Shutdown of EPA libraries worries scientists, advocates....

[marmar]

From McClatchy, via CommonDreams:

Published on Saturday, December 2, 2006 by the McClatchy Newspapers
Shutdown of EPA Libraries Worries Scientists, Advocates
by David Goldstein

WASHINGTON - Concerned about the kinds of pollutants spilling into your local rivers and streams and how they could affect your health?

As the Environmental Protection Agency closes some scientific libraries around the country, EPA scientists and other environmental advocates worry whether that kind of information could become harder to find.

They fear that the agency's plan to save money by replacing printed resources with digitized versions on the Internet could make information less - not more - accessible.

"Nobody is against modernization, but we don't see the digitization," said Francesca Grifo, a botanist and the director of scientific integrity at the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group for the environment and other scientific issues. "We just see the libraries closing. We just see that public access has been cut off."

The EPA has closed three of its 10 regional libraries, branches in Kansas City, Mo., Dallas and Chicago that serve 15 states. EPA officials said that no information would be lost and that public access would be improved rather than compromised.

"EPA is committed to ensuring the agency's library materials are available to employees, the public, the scientific community, the legal community and other organizations," Linda Travers, the acting assistant administrator of the EPA's Office of Environmental Information, said in an e-mail.

Travers said material from the closed libraries would be available on the agency's Web site (www.epa.gov) in January and was accessible now through interlibrary loans. She said EPA-produced documents from all 21 libraries in the agency's network that could be digitized would be accessible through the Internet within two years.

But the closing gives ammunition to scientists, open-records supporters and members of Congress who think that the Bush administration is weakening the EPA. An internal agency memo last summer spelled out plans to close laboratories, cut senior-level scientists and reduce environmental oversight.

Steve Kinser, a Superfund project engineer in Kansas City and the president of the local chapter of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents the EPA's professional employees, said the developments had made him look forward to his retirement next year even more.

"Our ability to do our job is being tested at every turn," he said. "I don't know if I can say anything more plain than that.".........

The rest of the article is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1202

[Miss Chybil]

1. Digitize, then close, if you must. I hope the new Congress takes this on. nt

[havocmom]

3. Digital info restricted too. It is not the library they closed, it's the info.

an email I got not long ago:

Hi All,
Not only does EPA shut down its libraries but it now is eliminating electronic access to much information needed by its scientists to do their job. Bernadine Abbott Hoduski, ALA Councilor at Large, 312 N. Howie, Helena, Montana

Sent: Monday, October 09, 2006 3:36 PM
From: "Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)" [e-mail]>
Subject: PRESS RELEASE: EPA Scientists Losing Access to Journals Monday, October 9, 2006
Contact: ### ### ### ###

EPA SCIENTISTS LOSING ACCESS TO JOURNALS
Cuts in Subscription Budgets Take Scientific Journals and Eco-News Offline

Washington, DC ? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is sharply reducing the number of technical journals and environmental publications to which its employees will have online access, according to agency e-mails released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
This loss of online access compounds the effect of agency library closures, meaning that affected employees may not have access to either a hard copy or an electronic version of publications. Citing budgetary shortfalls, cancellations of online subscriptions will be felt more sharply in some EPA offices and regions than others. For example,
one e-mail notes: ?Region 3 needs to cut its journal renewals about in half and the journals in question are very expensive.?
Other offices will face cuts of as yet unspecified but likely comparable dimensions.

In addition to technical journals, EPA is also canceling its subscriptions to widely-read environmental news reports, such as Greenwire, The Clean Air Report and The Superfund Report, which summarize and synthesize breaking events and trends inside industry, government and academia. Greenwire, for example, recorded more than 125,000 hits from EPA staff last year.

As a result of these cuts, agency scientists and other technical specialists will no longer have ready access to materials that keep them abreast of developments within their fields. Moreover, enforcement staff, investigators and other professionals will have a harder time tracking new developments affecting their cases and projects.

EPA?s professionals need current information in order to do their jobs, but with each passing month, even these basic tools are being put off limits, stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, whose organization has been
drawing attention to EPA?s shuttering of its technical libraries. EPA is entering its own Dark Age, where both the inward and outward flows of information are being strained through an ever-narrowing sieve.

Ironically, EPA managers had sought to ease employee concerns about library closures by claiming that the agency is implementing a new library plan to make environmental information more accessible to employees, according to a mid-September e-mail sent to all Headquarters employees concerning the closure of the Headquarters library. Contrary to these assurances, however, the way in which the agency is implementing budget reductions portends that employee access to materials will markedly decline. In addition, cancellation of hard copy subscriptions occasioned by library closures has actually driven up online subscription costs, as online discounts for hard copy subscribers have been forfeit.

Overall, EPA?s research budget is also being reduced, even though President Bush is seeking selected increases in EPA research for topics such as nanotechnology and drinking water system security as part of an American
Competitive Initiative.

Without libraries and scientific journals, EPA may have to drop out of the President's Competitive Initiative, Ruch added.

If you want the contact info I blacked out, PM havocmom.

[havocmom]

2. This issue is immensely important and telling. We need to get it out more.

Have been trouble at how little is mentioned about this corporate-serving censorship.

Also wonder how much the stock market is being played by the few who get good info and work to prevent others from accessing the same info.

They aren't just fiddling while Rome burns, they are betting on outcome.

[marmar]

4. "They aren't just fiddling while Rome burns, they are betting on outcome."

Agreed. It's almost unbelievable.

[OneBlueSky]

5. when the government starts destroying knowledge . . .

it's time for them to go . . .