An Interagency Panel for Assessment of the National Agricultural Library (NAL) is hereby established. The Panel is to review the activities of the National Agricultural Library in pursuit of its mandate to serve as the chief agricultural information resource of the United States and to make recommendations to the Under Secretary, Research, Education, and Economics on NAL's management, staff, programs and operations.
 
The NAL serves as a national library, one of the four U.S. national libraries, the library of the United States Department of Agriculture, and as a leader in international agricultural library and information resources, under very different operational policies and programs.
 
The panel is being asked to complete its work within twelve months with the issuance of a final report. The Panel may not be extended beyond one year without special review and approval by the Deputy Secretary.
 
August 2000