FINAL BILL REPORT

                           ESB 5745

                          C 485 L 93

                      SYNOPSIS AS ENACTED

Brief Description:  Creating the PNWER‑Net working group.

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

SENATE COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY & UTILITIES

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

BACKGROUND:

In 1991 the Legislature enacted the Pacific Northwest Economic Region agreement which made this state a member along with Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, and Montana, and the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia.  In entering into this agreement, the Legislature also encouraged the establishment of cooperative activities between the member states and provinces.  The member states and provinces now propose to cooperate in electronically sharing 22 million volumes from the libraries of their major universities.  The member states and provinces have determined that interlibrary sharing will provide substantial economic and educational benefits.

SUMMARY:

The Pacific Northwest Economic Region-Net (PNWER-Net) is defined as the technology network to be created by the member states and provinces of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region that will be capable of electronically linking certain undergraduate university libraries of the members.  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 member state of Washington.  It is 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 the internet.  The subgroup is to report to the Legislature by December 1, 1994 concerning the status of PNWER-Net.

The PNWER-Net working group may accept gifts, grants and donations from private sources for the purposes of developing the system.

VOTES ON FINAL PASSAGE:

Senate    45   0

House     94   0    (House amended)

Senate             (Senate refused to concur)

Conference Committee

House     96   0

Senate    42   2

EFFECTIVE:July 25, 1993