Scientists protest U.S. EPA library closures
Critics argue that library closures will make it harder for agency scientists to protect public health.
Closing libraries and destroying documents may sound like the plot line of a dystopian novel, but it is part of a U.S. EPA campaign launched in 2006 to shave $2 million off the agency’s budget for specialized libraries. Many EPA scientists who were contacted by ES&T say that the move will make their jobs harder because of a basic lack of information.
EPA accelerated the closure of some of its 26 libraries last November in anticipation of a proposed budget for 2007 that, if approved by Congress, would cut library funding by 80%.
During a December 11 press conference, EPA Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock said that EPA will digitize all of its “unique” documents and place them online over the next 2 years. He says that the agency is “offering better access to a broader audience, all at a lower cost.”
However, any documents that have not been authored by or for EPA staff members can’t be digitized or placed online, because such a move would violate copyright laws, according to Linda Travers, the acting assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Environmental Information, which is handling the library closures. These documents include one-of-a-kind reports authored by contractors and the recipients of EPA grants, says Dotty Biggs, a retired EPA librarian. In addition, EPA’s plan does not include digitization of documents generated by states, local governments, and tribes—all of which is irreplaceable material that will no longer be accessible, she says.
“There’s a very chilling effect when our management at the highest levels doesn’t understand the value of the libraries and the professionals in them, because our work is based on technical information that scientists and engineers need,” says Suzanne Wuerthele, a toxicologist at EPA’s Region 8 office in Denver, Colo. Her library, which is not being closed, is crucial to her work, which includes explaining science to the general public, reviewing risk assessments, and testifying in court. Some of the material she uses would not qualify for digitization under the closure plan, and some can only be located with the help of a librarian, Wuerthele says.
Dismantled collections include the Office of Pollution, Prevention, and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) library at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., which houses scientific and other documents about the health effects of chemicals and pesticides, and libraries in EPA Regions 5, 6, and 7. Access for the public and government employees to library materials in Regions 1, 2, 4, and 10 and at headquarters will be impaired. Leaked memos from EPA employees describe journals being tossed into recycling dumpsters and materials from the OPPTS library being stashed in boxes in an unused cafeteria without first being cataloged.
The loss of the OPPTS library is a serious blow to the teams of EPA scientists that must assess the safety of new chemicals within 90 days after a company notifies EPA that it plans to begin manufacturing it, says Bill Hirzy, of OPPTS and an officer of EPA’s employee union. “Being able to access information in the library—to look at proposed new chemicals on the basis of their structure and evaluate what their properties might be in terms of toxicology and environmental fate—is critical to being able to move that process forward in the short time that EPA has to do those reviews [for pesticide registrations],” he says.
The federal government is dismantling libraries not only at EPA but also at the Department of Energy and the General Services Administration, Hirzy says. “What this administration appears to be doing is stripping away the public’s ability to easily access important information about all aspects of government,” he says.
Ranking Democrats on three committees that oversee EPA’s budget asked the agency on November 30 to halt the closures. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the incoming chairperson of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and 17 other senators urged EPA to stop destroying materials until the Government Accountability Office completes an investigation into how the closures are being carried out.
EPA will continue to shut down the libraries, according to Peacock, but will hold off on recycling or throwing out “duplicate” and “obsolete” materials until congressional concerns have been addressed.
