LOC approps testimony
John Wonderlich
Library of Congress Appropriations Testimony
March 6th, 2008 by John Wonderlich · No Comments
Yesterday's legislative branch subcommittee hearing featured testimony from from Dr. James Billington, the Librarian of Congress. He gave an update on current LoC initiatives, and described funding priorities. From the testimony:
Demand for online services, increased pressure on web services operations to enhance THOMAS, the World Digital Library (WDL), and the Legal Information Services (LIS) databases, and the need to develop new configurations and applications have severely strained technical assistance and infrastructure support provided by the Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI) and Information Technology Services (ITS). Since 1995, THOMAS has provided free legislative information on the web. Our congressional and public constituencies have for several years been requesting upgrades to both THOMAS and LIS to enhance content and searchability. Again, the Library will attempt to use the prioritizing tools of the Strategic Plan to address these demands with existing resources. However, the IT and digital demands on the Library will need support from the Congress in fiscal 2010 to sustain the Library's ability to provide services to the Congress and its constituents.
I'm glad to see IT and web service upgrades given priority, and hope funding is sufficiently rewarded to support the Library, especially in their capacity as stewards of public congressional information online.
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John Wonderlich
Program Director
The Sunlight Foundation
(202) 742-1520 ext. 234
Peggy Garvin
Does anyone have the text of the prepared statement?
Peggy