EPA Library Budget Would Be Cut by 80 Percent
-- Library Journal, 2/21/2006
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to drastically reduce the FY07 budget for its network of libraries—from $2.5 million to $500,000—leading to the closure of the headquarters library and deep cuts and possible closures at six of ten regional libraries, layoffs of up to one-third of professional contract employees, and the end of its online catalog. Internal EPA documents dated November 2005 were leaked to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and released on the organization's web site February 10. They detail that with such closures, the online catalog won't be maintained, and the remaining libraries "would not be able to function" without the catalog.
On the same day, EPA spokesperson Eryn Witcher told the Associated Press that materials would still be available, saying that EPA would streamline physical collections by making them available online. PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, however, told Library Journal that prior to 1990, EPA materials only exist in hard copy format, and that the agency has no budget for digitization. Professional library organizations are mobilizing. GODORT (American Library Association's (ALA) Government Documents Round Table) and RUSA STARS (Reference and User Services Association's Sharing and Transforming Access to Resources Section) are working with the ALA Washington Office on a letter to be sent to the Congressional subcommittees responsible for EPA appropriations. SLA denounced the proposal in a press release, saying the EPA "continually scaled back its investment in the management of information in a time when this is one of the most strategically valuable aspects of organizational management."
