1.1                          A bill for an act 
  1.2             relating to education; establishing a data access 
  1.3             program for public libraries and school media centers; 
  1.4             appropriating money. 
  1.5   BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
  1.6      Section 1.  [DATABASE ACCESS PROGRAM FOR PUBLIC LIBRARIES 
  1.7   AND SCHOOL MEDIA CENTERS.] 
  1.8      Subdivision 1.  [ESTABLISHMENT.] The commissioner of 
  1.9   children, families, and learning shall establish a program to 
  1.10  provide statewide licenses to commercial electronic databases of 
  1.11  periodicals, encyclopedias, and associated reference materials 
  1.12  for school media centers and public libraries.  The commissioner 
  1.13  shall solicit proposals for access licenses to commercial 
  1.14  vendors of the databases.  Responses to those proposals shall be 
  1.15  evaluated by staff of the office of library development and 
  1.16  services, in the department of children, families, and learning, 
  1.17  Minitex staff, and a representative panel of school media 
  1.18  specialists and public librarians. 
  1.19     Subd. 2.  [ELIGIBILITY.] Access to the selected databases 
  1.20  shall be made available to a school media center that is a 
  1.21  member of a multicounty, multitype library system as defined in 
  1.22  Minnesota Statutes, section 134.001, subdivision 6, or a public 
  1.23  library as defined in Minnesota Statutes, section 134.001, 
  1.24  subdivision 2.  With appropriate authentication any user of an 
  1.25  eligible library may have access to the databases from a remote 
  2.1   site. 
  2.2      Sec. 2.  [APPROPRIATIONS.] 
  2.3      $2,800,000 is appropriated in fiscal year 1998 and 
  2.4   $2,800,000 is appropriated in fiscal year 1999 from the general 
  2.5   fund to the commissioner of children, families, and learning for 
  2.6   the purposes of section 1.