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News of EPA library closures makes headlines
Alternet just posted a story about the closing of the EPA libraries ("A Step Shy of Book-Burning." By Kelpie Wilson, 11/23/06). This article, in addition to positive news stories over the last month or so has moved the plight of the EPA libraries into the mainstream and caused our Congress people to reevaluate the horrendously bad decision that has caused the closure of EPA libraries. But the fight's not over yet. Please, please, please contact your representatives and let them know you support the refunding of EPA libraries -- AND fill in ALA's legislative action. See the ALA Washington office for background information.
In August, under the guise of fiscal responsibility, the Bush Environmental Protection Agency began closing most of its research libraries, both to the public and to its own staff. The EPA's professional staff objected strongly, insisting that closing the libraries would hamstring them in their jobs. In a letter to Congress protesting the closures, public employees said, "We believe that this budget cut is just one of many Bush administration initiatives to reduce the effectiveness of the US Environmental Protection Agency, and to continue to demoralize its employees." [..]Closing the EPA libraries is the perfect symbol to characterize the methods of the Bush administration. Since 2000, the Republicans have cemented their reputation as ushers of a new dark age. They have sought to shroud the light of science by closing libraries and by suppressing scientific reports. They have gagged their own scientists and persecuted whistleblowers. They have cloaked government in secrecy, a prime example being Dick Cheney's secret meetings with oil companies to draft an industry-friendly national energy policy. But that era is now winding down.Continue reading
More bad news for EPA scientists
As many of you know, FGI has been tracking this issue of library closings at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). I wish I had good news to report (Like EPA budget reinstatement!), but unfortunately not. Today, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) had a news release stating that, due to EPA budget shortfalls, the EPA is, "sharply reducing the number of technical journals and environmental publications to which its employees will have online access." This after an all EPA employee email memo from CIO Linda A. Travers (PDF) touted:
Linda A. Travers Acting Assistant Administrator and Chief Information Officer TO: All Headquarters Employees EPA is in the process of implementing a new library plan to make environmental information more accessible to employees, researchers and the general public. As part of our efforts, the Agency is posting physical library collections on-line and enhancing electronic library services. At present, more than 15,000 journals and publications are available on-line and Agency documents can be obtained via interlibrary loans.How does closing EPA libraries and sharply reducing access to scientific journals make information *more* accessible?! Perhaps if the EPA became a faith-based organization, they'd get their funding back. *sigh* Continue reading
EPA HQ library to close Oct 1, 2006
Thanks to Bernadine Abbott Hoduski for posting the following Federal Register notice to govdoc-l:
[Federal Register: September 20, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 182)] [Notices] [Page 54986] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [FRL-8221-3] Notification of Closure of the EPA Headquarters Library AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Notice. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: The EPA Headquarters Library will close its doors to walk-in patrons and visitors on October 1, 2006. This notice provides information regarding how members of the public can access EPA documents held in the Headquarters Repository Library collection and in electronic format. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jeff Tumarkin, Mailcode 2843T, Office of Environmental Information, Information Access Division, Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460; telephone number: (202) 566-0681; e-mail address: Tumarkin.Jeff@epa.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The trend in recent years has shown a shift in the ways that people request and receive library services from EPA. With more material available online and electronically, EPA has found that its employees and the public are finding the materials they need from EPA's web site and they are requesting more information electronically. In addition, with tighter security at Federal facilities, the public's physical visits to the EPA Headquarters Library have been declining. These trends, in addition to reductions in the library's FY07 budget, suggested to EPA that it needed to use information technology to improve its delivery of library services to EPA and public patrons. Library services for EPA staff and the public will be maintained as detailed in the new EPA Library Network National Framework which is available online at http://www.epa.gov/natlibra/. Beginning October 1, 2006, the EPA Headquarters Library, located in Room 3340 in the EPA West Building, located at 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC, will become one of three EPA repositories for paper copies of EPA documents, reports and publications. The other two repositories will be located at the EPA-RTP Library, 109 T.W. Alexander Drive, Durham, NC 27711, and at the Andrew W. Breidenbach Environmental Research Center, 26 W. Martin Luther King Dr., Cincinnati, OH 45268. Public access to EPA's valuable documents collections continues to be a critical mission of the EPA Libraries. Thousands of EPA documents and reports can be accessed in full-text electronic format through the National Environmental Publications Information System (NEPIS) at http://nepis.epa.gov/ Members of the public can also search for EPA documents in the libraries' catalog at http://www.epa.gov/natlibra/. ols.htm. Once items of interest are identified, they can be borrowed via interlibrary loan thru participating institutions. The public will continue to have access to environmental information thru the EPA Regional Libraries remaining open http://www.epa.gov/natlibra/libraries.htm . The answers to many questions about EPA and its activities can be found in the Agency's Frequently Asked Questions database which can searched online at http://publicaccess.custhelp.com/. Additionally, the public will continue to have access to comprehensive environmental information via the EPA Web site at http://www.epa.gov. Dated: September 13, 2006. Linda A. Travers, Acting Assistant Administrator and Chief Information Officer, Office of Environmental Information. [FR Doc. 06-7803 Filed 9-19-06; 8:45 am]As discussed in other FGI postings and on govdoc-l, information access through the EPA web site falls short of "comprehensive environmental information," especially since there are thousands of EPA reports that are not currently digitized and are lacking a firm digitization plan. Ironically, this short notice (9/20 to 10/1) shows up the strength of having the Federal Register available over the internet. In the old days, it would have taken well over a week for the Federal Register to be sent to West Coast libraries and we might not have learned about this closure until after it happened. Continue reading
EPA – can a database replace a library?
After the new budget effectively phased out the EPA's library system and related resources, there is a new website, the National Environmental Publications Information System. Introduced with words like "exciting" and "terrific" the online database includes such features as highlighted search terms and proximity operators. A quick set of usability notes, using a search for the word "frogs":
- once you get a list of results clicking on the document title does nothing, you have to click on the little eye picture in order to see the document displayed
- Tooltips? None. Clicking on the capital T which I am used to meaning "text" takes me to a zoomed in tiff file of the document I selected. Downloading the text from the documents is possible, just somewhat hidden and won't work if you have pop-ups disabled.
- No controlled vocabulary, or if there is any, it's hidden from a casual user. The only searchable fields are publication number, title and number of pages.
- Despite the fact that these PDF and TIFF documents are searchable at a keyword level [see attached file], there is no obvious way to get just the text from a PDF document
- Fuzziness, is controllable at a 0-5 level. When fuzziness is at its highest level, searches for "frogs" returns words like "rods" and "free." This may be by design, but the help file is mum on the ubsject stating only "If you want to activate fuzzy searching, you can specify the degree of fuzzy in the listbox Fuzzy."
- Typos. I know it's petty but the word useful has one L.
Draft plan for EPA libraries available
An anonymous poster sent this to me and asked that it be distributed. Please see the attached "EPA FY 2007 Library Plan: National Framework." All are encouraged to send comments to the new head of the EPA environmental information center, Molly O'neill.
The Office of Environmental Information (OEI), in collaboration with the Library Steering Committee (comprised of senior managers from Program Offices and Regions) has assembled a document (attached below) entitled "EPA FY 2007 Library Plan: National Framework." This draft "framework" document is designed to convey the new paradigm this Agency plans to deploy so as to perpetuate high quality delivery of library services to employees and the general public. Development of this plan has been necessitated by projected budget cuts affecting library services beginning in FY 2007. Implementation of this framework will vary by Region and at the headquarters level. This is why "impact and implementation" bargaining of actual library service changes will take place separately in the Regions and at HQ. However, before final decisions are made with respect to composition of the framework document and, thus, prior to it being sent out for further action in the Regions and Headquarters, OEI would very much like to have input from the Unions representing the Agency's bargaining unit employees. Additionally, for the benefit of the Unions, OEI plans to brief and field questions on the issue of pending library service changes at the National Partnership Council (NPC) meeting scheduled for June 13, 2006 in Washington, DC.Continue reading
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