Congress Orders EPA to Restore Library Services

Congress Orders EPA to Restore Library Services

January 2008  - Buried in two short paragraphs 
within the voluminous omnibus appropriations bill Congress sent this week 
to President George W. Bush is a Christmas present for EPA scientists and 
anyone else that wants to use the library network of the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency. 
Congress ordered the EPA to restore its library services across the 
country and earmarked $3 million for that purpose, according to Public 
Employees for Environmental Responsibility, PEER, a national association 
of workers in natural resources agencies. 
The report language attached to the omnibus appropriations bill for the 
remainder of the 2008 fiscal year directs EPA to use $3 million to 
"restore the network of EPA libraries recently closed or consolidated by 
the Administration…" and to report within 90 days on its plans to “restore 
publicly available libraries to provide environmental information and data 
to each EPA region…” 
Beginning in early 2006, without public announcement or congressional 
approval, the EPA began dismantling its network of technical and research 
libraries. 
In total, EPA has closed regional libraries serving 23 states and its 
headquarters library in Washington, DC, and has reduced services and hours 
in libraries covering another 14 states. 
In addition, EPA has shuttered several of its specialized, technical 
libraries, such as its unique library dedicated to the effects of 
pesticides and new chemicals. 
The EPA claimed it was "providing broader access to a larger audience by 
making agency library materials available through its website. "Retrieving 
materials will be more efficient and easier to locate by using EPA's 
online collection and reference services," the agency said in December 
2006. 
"When libraries go digital, everyone benefits," declaimed EPA Deputy 
Administrator Marcus Peacock. "By modernizing our libraries, EPA is 
bringing our cutting edge science to your fingertips, whether you live 
across the street, or on the other side of the world." 
But the agency's original claim of cost savings clashed with the enormous 
expense of digitizing hundreds of thousands of documents. In addition, the 
agency did not anticipate copyright restrictions, which barred many of its 
holdings from being digitized. 
Now some at the EPA worry that the congressionally mandated restoration 
will be bungled. 
"We have already been contacted by EPA librarians who are concerned that 
the same officials who destroyed the libraries will be in charge of their 
restoration," said PEER Associate Director Carol Goldberg. "We hope that 
Congress continues to closely oversee whether EPA fully restores the full 
range of library services it had provided." 
Before the closures, the budget for the EPA library network was $2.5 
million. By earmarking $3 million, Congress increased the total library 
budget, allowing the agency to absorb the expense of collecting dispersed 
collections and replacing jettisoned facilities. 
For example, "EPA closed its largest regional library in Chicago and sold 
all of its fixtures, valued at more than $40,000, for less than $350," 
PEER says. 
"While the intervention of Congress is most welcome," said Goldberg, "it 
comes after several closures and much disruption, leaving the remaining 
EPA librarians with the task of putting Humpty Dumpty back together 
again." 

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