EPA : The Fight Continues

After months of wrangling with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over plans to slash services at its network of regional specialty libraries, the matter was front and center February 6 when the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee took up the matter with EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson at a public hearing.

In a letter to the committee chair, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, D-CA, the day before the committee hearing, I shared with her YOUR concern that the closure of EPA libraries and a dramatic reduction in services could have devastating long-term impacts on public health and safety.

"We are particularly concerned about the effects the proposed closures will have, and are having, on the public’s ability to access data and information necessary to scientists, policy makers and corporate entities to operate in the public good. We have heard from many SLA members in the scientific and medical community who have told us the closure of the EPA libraries will impact their work directly," I wrote.

I also suggested several questions to Senator Boxer for use during the hearing. These questions focused primarily on whether EPA had assessed the full economic and environmental consequences of its plan to cut $2 million from its library budget in 2006 and whether the Agency had consulted with information professionals on best practices for securing and digitizing its library collection. Further, I recommended Senator Boxer ask the Administrator who exactly uses the Agency’s library services and if EPA can develop a system to serve these various constituencies effectively?

Not only did Senator Boxer reflect our concerns in her questioning of Administrator Johnson, she acknowledged SLA several times during the hearing for its commitment and leadership on this important issue.

It pleases me the Senator recognizes the effort many of you have made to bring this matter to light and to do something about it. As you know, SLA was the first library association to raise this issue publicly, and you should be proud of the good work you’ve done to address it.

The full text of the Administrator's testimony is available online, and SLA will continue to monitor EPA’s activities as it moves forward with the restructuring of its library system, and you can be sure we won’t be shy about letting Senator Boxer and the staff of the Environment and Public Works Committee know if we identify any further problems.   

Comments

[John Crosby]

WAY COOL! Any chance you can get Al Gore involved in the fight? It would seem to dovetail nicely with his upcoming speech at SLA 2007... ;-)

John Crosby

[John T. Adams III]

For detailed coverage of the hearing, see the article "SLA Seeks Study on EPA Library Cutbacks" in the March issue of Information Outlook.

SLA members can read it online at http://www.sla.org/content/Shop/Information/thisissue.cfm.

[Ethel M Salonen, SLA Past President]

Thank you for all the work you do for the profession and for elevating the image of SLA!

[Barbara Wagner]

Thanks to SLA for standing up for the specialized libraries that comprise the EPA Library Network. More than a quarter of them have been shut down.
Congress is starting to take action, so contacting your Representatives and Senators would be timely.

Unfortunately, the February 6 SLA news release did not get picked up by the media. Perhaps it could be sent out again with an update.

There are two hearings coming up: one today 3/7 by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and the other on March 8, one by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The Webcasts are archived.