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EPA Allegedly Plans to Reduce Access to Online PublicationsAccording to internal e-mails obtained by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a national alliance of federal and state environmental-resource professionals, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is planning to remove from its libraries online access to various technical journals and environmental publications. Among the subscriptions allegedly targeted for cancellation are online newsletters supplied by commercial publisher Inside EPA (including the Superfund Report and the Clean Air Report) and Greenwire, which alone recorded over 125,000 hits from EPA staff in 2005.However, Craig Hooks, acting deputy assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office for Environmental Information, told American Libraries that the agency would continue to offer the Inside EPA special reports, but added that the EPA’s Working Capital Fund Board had “recently sought to reduce redundancy” and made changes in the number of publications the agency libraries carried. The controversy arose in the wake of EPA library closures in Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, and Washington, as well as significant cuts in hours and staff at other regional libraries. The shutdowns are a result of President Bush’s proposed agency-wide budget reduction of $100 million in FY2007, which began in October but must still be approved by Congress. “This makes no sense,” said an anonymous EPA researcher in the October 1 issue of Environmental Science and Technology. “The library is a bargain. Five minutes of a librarian’s time can save me hours.” Supporting this claim is a 2004 EPA report stating that library service saves the agency and the public between $2 and $5.70 for every $1 spent. With both physical and internet access declining, users of EPA resources—including staff scientists, researchers, lawyers, advocacy groups, and citizens—may find it harder to obtain either print or online copies of environmental reports and publications. “EPA is entering its own dark age,” PEER Director Jeff Ruch said in a press release, “where both the inward and outward flows of information are being strained through an ever-narrowing sieve.” “We don’t understand how staff will be able to do their work at the EPA and we worry that this is just another step at threatening the entire agency,” Lynne Bradley, director of the American Library Association’s Office of Government Relations, told American Libraries. “It’s bad for the EPA staff, it’s bad for the public, and it’s bad for the country.” Bradley also reported that the “budget for FY2008 will likely make even deeper cutbacks to the entire EPA budget in what appears to be a move to close down the entire agency. Until the American public puts political pressure on Congress to preserve EPA and its important functions as a whole, the likelihood of reopening the EPA libraries and stabilizing the modest library services still available is extremely low.” Posted October 13, 2006. |
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