NCLIS Slams Consolidation

By Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 9/15/2006

The board of the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) voted 11–1 last month to oppose the draft plan that would consolidate NCLIS functions into the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), saying it didn’t acknowledge the agency’s statutory advisory and policy development role. “We are surprised that this critical authority is given so little attention in the draft document,” said commission chair Beth Fitzsimmons. “Instead, the primary emphasis in the plan is on the commission’s work with the National Center for Education Statistics in implementing the Library Statistics Cooperative Program, which is referred to as one of the commission’s 'main functions.’ This is not the case.”

The commissioners also expressed concern that “the proposed merger of the statistics, policy development, and funding programs” would compromise the integrity of three essential but separate programs. “This is a process,” said IMLS spokeswoman Eileen Maxwell, adding that it was premature to respond to NCLIS’s criticisms. “We’re asking for comments from the entire field.” Comments were accepted by IMLS until August 31.