HP Contribution Facilitates Internet Access For The U.S. Library Of
Congress Geography And Map Division

More than 200,000 Cartographic Materials to be On-line by End of Decade

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA. MAY 14, 1996

Hewlett-Packard Company today announced it has donated more than $600,000
in computer equipment to the U.S. Library of Congress, a donation that the
library says will enable it to make a broad collection of cartographic
material available on the Internet by the year 2000. The library says the
equipment will be used to promote and enhance the collections and services
of the Geography and Map Division through its new Center for Geographic
Information.

The Library of Congress, along with several geographic information
companies, including HP, established The Center for Geographic Information
to support the contributions to the National Digital Library Program and
coordinate contributions of resources and knowledge from a wide spectrum
of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) industry to do the following:

* advise and provide financial support to aid the Geography and Map
Division in its transition from printed maps and atlases to electronic
maps and digital geographic information;

* facilitate the electronic sharing of the Geography and Map Division's
resources;

* promote the use of GIS by libraries, academia, industry and commerce,
education and the general public;

* encourage donations of digital spatial data sets by U.S. and other
governments, industry and academia; and

* advance the Library's publication, education and exhibition programs in
geographic information and cartography.

Currently, the Geography and Map Division houses the equivalent of nearly
two acres of cartographic information, including 4.5 million maps, 60
thousand atlases, 1.5 million microform map images and thousands of other
items. Materials in the collection date from the 1300s and comprise an
unmatched resource of geographic information about the earth.

"The equipment donated by HP is important to us in two ways," said
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. "First, it will provide the
foundation on which we can begin building collections and services related
to all digital forms of geographic information. Second, it will allow us
quickly to implement a program of scanning our unparalleled collection of
historic maps and making them available on-line to the nation as well as
to the geographic information systems community."

Funding for the National Digital Library Program started with an initial
sponsorship in 1994 by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation. A
Chairman's grant in the amount of $5 million was awarded to the Library of
Congress to help establish the National Digital Library with hopes of
providing on-line access in schools and public libraries to at least 5
million digital items by the year 2000.

In July 1995, HP formalized an agreement with the Library of Congress for
the donation of a suite of equipment built around the HP 9000 Model K400
server to provide the foundation on which the library says the division's
GIS facility will be built. The donation includes an optical-storage
device, several HP 9000 workstations to support post-processing of maps
that have been scanned for inclusion in the National Digital Library,
ENVIZEX X stations, Pentium-based PCs and HP Pavilion home multimedia PCs
for public access to scanned maps, as well as current geographic data and
software and a variety of peripherals such as LaserJet printers, a DeskJet
1600 printer and a DesignJet 755C color plotter. Training for system
administrators, installation and support also were included in the
donation.

As the world's largest library, the Library of Congress embraces every
field of knowledge in nearly every language. Holding 108 million items in
all formats, the Library's first priority is to provide reference and
research support for the Congress; its collections, however, are also
available to other branches of government, scholars, researchers, students
and the general public. The Library also serves as the national cataloging
and bibliographic center for the library world. Results of research and
development in library science are shared with other libraries in the
United States. The Library also administers the U.S. Copyright system and
the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. For
more information, access the Library's homepage at http://www.loc.gov/.

HP donated nearly $70 million in cash and equipment to nonprofit
organizations worldwide in fiscal year 1995. According to an annual
philanthropic survey by Taft Group, HP is the fourth-largest corporate
donor of cash and equipment in the United States.

Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global manufacturer of computing,
communications and measurement products and services recognized for
excellence in quality and support. HP has 105,200 employees and had
revenue of $31.5 billion in its 1995 fiscal year.

Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at
http://www.hp.com.
 
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