HBA-CMT C.S.H.B. 3591 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 3591 By: Hunter State, Federal & International Relations 4/6/2001 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE An academic statewide resource sharing project was first funded in Fiscal Year 1994 under the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The 53 publicly supported four-year academic and medical libraries were original TexShare members. In the 75th Legislature, legislation was passed that expanded TexShare membership to independent academic institutions and community colleges, and established TexShare as a program of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. During the 76th Legislature, legislation was passed which brought public libraries into TexShare, and in September 1999, the State Library assumed full administrative responsibility for TexShare. Currently, TexShare is managing the transition from a resource sharing program focused on academic institutions to one that fosters resource sharing among all academic and public libraries. C.S.H.B. 3591 expands membership in TexShare to include nonprofit libraries that provide extensive library services and collections in the fields of clinical medicine and the history of medicine. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS C.S.H.B. 3591 amends the Government and Utilities codes relating to the TexShare consortium. The bill includes libraries of nonprofit corporations, in the fields of clinical medicine and the history of medicine, as entities for which the TexShare resource-sharing consortium is maintained by the Texas State Libraries and Archives Commission. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 3591 modifies the original bill to conform to Texas Legislative Council Style and format.