I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 3379
To establish the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress
to maintain and preserve recordings that are culturally, historically,
or aesthetically significant, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NOVEMBER 16, 1999
Mr. HOYER (for himself, Mr. NEY, Mr. DAVIS of Florida, Mr. CLEMENT, Mr.
GORDON, Mr. WAMP, Mr. TANNER, Mr. FORD, Mr. JENKINS, Mr. DUN-
CAN, Mr. SERRANO, and Ms. MCCARTHY of Missouri) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administra-
tion, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to
be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
A BILL
To establish the National Recording Registry in the Library
of Congress to maintain and preserve recordings that
are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Recording
Preservation Act of 1999’’.
TITLE I—RECORDING PRESER-
VATION BY THE LIBRARY OF
CONGRESS
Subtitle A—National Recording
Registry
SEC. 101. NATIONAL RECORDING REGISTRY OF THE LI-
BRARY OF CONGRESS.
The Librarian of Congress shall establish the Na-
tional Recording Registry for the purpose of maintaining
and preserving recordings that are culturally, historically,
or aesthetically significant.
SEC. 102. DUTIES OF LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS.
(a) ESTABLISHMENT
OF CRITERIA
AND PROCE-
DURES.—For purposes of carrying out this subtitle, the
Librarian shall—
(1) establish criteria and procedures under
which recordings may be included in the National
Recording Registry, except that no recording shall
be eligible for inclusion in the National Recording
Registry until 10 years after the recording’s cre-
ation;
(2) establish procedures under which the gen-
eral public may make recommendations to the Na-
tional Recording Preservation Board established
under subtitle C regarding the inclusion of record-
ings in the National Recording Registry; and
(3) determine which recordings satisfy the cri-
teria established under paragraph (1) and select
such recordings for inclusion in the National Record-
ing Registry, except that the Librarian may not se-
lect more than 25 recordings or groups of recordings
each year for inclusion in the Registry.
(b) PUBLICATION
OF RECORDINGS
IN
THE REG-
ISTRY.—The Librarian shall publish in the Federal Reg-
ister the name of each recording that is selected for inclu-
sion in the National Recording Registry.
SEC. 103. SEAL OF THE NATIONAL RECORDING REGISTRY.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Librarian shall provide a seal
to indicate that a recording has been included in the Na-
tional Recording Registry and is the Registry version of
that recording.
(b) USE OF SEAL.—The Librarian shall establish
guidelines for approval of the use of the seal provided
under subsection (a), and shall include in the guidelines
the following:
(1) The seal may only be used on recording
copies of the Registry version of a recording.