HOUSE BILL REPORT

                 ESB 5745

             As Reported By House Committee On:

                     Energy & Utilities

                       Appropriations

Title:  An act relating to interlibrary sharing.

Brief Description:  Creating the PNWER‑Net working group.

Sponsors:  Senators Bluechel, Bauer, Skratek, Cantu, Erwin, M. Rasmussen and Sheldon.

Brief History:

  Reported by House Committee on:

Energy & Utilities, March 26, 1993, DP;

Appropriations, April 3, 1993, DPA.

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY & UTILITIES

Majority Report:  Do pass.  Signed by 8 members:  Representatives Grant, Chair; Finkbeiner, Vice Chair; Casada, Ranking Minority Member; Miller, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Johanson; Kessler; Long; and Ludwig.

Staff:  Ken Conte (786-7113).

Background:  In 1991, the Legislature enacted legislation creating and committing to Washington's participation in the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER).  The PNWER was established to improve competitiveness and provide economic benefits to the participating states and provinces.  Among other things, the PNWER agreement encourages collaboration and cooperative arrangements between the participating states and provinces in the areas of trade, economic development, human resources, the environment and natural resources, energy, and education.

Participating states and provinces are proposing to electronically share 22 million volumes from the libraries of their major universities.

Summary of Bill:  The Pacific Northwest Economic Region-Net (PNWER-Net) is defined as the technology network to be created by the member states and provinces of PNWER that will be capable of electronically linking the libraries of certain undergraduate universities of the member states and provinces.  The libraries of the University of Washington (UW) and Washington State University (WSU) are designated as the libraries from this state which will be a part of PNWER-Net.

The PNWER-Net working subgroup is created for the state of Washington.  It will be composed of seven members, two from the Senate, two from the House of Representatives, the state librarian, and the primary academic librarian from each of the state's research universities (UW and WSU).

The PNWER-Net subgroup is directed to work with subgroups from other member states and provinces to develop the library network and to assist in developing criteria to ensure that member libraries use existing telecommunications infrastructure including Internet.  The subgroup is to report to the Legislature by December 1, 1994, concerning the status of PNWER-Net.

The PNWER-Net account is created.  The account is subject to allotment, but not appropriation.  All receipts from appropriations and gifts, grants and donations will be deposited into the account.  Expenditures from the account may only be used for the purpose of developing the PNWER-Net system.  Funds in the account may be expended only after the PNWER-Net technology is capable of linking the designated libraries between two or more member states or provinces and at least two member states or provinces have committed to funding linkage to PNWER-Net.

The PNWER-Net subgroup may accept gifts, grants and donations from private sources for the purposes of developing the system.  The subgroup is to account for all funds spent from the PNWER-Net account.

Fiscal Note:  Available.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session  in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:  This bill is part of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region which was established to enable the Pacific Northwest region to participate in the global economy.  Currently, libraries in the region have the capability to share some information but not text.  Subgroups will be working to develop the hardware and software capabilities to actually share text and to determine in what order the expansions should take place.  Similar bills are currently being put through in other states.

Testimony Against:  None.

Witnesses:  Senator Bluechel, prime sponsor.

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

Majority Report:  Do pass as amended.  Signed by 24 members:  Representatives Locke, Chair; Valle, Vice Chair; Silver, Ranking Minority Member; Carlson, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Appelwick; Ballasiotes; Basich; Cooke; Dellwo; Dorn; Dunshee; Jacobsen; Lemmon; Linville; Peery; Rust; Sehlin; Sheahan; Sommers; Stevens; Talcott; Wang; Wineberry; and Wolfe.

Minority Report:  Do not pass.  Signed by 1 member:  Representative G. Fisher.

Staff:  Beth Redfield (786-7130).

Summary of Recommendation of Committee on Appropriations Compared to Recommendation of Committee on Energy & Utilities:  Expenditures from the PNWER-Net account shall be authorized by the chair of the Higher Education Coordinating Board rather than the chair of the PNWER-Net Working Subgroup.

Fiscal Note:  Available.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:  PNWER-Net would increase the collections of the participating libraries in the northwest to 7,000,000 more volumes than Stanford, MIT, and Harvard combined.  It was the intent that the members would absorb the costs of participation in the working group.  The hardware for the network is already paid for by the federal government.  The primary issue for the working group is that of intellectual property given that the network will be transmitting text.

Testimony Against:  None.

Witnesses:  Senator Bluechel (prime sponsor).