UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT: ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA) :
LIBRARIES: SPECIAL LIBRARIES:
The Evironmental Protection Agencies and Phone Booths:
No This is NOT About the Use of Phone Booths While in an EPA Library:
This About EPA Libraries Reopening in Phone Booth Sized Libraries
Please do not bend over at any time while in a re-opened EPA library. Bumping
your head on the library walls from any point within the library could lead to
severe head trauma.
Closed EPA Libraries to Return in Lavatory-Sized Spaces
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 21, 2008
10:13 AM
CONTACT: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
Justin Haas (202) 265-7337
Common Dreams News Center
Closed EPA Libraries to Return in Lavatory-Sized Spaces
Political Appointee Asserts Control Over All Libraries, Repeals 30-Year-Old
Manual <http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0521-02.htm>
WASHINGTON, DC - May 21 - Ordered by Congress to re-open its shuttered
libraries, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is grudgingly allocating
only minimal space and resources, according to agency documents released today
by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At the same time,
EPA is issuing a series of edicts placing virtually every aspect of library
operations under centralized control of a political appointee.
In a May 8, 2008 e-mail to EPA employee unions, the agency announced its plan
for re-opening four of the closed libraries effective September 1. The unions
were given until May 22 to reply or object. The announced plan for the Chicago
library, formerly the largest regional library serving the entire six-state
Great Lakes area, stipulates:
The re-opened library will be in a vacant reception area on the 16th floor of a
federal building;
The re-opened library will occupy less than one-tenth the area of the closed
library and will be only slightly larger than the typical mens restroom in that
same building; and
No provision is made to restore the unique Great Lakes ecological collection or
to recover any of the other holdings from the former library.
Similarly, the regional library in Dallas serving a five-state area will be
reduced to 2 staff workstations and 1 patron workstation, each with a PC, desk,
and chair. It will be open six hours a day for four days a week. The fate of
its former collection also remains unknown.
A library requires more space than a lavatory, stated PEER Associate Director
Carol Goldberg. These plans appear to violate the Congressional order that the
agency restore the network of EPA libraries recently closed What part of
restore doesn't EPA understand?
--------------------------------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 28, 2008
11:10 AM
CONTACT: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
Justin Haas (202) 265-7337
Law Professors Blast EPA Libraries Plan
EPA Asks Media and Others to Engage in National Dialogue on Information Needs
Common Dreams News Center
<http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0428-04.htm>
WASHINGTON, DC - April 28 - Law school professors from across the country are
lambasting the plan presented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for
re-opening its closed libraries, according to a joint letter released today by
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The law professors
fault EPA for failing to fully restore services, guarantee full public access
or ensure professional librarian control over valuable collections.
The April 26, 2008 letter, signed by 94 law professors from schools stretching
from the Carolinas to California, is addressed to key congressional leaders and
conveys the authors profound disappointment in the six-page EPA report on
library restoration submitted to Congress on March 26, 2008, including
Political Control. We view with alarm the absence of any EPA commitment to have
all aspects of its library plans subject to review by qualified,
non-governmental library professionals;
Only Partial Restoration. We are troubled by the Reportsfailure to explain why
and how EPAs libraries will vary in size, target audience, subject focus and
depth of collection.We also decry the Agencys failure to explain its plan to
allow some EPA libraries to be open to the public on an appointment only
basis.; and
Vague Commitments. EPAs Report is woefully lacking in detail, unresponsive to
many of the criticisms that were appropriately included in GAOs February, 2008
reports on the Agencys library mismanagement, and entirely devoid of a needed
commitment to restore EPAs shuttered libraries to the levels of service
provided to the public and EPAs staff prior to their closure.
The law professors concerns echo those raised by PEER, the agencys librarians,
employee unions (which are pursuing unfair labor practice charges), and agency
specialists, including its enforcement attorneys.
EPA simply needs to put back everything they dismantled; why is that so hard?
asked PEER Associate Director Carol Goldberg. The political appointees at EPA
should not be deciding, as they are now, who gets access to what material.
EPA had eliminated access to agency libraries in 23 states, shut technical
collections and reduced hours and access in other libraries. This December,
Congress ordered EPA to re-open closed libraries. In its March report, the
agency indicated that it would complete a partial restoration by this October.
--------------------------------------
Meet Stephen Johnson, EPAs Alberto Gonzales
April 24, 2008
Campus Progress
<http://campusprogress.org/newswire/2922/
meet-stephen-johnson-epas-alberto-gonzales>
A shorter URL for the above link:
Yesterday, we told you about the rampant political pressure that EPA scientists
feel under Johnson. [MicCheck]
But his shoddy record doesnt stop there. Here are some more examples of poor
judgment and kow-towing to the very industries hes supposed to be regulating:
Disregarded the Supreme Court on Global Warming: When Americas highest court
told the EPA that greenhouses gases were a pollutant and had to be regulated
under the clean Air Act, Stephen Johnson and President Bush just ignored them.
[Wonk Room]
Overruled smog standards: When independent EPA scientists tried to set a lower
seasonal limit on ozone to protect wildlife, parks and farmland, President Bush
ordered the EPA to raise the limits, and Stephen Johnson went right along with
it. [Washington Post]
<snip>
Closed libraries: Johnson oversaw The shuttering of EPAs network of technical
libraries without waiting for Congressional approval in 2006 to be reopened
only with documents that undergo a political review. [Wonk Room]
What do all these things have in common? Behind all these actions is service to
corporate polluters above public health.
<snip>
--------------------------------------
Report Documents Political Meddling with Science at EPA
OMB Watch
<http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/4232/1/1?TopicID=1>
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientists are faced with widespread
political interference that has significantly increased under the Bush
administration, a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)
shows. Hundreds of the scientists surveyed (60 percent) reported some degree of
political meddling, ranging from unnecessary delays to forced resignations.
The EPA's budget has declined in real terms by almost 25 percent since Bush
took office, lower than it was in the 1990s. The UCS investigation reveals an
agency additionally weakened by a political agenda with little basis in, or
respect for, science. From the blatant manipulation of climate change reports
to the intimidation of scientists whose professional opinions clash with a
political agenda and the closing of agency libraries, the current
administration has undermined the scientific autonomy of the EPA more than any
other recent administration. A majority of the survey respondents with at least
10 years tenure reported that political interference has increased over the
last five years alone.
Russell Train, EPA administrator under Presidents Nixon and Ford, was quoted in
the UCS report saying that neither of those presidents ever attempted to bully
him into a decision.
Disgruntled EPA Scientists
UCS surveyed over 5,000 EPA scientists during the summer of 2007, receiving
completed responses from 1,586 individuals. Most of those responses were from
veteran employees who had worked at EPA for more than 10 years. Surveys came
from every region and from many of the agency's research laboratories.
Survey results indicated that while EPA staff is involved in quality scientific
research, political interference affected how the research is handled; often,
it is ignored, misinterpreted, or misstated. Almost half of respondents (47
percent) felt that EPA does not "make use of the best judgment of its
scientific staff" to some degree, and the Office of Air Quality Planning and
Standards was particularly egregious in this regard. Similarly, program offices
with regulatory duties and EPA headquarters had the highest incidence of
political manipulation.
The report also showed:
--------------------------------------
EPA Libraries: Where Do They Stand Now?
by Barbie E. Keiser
Posted On February 12, 2007
Information Today
<http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbReader.asp?ArticleId=19226>
Much has transpired in the year since our last NewsBreak concerning the closure
of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) libraries
(http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbReader.asp?ArticleID=15982). The impetus for
that (Feb. 21, 2006) NewsBreak was a $2 million budget cut from the EPA library
network and the preparations that needed to be made to manage one-fifth of the
total EPA library budget. Fast-forward to February 2007: Despite the fact that
the Office of Management and Budget had declared that all federal agencies'
budgets would remain at FY 2007 levels, the president's FY 2008 budget contains
a request of $7.2 billion for the EPA, $400 million less than was actually
expended in FY 2006 and $100 million less than was requested by the president
for the EPA in the FY 2007 budget. EPA library network funding will likely be
affected, but how and to what extent? Based on recent Senate hearings (Feb. 6,
2007), it's difficult to say what will happen. Let's review the situation and
see how we got to this point.
Topics Covered in This Article:
Mistakes Were Made
Reaching Out to Constituencies
Congressional Action
In her testimony before the committee, Burger also addressed the EPA's lack of
openness with regard to digitizing its materials. "Without more detailed
information about the EPA's digitization project, we cannot assess whether they
are digitizing the most appropriate materials, whether there is appropriate
metadata or cataloging to make sure that people can access the digitized
materials, and [whether] the technology that will be used to host the digital
content and the finding software meets today's standards"
<http://blogs.ala.org/districtdispatch.php?
title=ala_president_leslie_burger_testifies_be&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1>
We should remember that the EPA is not the only federal agency reviewing its
library system. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Library in Greenbelt, Md.,
closed its doors as of Jan. 1, 2007; five regional libraries of the U.S. Forest
Service merged administratively to become the National Forest Service Library.
Burger indicated that "the EPA libraries have been functioning like a virtual
National Library on the Environment. Now that some of these regional libraries
and the pesticide library are closed, key links have been removed from the
chain, thus weakening the whole system."
Let's not go back to an EPA library network like we had as of Jan. 1, 2006, but
move forward in a considered and deliberate manner, employing best practices
for a network of libraries and information centers that is suited for the 21st
century.
See the forthcoming March issue of Searcher for a more detailed analysis of the
EPA library closures and a review of lessons agencies and libraries should
learn from what has transpired at the EPA.
-------------------------------------
EPA Library Closures: Management Incompetence or Something More Sinister?
by Barbie E. Keiser
Posted On March 17, 2008
Information Today
<http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbReader.asp?ArticleId=41260>
Molly A. O'Neill, assistant administrator for the Office of Environmental
Information (OEI) and the EPA's chief information officer, reviewed the
positive steps that EPA has taken in the past year, including hiring "a highly
qualified professional librarian with many years of experience as the Network
national program manager" to coordinate "all Network activities, providing
strategic direction in all planning, operations, and outreach efforts."
The webpages associated with the EPA National Library Network
<http://www.epa.gov/libraries>
display an array of mechanisms being used to present draft strategic plans and
elicit comments
<http://www.epa.gov/libraries/EPAStrategicPlanOutlineALAFinal.pdf>
update EPA National Library Network News
<http://www.epa.gov/libraries/news.html>
and illustrate the network's collaboration with the Federal Library and
Information Center Committee (FLICC).
O'Neill closed her testimony by pointing toward the agency's forthcoming report
to Congress pertaining to EPA libraries requested in the Consolidated
Appropriations Act of 2008. "EPA's report will describe the Agency's plans to
ensure on-site support in each EPA Region, the EPA Headquarters Library, and
the Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) Chemical
Library." While the report is due by the end of this month, none of the
witnesses had been given drafts so that they could submit comments in time for
submission of the report to Congress. O'Neill's testimony can be found at
<http://democrats.science.house.gov/media/file/commdocs/
hearings/2008/oversight/13mar/o'neill_testimony.pdf>
The webcast of the hearing is archived on the website for the Democratic
Caucus, House Committee on Science (http://science.house.gov). A review of what
led up to the closures, an update on the current situation with the libraries
and the digitization of library materials, and an analysis of the revised
library network strategy will be published in ONLINE
<http://www.infotoday.com/online/default.shtml>
once the agency's report to Congress has been released.
--------------------------------------
Restructuring EPA's Libraries: Background and Issues for Congress
David M. Bearden and Robert Esworthy
Resources, Science, and Industry Division
<http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/RS22533.pdf>
Summary
Near the end of the 109th Congress, some Members raised questions about
theclosing of several libraries administered by the Environmental Protection
Agency(EPA), expressing concerns about the continued availability of the
agencys collections.Library professional associations and public interest
groups raised similar questions about access to this information. EPA reported
that the closings were part of its efforts to restructure its libraries in
response to the agencys transition from walk-in servicesto electronic
dissemination of information, as a result of the increasing use of theInternet
to access its collections. In response to the concerns about the library
closings, EPA announced a temporary moratorium in January 2007, prohibiting
further changes to its library services while the agency continued digitizing
its collections. Interest in the library closings has continued into the 110th
Congress. Although Members and Committees of Congress have addressed the
closings in letters to EPA and in hearings, Congress has not addressed the
matter so far in appropriations bills or other legislation. This report
summarizes EPAs plan to restructure its libraries, examines relevant issues,and
discusses congressional action in response to the agencys plan.
--------------------------------------
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WEBBIB0708
Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne@temple.edu
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