Museums Added to Data Highway Legislation
 
Press Release from the American Association of Museums
 
August 11 --  The Senate Commerce Committee today voted to guarantee the
nation's 8000 museums a place in the National Information Infrastructure
under the Communications Act of 1994 (S.1822).  Museum images, texts,
programming and personnel will soon be accessible to highway travelers.
 
S. 1822 would rewrite the federal communications laws and deregulate many
sectors of the telephone, cable, entertainment and computer industries.
In exchange for the profit-making opportunities of these re-regulated
markets, the telecommunications industries have been asked to provide
moderate support to specific public institutions.  Vice President Al Gore
has suggested schools, hospitals and libraries.  The Senate Commerce
Committee, at the request of AAM and hundreds of museum professionals,
added museums.
 
According to surveys by AAM, American museums -- including art, science,
history, military, specialized and children's museums, as well as zoos,
botanical gardens and aquariums -- care for and educate with more than
700,000,000 objects and provide services during 600,000,000 annual visits,
50,000,000 of which are from school children.
 
The legislation would require the telecommunications industry to assist
museums with connections to the highways through "support payments
reasonably necessary to provide universal service."  The industry would
also be under federal directive "to enhance, to the extent technically
feasible and economically reasonable, the availability of advanced
telecommunications and information services" at museums, and to provide
those services at preferential rates.
 
"The Senators on the Commerce Committee listened to their constituents,"
said Patricia E Williams, Deputy Executive Director for Programs and
Policy at AAM.  "Museum professionals around the country articulated to
their elected officials how their institutions would use the information
highways to aid scholarly research, life-long learning, and especially K-12
education."
 
Williams continued, "Just as libraries can do great things with texts on
the highways, museums can create effective educational programming with
our objects.  With the provisions of S. 1822, museums will become major
content providers on the information networks.  I think the American
public, particularly school children, will quickly see the benefits of
this legislative decision."
 
The full Senate may address the legislation in early September.
 
The American Association of Museums is the national association
representing the concerns of the entire museum community.  AAM assesses
museum programs and accredits museums; provides education and training;
operates international museum programs; and advocates for the advancement
of museums.  Since its founding in 1906, AAM has grown to include more
than 13,700 active members including 9,600 museum professionals, 2,900
museums, and 1,200 corporate members.
 
Michael Roark
American Association of Museums, Government and Public Affairs
Phone 202 289-9125 in Washington, DC