noted in a
> recent article in the Journal of American History, "[f]or historians,
> copyright protection has redlined... much twentieth-century history..."
>
> In response, a group of publishers and preservationists filed suit
> challenging the constitutionality of copyright term extension. The suit,
> Eldred v. Ashcroft, argues that "perpetual copyright on the installment
> plan" is in direct violation of the constitutional stipulation that the
> monopoly rights granted by copyright be for a limited term. The suit failed
> in the Federal Appeals court, but recently the plaintiffs asked the Supreme
> Court to rule on the issue.
>
> A coalition of information organizations, including the Society of American
> Archivists, the Association of Research Libraries, the American Library
> Association, the Digital Futures Coalition, and others have filed an amicus
> brief with the Court asking that they hear the case. The brief notes the
> irreparable harm done to historians and institutions that exploit the
> public domain when copyright term is excessive.
>
> A copy of the amicus brief can be found at
> http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/eldredvashcroft/cert/library-amicus.pdf>;
> more information on the suit is available at
> <http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/eldredvashcroft/>.
>
> 8.  NEWS BITS AND BYTES:
> Item #1 - NARA Releases Report on Recordkeeping: On December 14, 2001, the
> National Archives and Records Administration released a "Report on Current
> Recordkeeping Practices within the Federal Government." The report is an
> analysis of two significant data collections that reflect the current state
> of recordkeeping and records use in the Federal Government. Through the use
> of individual interviews, focus groups, and an Internet survey researchers
> were able to find out how agency officials and staff viewed records
> management and what they perceived its role to be in today's modern office.
> More than 40 Federal agencies participated in the interviews and focus
> groups, and more than 475 individuals replied to an Internet survey.
> Researchers also examined selected business processes in Federal agencies
> to determine how records are actually being created and managed.
>
> According to the report findings, many agency employees are unsure whether
> the electronic information they create constitutes an "official record" and
> consequently much data fails to make its way to the Archives. The report
> also found that many agencies have never integrated record keeping with
> their regular business practices.  E-mail messages continue to be a
> particularly troublesome. Only records such as case files tend to be
> well-managed. The report also  identifies patterns in records management,
> suggests situational models to explain those patterns, and identifies
> points where NARA could effectively intervene to improve records
> management. According to NARA officials, the report has significant
> implications for NARA's future policies and procedures.  The Archivist of
> the United States invites the public to comment. The report is available on
> the NARA web site at: http://www.nara.gov/records/rmi.html.  Comments are
> due January 31, 2002 by mail to NPOL, National Archives at College Park,
> 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001. You may also email your
> comments to comments@nara.gov or fax them to (301) 713-7270.
>
> Item #2 - Garfinkel to Retire:  Steven Garfinkel, who has overseen the
> evolution of the government secrecy system as director of the Information
> Security Oversight Office for the past two decades will retire later this
> year.  In a speech before the American Society of Access Professionals,
> Garfinkel stated,  "I leave government most proud of having protected every
> bit of the classified information with which I have been entrusted. . . I
> leave government equally proud of the unprecedented accomplishments in
> declassification that we in the executive branch have achieved over the
> past seven years. Long after all of us have been forgotten, these hundreds
> of millions of pages of declassified records will still be telling the
> story of our government and our nation."  The prepared text of Mr.
> Garfinkel's remarks is posted at: http//www.fas.org/sgp/isoo/garfinkel.html.
>
> Item #3 - Eisenhower Library Releases Recordings:  On Wednesday, January 9,
> 2002 the last of all known Dwight D. Eisenhower recordings of conversations
> will have been opened for research.  On that day, the Eisenhower
> Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas released compact discs of
> thirty-eight dictabelt sound recordings of conversations between Eisenhower
> and others in his office at Columbia University.  All of the conversations
> were recorded between September 1949 and June 1950 while Eisenhower served
> a President of Columbia University in New York City. The dictabelts record
> approximately 15 minutes of conversation each and comprise a total of 21
> separate conversations.
>
> The belts record conversations on a wide range of topics including
> politics, military history, loyalty-security, Eisenhower family history,
> the Middle East, charitable works, and world economics. In this release
> there are a total of 10 CDS, which may be purchased as a set at a cost of
> $150.00 or individually at a cost of $15.00 per CD. For further information
> contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at (301) 713-6000 or the
> Dwight D. Eisenhower Library at (785) 263-4751.
>
> Item #4 - Smithsonian Collections Management Directive:  The Smithsonian
> Institution has issued
> Smithsonian Directive 600: Collections Management Policy, the principal
> policy paper guiding collections management throughout the Smithsonian.
> Following an extensive revision, the directive was approved by Secretary
> Small on October 26, 2001. For additional information contact: Bill
> Tompkins, National Collections Coordinator, National Collections Program,
> Smithsonian Institution Archives, (202) 357-3125 or tompkinsw@si.edu
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  * *
> NCC invites you to redistribute the NCC Washington Updates.  A complete
> backfile of these reports is maintained by H-Net on the NCC's web page at
> <http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~ncc>.
> To subscribe to the "NCC Washington Update," send an e-mail message to
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