About the EPA National Library Network
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Library Network is made up of three repository libraries, ten regional libraries, nine research laboratory libraries, and five specialty libraries (EPA National Library Network, 2009).
The EPA National Library Network also has an extensive Online Library System (OLS) which is updated every two weeks and contains, among other things, catalogs for the entire system, digitized documents, and historical data from some of the regional libraries.
According to their web site, “(t)he mission of EPA's libraries is to improve access to information for decision making and environmental awareness” (EPA National Library Network, 2009). Therefore, these libraries contain information on a wide variety of environmental matters ranging from biology to legislative mandates on toxic waste. These libraries are used by scientific researchers, the general public, and other government agencies beyond the EPA.
Because much of their information is produced by EPA offices, it is not readily available from other sources, and some of the regional libraries maintain collections which are specific to their geographical areas.
Like other government agencies, the EPA depends upon the U.S. Congress and the President for continued funding of the entire agency, and the library network must compete within the agency for its budget of $2.5 million (PEER, 2009).
The Fall
In February of 2006 the EPA announced that they were facing an approximately $300 million budget cut for fiscal year 2007. The EPA library network would suffer a cut of $2 million, nearly 80% of their budget, including the entire $500,000 which made up the headquarters budget (PEER, 2009). In anticipation of this cut the EPA closed regional libraries in Dallas, Chicago and Kansas City, their headquarters and chemical libraries and reduced both open hours and staff at other regional libraries. One of the justifications for the library closures was that “materials in the libraries being closed would be digitized” (Keiser, 2007).
Both the Special Libraries Association (SLA) and the American Library Association (ALA) responded quickly, offering support for the EPA libraries and questioning the budget cuts. A search of ProQuest and LexisNexis databases find newspaper articles about the closures from Washington, DC, to Seattle, Washington, all of which are concerned about the closures as either a reduction of public access to materials (Goldstein, 2006) or an example of the George W. Bush administration “marginalizing EPA research” (Lee, 2006). On December 9, 2006 The New York Times published an op-ed piece by then ALA president Leslie Burger calling for the libraries to remain open.
Population Ecology and the EPA
According to Hatch (2006, p. 83) “population ecology starts from the assumption that organizations depend on their environments for the resources they need to operate.” This could not be more apt when the U.S. Congress and President control the pursestrings and are a major factor for the EPA libraries’ environment.
The ecological niche of the EPA, and other federal government agencies, is available government funds and their allocations by Congress. This competition for funds is both independent and interdependent in the case of the EPA. This is because their funds from the same federal budget pool as other government organizations which depend upon them for information and research. The libraries in the EPA network must also continue to compete with each other for funding from the EPA budget.
The Rise
After pressure from SLA and ALA, a Government Accounting Office (GAO) investigation, a recommendation from the Senate Appropriations Committee (Kraus, 2007) and a report to Congress, the EPA was granted a $2 million dollar budget increase, the same as the cut, for Fiscal Year 2008.
This restoration of the budget has allowed the EPA to reopen its libraries, as well as restoring hours and staff. The Appropriations Committee also recommended that further funds be made available to improve the electronic data collections and digitize older data. There are problems beyond funding for the digitization process, however. According to Lee (2008) “the GAO found that, because of copyright issues, only 51,000 of the system’s more than 500,000 hard copies of books, reports, journals and maps are expected to be transfered to digital format.”
On November 17, 2008 Fred Stoss sent an attachment to the SLA News Division mailing list which contained a letter dated October 20, from then candidate Barak Obama to John Gage, National President of the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO promising complete funding for the EPA with a direct mention of the library system.
Related Links
EPA National Library System http://www.epa.gov/natlibra/
The EPA Online Library System http://www.epa.gov/natlibra/aboutols.htm
EPA Library Services and Repositories http://www.epa.gov/natlibra/libraries.htm
Resources
Burger, L. (2006, December 8). Keep the E.P.A. libraries open. The New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2009 from LexisNexis Academic database.
EPA National Library Network. (2009). About the EPA National Library Network. Retrieved February 10, 2009, from http://www.epa.gov/natlibra/aboutthenetwork.html
EPA National Library Network. (2009). EPA library services and repositories. Retrieved February 19, 2009, from http://www.epa.gov/natlibra/libraries.htm
Goldstein, D. (2006, December 3). EPA closings draw criticism; Shutting of agency libraries reflects White House's suppression of science, some contend. The Kansas City Star, p. 1. Retrieved January 29, 2009, from ProQuest database.
Hatch, M.J. (2006). Organization theory: Modern, symbolic, and postmodern perspectives. 2nd Edition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Keiser, B.E. (2007, February 12). EPA libraries: Where do they stand now?. Retrieved February 11, 2009 from http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nnbReader.asp?Articleid=19226.
Kraus, D. (2007, August). Senators want EPA libraries reopened. American Libraries, 38 (7), 16. Retrieved January 29, 2009, from ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source database.
Lee, C. (2006, May 15). Budget cut would shutter EPA libraries. The Washington Post, p. A15. Retrieved January 29, 2009, from LexisNexis Academic database.
Lee, C. (2008, March 14). EPA closure of libraries faulted for curbing access to key data. The Washington Post, p. A15. Retrieved February 11, 2009 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/13/AR2008031303649_pf.html.
PEER: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. (2009). News Release. Retrieved February 1, 2009, from http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=643
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2 comments:
I am not surprised that the libraries' budgets were cut without much thought put into how those resources and services would be made available without them. And I am completely unimpressed with individuals and/or groups that think that it is easy to digitize everything in a library or say you can just get it online. It shows just how little thought and planning is put into making some decisions. I am pleased that the budgets were restored and a more critical look at the possibilities for digitizing the collections was made (not to mention a more realistic look--interesting how they forgot to think about copyright issues). I would like to see a change made in the funding of organizations such as the EPA. The dependence on the government to set a budget that can then be cut at will, prioritizes the safety of the American people at the bottom of the list. I believe that there are certain budgets that should not be cut without a thorough evaluation of the possible implications those budget cuts would mean. Thanks for writing this article.
The recent debacle over energy solutions (I guess the solution being dump it in utah) move to import italian nuclear waste is a perfect example of the need for these libraries. Aside from a couple thirty second stories on the evening news, almost nothing was said about the issue publicly, and the news stories offered no information for concerned citizens, other than the "great" news that energy solutions was going to split half the profits with the state government. A move which they presented as highly positive. The t.v. news and papers also failed to mention when or if legislators would be voting on the issue. It seems like an EPA library would offer citizens at least a starting point when dealing with such issues, since the local and national media aren't going to provide us with the info we need.
Also... remember when they elected Mike Leavitt to the head of the EPA? that was the end of irony. Almost as bad as when Kissinger got the nobel peace prize.
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