[Lots of good links in the original article in 'the Scientist' ]
Budget cuts imperil EPA library system
http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/23221/
Research database, access to documents may be curtailed in Fiscal 2007
budget proposal
[Published 10th March 2006 04:37 PM GMT]
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials are proposing to cut funding
by 80% for the agency's , a system that supports the research needs of
thousands of EPA staff scientists and enforcement personnel, environmental
biologists and ecologists in academia and industry, and members of the
general public.
"The libraries are a good resource," said Fred Stoss, associate librarian
for biological and environmental sciences and mathematics at the State
University of New York at Buffalo. "Closing down the library network will
have great ramifications for EPA staff scientists and policy analysts," he
told The Scientist.
"It concerns me a great deal," echoed Craig M. Schiffries, senior scientist
at the (NCSE). "EPA has identified reliance on sound science and credible
data among the guiding principles to fulfill their mission to protect human
health and the environment. It would appear that access to world-class
library resources would be needed to fulfill those goals," he told The
Scientist.
EPA has $2.0 million from the library system's $2.5 million budget for
Fiscal 2007, which begins Oct. 1, 2006. The network includes 27 libraries
serving 10 regional offices, two research centers, and 12 research
laboratories around the country. Combined holdings include more than half a
million books and reports, 3,500 journal titles, 25,000 maps, and 3.6
million items on microfilm. Last year, EPA libraries handled more than
134,000 research requests and cataloged about 50,000 unique documents.
Cutting $2 million from the budget could entail reducing operations at or
even closing selected regional libraries, letting go of a third of
contractor library staff, and shutting down the Online Library System
(OLS), an electronic catalog of library holdings, according to an prepared
last year by the EPA Library Network Workgroup, a group of library
officials who evaluated the proposed cuts.
EPA spokesperson Suzanne Ackerman confirmed the agency wants to cut $2
million from the library budget but said details have not been worked out.
"We have no intention of stopping providing important information to our
scientists or doing away with library services," she told The Scientist. A
statement she later provided to The Scientist said: "EPA is working to
modernize an outdated system by streamlining our physical collections and
making them available on-line to provide more information to a wider group
of people -- including scientists."
But many of EPA's reports and documents exist only in print and must be
converted into digital format to be available on-line, a process for which
no budget presently exists. "Virtually everything the agency had done
before 1990, which is a considerable volume of work, is largely in
hard-copy format," said Jeff Ruch, executive director of (PEER), a
nonprofit that first drew attention to the library controversy.
Members of EPA's may be questioned about the issue when the House Science
Subcommittee on Environment, Technology, and Standards holds a hearing on
EPA's R&D budget March 16, committee spokesman Joe Pouliot told The
Scientist.
For , EPA's overall budget would fall by $310 million -- or 4.1% -- to $7.3
billion. Research and development funding would decline by 7.1% to $528
million, according to an by the American Association for the Advancement
of Science (AAAS). The largest portion of EPA's basic and applied research
is in the life sciences, primarily biology and environmental biology.
Nearly a third of EPA's R&D is conducted by colleges and universities,
about half by the agency's own laboratories, and the balance by nonprofit
institutions and state and local governments.
Ted Agres
Links within this article
EPA National Libraries
National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE)
D. Secko, "Science librarians question cuts," The Scientist, January 25,
2006.
"EPA Library Network: Challenges for FY 2007 and Beyond"
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
E. Russo, "The plight of the whistleblower," The Scientist, January 17,
2005.
EPA Science Advisory Board
T. Agres, "NIH held to flat funding in '07," The Scientist, February 7,
2006.
"EPA R&D Funding Falls Again in 2007 Proposal."
Tom Baxter
Reference Librarian
Office of the Attorney General of Florida
PL-01 The Capitol
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-9752
850-414-3376
FAX 850-921-5784
Tom_Baxter@oag.state.fl.us
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