Affiliations: Deputy Director, National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA
Abstract: This lecture is being given on the occasion of NFAIS' 40th Anniversary. The sixties, shortly after NFAIS was formed, blossomed into a decade of unprecedented development of Scientific & Technical Information (STI) programs and initiatives in both the public and private sectors. The Weinberg report, the formation of the Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Committee on Scientific and Technical Information (COSATI) in the Office of the President, as well as the birth of MEDLARS from the National Library of Medicine marked this decade. The 70's saw some dismantling of government-wide STI efforts, but the Rockefeller Report reaffirmed the need for cooperative public/private development of national information policy. The eighties saw National Academy of Sciences (NAS) studies in information technology, the emergence of NSFNET, Federal STI was seen by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) as important to the U.S. competitive edge, and the formation of CENDI took up the mantel of the former COSATI. By the close of the decade the High Performance Computing & Communication Agencies (HPCC), the National Information Infrastructure (NII), the Internet, and the World Wide Web reinvented the Government and improved information access for citizens. Throughout all these years the relationship between the Feds and the private sector with regard to information dissemination roles has generated controversy. OSTP failed to assume its legislative role in formulating information management policy, and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) attempted to fill the gap. A new framework is proposed here to deal with information policy, including such arenas as database protection, copyright, fair use, privacy, information access etc. and, hopefully an atmosphere of renewed cooperation across all sectors in the information chain that will result in the delivery of STI for the common good.
