ResourceBlog Article: EPA Quietly Resumes Dismantling Library System

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Thursday, 3rd May 2007

EPA Quietly Resumes Dismantling Library System

Despite promises to consult with Congress before proceeding with dismantlement of its library system, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered its libraries to “disperse or dispose of their…contents,” according to agency directives released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The move to eliminate physical collections comes as EPA’s own enforcement branch warns about the risks of hampering environmental prosecutions.

New “interim” policies issued by EPA on April 10:

Direct EPA libraries to “disperse or dispose of” their physical collections and lay out procedures for offering EPA holdings to outside libraries and for recycling journals and other technical documents;
Place all EPA libraries, including those serving agency laboratories, under a single political appointee, Molly O’Neill, the Chief Information Officer; and
“Discourage establishment of divisional or branch ‘mini-libraries’” to prevent the physical accumulation of technical materials except at pre-designated “repositories.”

+ Latest EPA enforcement memo on the need for libraries (PDF; 641 KB)
+ New interim policy on “Library Materials Dispersion” (PDF; 470 KB)
+ Policy consolidating all libraries under one political appointee (PDF; 370 KB)
+ Union grievance and growing accessibility problems
+ The role libraries play in environmental enforcement
+ EPA-wide staff protest of library closures
+ More about the Bush administration effort to shutter EPA libraries

Source: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility

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