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US: EPA Closes Its Libraries, Destroys Documents

http://ucsaction.org/campaign/12_1_06_EPA_Library_Closures/w6bb8g7r45ik6je

The EPA Closes Its Libraries, Destroys Documents

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun closing its nationwide network of scientific libraries, effectively preventing EPA scientists and the public from accessing vast amounts of data and information on issues from toxicology to pollution. Several libraries have already been dismantled, with their contents either destroyed or shipped to repositories where they are uncataloged and inaccessible.

The scientific information contained in the EPA libraries is essential to the agency’s ability to make fully informed decisions that carry out its mission of protecting human health and the environment. Members of Congress have asked the EPA to cease and desist. Please call EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson at (202) 564-4700 either today, December 1, or Monday, December 4, and tell him how much scientists rely on data and literature. Urge him to immediately halt the dismantling of the library system until Congress approves the EPA budget and all materials are readily available online.

Update, 12:40p.m. EST 12/1: Calls are already flooding in and we’ve received reports that the EPA office is denying closing the libraries. However, ample evidence exists that this is indeed happening; click on “tell me more” below to find detailed sources. Your message can still be clear: The EPA should not close its valuable science libraries.

See also:
http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/governmentinfo/epalibraries/epalibraries.htm

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/nation/16143635.htm


OpenEdition schlägt Ihnen vor, diesen Beitrag wie folgt zu zitieren:
Klaus Graf (2. Dezember 2006). US: EPA Closes Its Libraries, Destroys Documents. Archivalia. Abgerufen am 2. Dezember 2024 von https://doi.org/10.58079/c0n8


Autor: Klaus Graf

Historiker und Archivar, Blogger

3 Gedanken zu „US: EPA Closes Its Libraries, Destroys Documents“

  1. GAO Report Finds EPA Library Closures Flawed “A new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) effort to close regional and research libraries around the country has been plagued by managerial problems. The report says that the decision to close libraries was not justified and strongly suggests that the entire process EPA has followed in closing the libraries is flawed and could deprive the public, EPA staff, state and local agencies, and academics with valuable environmental data. GAO recommends that EPA continue its moratorium on further changes to its libraries until it takes actions to justify its decisions, improve outreach, ensure sufficient oversight, and implement procedures for dispersing and disposing of materials.”
    http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1812

  2. Not only EPA … In Quiet War On Information, Federal Libraries Go Dark http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-libraries1210.artdec10,0,7523072.story

    The NASA library in Greenbelt, Md., was part of John C. Mather’s daily routine for years leading up to the astrophysicist’s 2006 Nobel Prize for shedding new light on the Big Bang theory of universal origin. He researched existing space hardware and instrumentation there while designing a satellite that collected data for his prize-winning discovery.

    So when he learned that federal officials were planning to close the library, Mather was stunned.

    “It is completely absurd,” he said. “The library is a national treasure. It is probably the single strongest library for space science and engineering in the universe.”

    (…) Across the country, a half-dozen federal libraries are closed or closing. Others have reduced staffing, hours of operation, public access or subscriptions. (…)

    “Crucial information generated with taxpayer dollars is now not available to the public and the scientists who need it,” said Emily Sheketoff, head of the American Library Association’s Washington office. “This is the beginning of the elimination of all these government libraries. I think you have an administration that does not have a commitment to access to information.” (…)

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