[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 154 (Friday, August 9, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51891-51893]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-20188]


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NATIONAL FOUNDATION ON THE ARTS AND THE HUMANITIES


National Endowment for the Humanities; Solicitation of Public 
Comments on Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, 
Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by the 
National Endowment for the Humanities

AGENCY: National Endowment for the Humanities.

ACTION: Notice and Request for public comment.

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SUMMARY: The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announces that 
its draft Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, 
Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by the 
National Endowment for the Humanities have been posted on its Web site, 
www.neh.gov. NEH invites public comments on its draft Guidelines and 
will consider the comments received in developing its final Guidelines.

DATES: Comments are due on or before September 9, 2002. Final 
Guidelines are to be published by October 1, 2002.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments to the Office of General Counsel, National 
Endowment for the Humanities, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, 
DC 20506, [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Daniel Schneider, General Counsel, 
telephone 202-606-8322, [email protected]. Hearing-impaired 
individuals may contact NEH by TDD/TTY at 202-606-8338.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 515 of the Treasury and General 
Government Appropriations Act for FY

[[Page 51892]]

2001 (Pub. L. 106-554) requires each Federal agency to publish 
guidelines for ensuring and maximizing the quality, objectivity, 
utility, and integrity of the information it disseminates. Agency 
guidelines must be based on government-wide guidelines issued by the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In compliance with this 
statutory requirement and OMB instructions, NEH has posted its draft 
Information Quality Guidelines on its Web site (www.neh.gov).
    The Guidelines describe the agency's procedures for ensuring the 
quality of information that it disseminates and the procedures by which 
an affected person may obtain correction of information disseminated by 
NEH that does not comply with the Guidelines. NEH invites public 
comments on its draft Guidelines and will consider the comments 
received in developing its proposed final Guidelines, which must be 
submitted to OMB for review. The agency's final Guidelines are to be 
published by October 1, 2002. Persons who cannot access the draft 
Guidelines through the Internet may request a paper or electronic copy 
by contacting the Office of the General Counsel.

Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, 
Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by the National 
Endowment for the Humanities

    These Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, 
Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by the 
National Endowment for the Humanities are prepared under the Treasury 
and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001, Section 
515(b), and are designed to ensure and maximize the quality, 
objectivity, utility and integrity of information disseminated by NEH.

1. Scope

    These guidelines apply to information whose dissemination is 
initiated or sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities on 
or after October 1, 2002, regardless of when the information was first 
disseminated. The types of information dissemination that are covered 
by these guidelines include the following:
     Statistics and data about national conditions in the 
humanities produced by this agency or its contractors.
     Analytical studies about national conditions in the 
humanities produced by this agency or its contractors.
     Information such as annual NEH Performance Reports 
presented to Congress and intended to be released simultaneously to the 
public.
    The types of information dissemination that are not covered by 
these guidelines include the following:
     Distribution intended to be limited to government 
employees, agency contractors, or grantees.
     Intra- or inter-agency use or sharing of government 
information.
     Responses to requests for agency records under the Freedom 
of Information Act, the Privacy Act, the Federal Advisory Committee Act 
or other similar law.
     Correspondence with individuals or persons.
     Press releases, fact sheets, press conferences or similar 
communications in any medium that announce, support the announcement or 
give public notice of information NEH has disseminated elsewhere.
     Archival records.
     Congressional submissions not intended to be released 
simultaneously to the public.
     Public filings, subpoenas or adjudicative processes.
     Public information about basic agency operations and grant 
programs.
     Opinions when the presenter makes it clear what is being 
offered are neither objective facts nor views that the agency endorses 
as its own.
     Scholarship, education materials and curricula, or 
humanities programs for the public distributed by agency grantees, 
contractors, or employees that are clearly identified as not 
representing an official position of the National Endowment for the 
Humanities. It is the policy of this agency that information 
disseminated by grantees, contractors, or employees not specifically 
authorized to represent an official NEH position will be accompanied by 
the following disclaimer statement: ``All opinions, findings, 
conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this (publication) 
(program) (exhibition) do not necessarily represent those of the 
National Endowment for the Humanities.''

2. Ensuring and Maximizing Information Quality

    The National Endowment for the Humanities awards grants in support 
of teaching, scholarship, and programs for the general public in 
history, literature, language, philosophy, and other disciplines of the 
humanities. The results of humanities activities supported by the 
Endowment are disseminated, with or without NEH support, to students 
and teachers, the scholarly community, and the general public in a 
multitude of formats and contexts, including school and college 
curricula; study opportunities for teachers; scholarly journal articles 
and monographs; data bases, websites, and other digital formats; museum 
exhibitions; and programs for television and radio. Project proposals 
submitted to the Endowment are subjected to an exacting and highly 
selective process of peer review before any funding is awarded. 
Although the Endowment takes great care to select only the most 
meritorious project proposals for funding, NEH grantees and contractors 
are wholly responsible for conducting their project activities and 
preparing the results for public distribution unless specifically 
authorized to represent information on behalf of the agency.

3. Objectivity

    It is the policy of the National Endowment for the Humanities to 
ensure the objectivity of all information that this agency disseminates 
to the public. So that disseminated information is reliably accurate, 
clear, complete, and unbiased, the Endowment is implementing a 
multidimensional information quality strategy that includes the 
following: identifying the sources of information, grounding every 
information product in reliable data and sound analytical techniques, 
providing an appropriately full context for information, and carefully 
reviewing each information product before releasing it to the public.
    The Endowment is tasked by its authorizing legislation to ``develop 
a practical system of national information and data collection on the 
humanities, scholars, educational and cultural groups, and their 
audiences.'' In fulfillment of this Congressional mandate, NEH designs, 
supports, and directs a variety of data collection and research 
projects, including periodic surveys. NEH-sponsored data collection 
projects are contracted and conducted using methodologies that are 
consistent with generally accepted professional standards, including 
the statistical standards and practices developed by the Federal 
Committee on Statistical Methodology, the guidelines and policies set 
forth in the Paperwork Reduction Act, and other regulations related to 
the conduct of surveys.
    NEH does not normally disseminate ``influential scientific, 
financial, or statistical information'' of the kind defined in OMB's 
quality guidelines as likely to ``have a clear and substantial impact 
on important public policies or important private sector decisions.'' 
Nor are data-gathering projects or analytical studies conducted by the 
Endowment likely to become the basis of federal

[[Page 51893]]

rulings that have the force and effect of law. Consequently, the most 
stringent OMB quality standards for transparency of documentation and 
reproducibility of results are unlikely to apply to the dissemination 
of information by the National Endowment for the Humanities. 
Nevertheless, NEH is committed to ensuring that data-gathering projects 
and analytical studies conducted by the Endowment or on its behalf 
comply with generally accepted disciplinary and professional standards 
with respect to the transparency of documentary sources and research 
methods. It is the Endowment's policy to document the data sources, 
quantitative methods and assumptions, and checks that support any 
analytical results produced and disseminated by this agency so that 
appropriately qualified members of the public will be adequately 
informed to make an independent judgment of their validity.
    As part of its data gathering function, the Endowment also prepares 
information products using data produced or maintained by other federal 
agencies, non-profit organizations, foreign governments, and 
international organizations. All external data are reviewed for 
relevance and are properly sourced and cited. Known limitations of the 
external data are clearly stated.

4. Utility

    The Endowment is committed to ensuring the usefulness for its 
intended audience of the information that this agency disseminates. 
Data gathering projects such as surveys are designed and developed in 
conformity with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act and 
after consultation with a variety of data consumers and stakeholders, 
including other federal agencies, professional societies, and nonprofit 
organizations. As appropriate, analytical studies are reviewed prior to 
publication by experts outside the agency.

5. Integrity

    NEH has been a leader in the national effort to develop standards 
and best practices for the creation, dissemination, and maintenance of 
access to humanities materials in digital formats. Moreover, the 
Endowment is committed to ensuring that its own computer data systems 
are secure against unauthorized access or revision, compromise of 
confidentiality, and inadvertent corruption. The Endowment's system of 
information security controls include sound practices that have been 
recognized as responsive to the requirements of the Government 
Information Security Reform Act (GISRA).
    NEH is subject to a variety of statutory requirements to protect 
information that the agency gathers and maintains. These requirements 
are set forth in the following:
     Privacy Act of 1974;
     Computer Security Act of 1987;
     OMB Circulars A-123, A-127, and A-130;
     Government Information Security Reform Act; and
     Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act of 1982.

6. Information Correction Mechanism

    Persons affected by the public dissemination of information 
initiated or sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities may 
request correction of any such information that they believe does not 
comply with the above Information Quality Guidelines, or with the 
broader guidelines issued by OMB. Affected persons are those who may 
benefit or be harmed by NEH-disseminated information.
    To facilitate citizen review, affected persons may seek and obtain, 
where appropriate, timely correction of information maintained and 
disseminated by NEH that does not comply with OMB or NEH guidelines.
    a. Requests for correction should be sent in writing, by mail, fax, 
or email to: Information Quality, National Endowment for the 
Humanities, Room 403, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 
20506. 202-606-8428. [email protected].
    b. The request should clearly identify the information asserted to 
be incorrect, including the name of the publication or other source of 
information, the date of issuance, and a detailed description of the 
information to be corrected. The request should state specifically why 
the information should be corrected and suggest specific changes.
    c. The request should include the requester's name, mailing 
address, fax number, email address, and telephone number. NEH needs 
this information to respond to the request and to contact the requester 
as necessary.
    d. If a request does not reasonably describe the information 
asserted to be incorrect, NEH may request additional information.
    The Endowment's Assistant Chairman for Planning and Operations has 
been designated NEH Information Quality Official. The Information 
Quality Official will coordinate an objective review of all valid 
complaints. Valid complaints are defined as neither frivolous nor made 
in bad faith. An objective review is understood as one conducted 
independently of the NEH programmatic office that originated the 
information at issue.
    NEH will generally notify the requester of the agency decision on 
whether and how any corrections will be made within 30 business days of 
receipt of the request. If the requester does not agree with the 
agency's decision regarding corrective action, the requester may file 
for reconsideration by the Chairman within 30 days of NEH's decision. 
Such reconsideration requests will generally be resolved within 45 
business days.
    On an annual fiscal-year basis, NEH will submit a report to the 
Director of OMB providing information (both quantitative and 
qualitative, where appropriate) on the number and nature of complaints 
received by NEH regarding agency compliance with these guidelines and 
how such complaints were resolved. NEH will submit these reports no 
later than January 1 of each following year, with the first report due 
January 1, 2004.

    Dated: August 6, 2002.
    For the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Daniel Schneider,
General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 02-20188 Filed 8-8-02; 8:45 am]
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