ALA Supports Congressional Oversight of EPA Library Closures

-- Library Journal, 9/25/2006

Though the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun closing its libraries in response to the Bush Administration’s planned $2 million cuts to the FY07 budget, library advocates have some hope. Ranking Democratic members of the House Science Committee have asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to investigate the EPA’s plans. Reps. Bart Gordon (D-TN), John Dingell (D-MI), and Henry Waxman (D-CA) sent a letter to GAO on Sept. 18, according to the American Library Association (ALA). "Closure of the EPA libraries will make it extremely difficult—and in some cases impossible—for constituents and even EPA staff to find reliable information on a wide range of sensitive environmental issues," said Leslie Burger, ALA president. "The EPA libraries are essential government services, and they house an estimated 50,000 documents on environmental issues that are available nowhere else."