ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 318 / C&RL News ■ A pril 2000 W a s h i n g t o n H o t l i n e Lynne E. Br adl ey Highlights of NCLIS m eeting on NTIS closing proposal Many academ ic librarians, special librarians and researchers are concerned about an im portant governm ent information issue— the Com merce Department’s proposal to close the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). The threat o f closing NTIS and trans ferring its functions to the Library o f Con gress raises serious questions about access to governm ent scientific and technical infor mation (STI). The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) held its third, and probably final, public m eeting in Wash ington on February 29. Librarians and the Governm ent Printing Office (G P O ) played prom inent roles at the meeting, convened by Acting Chair o f NCLIS Martha Gould. Comments were sought in response to the docum ent, “Emerging Consensus Position Paper: Proposed NTIS Closure and Transfer” ( s e e h ttp :/ / w w w .n c lis .g o v / in fo / n tis / ntis..html). Jo h n Stevenson, documents c o ordinator at the University o f Delaware and active Government Documents Round Table (G O D O R T ) m em b er, r e p r e s e n te d ALA. Stevenson presented key points in a letter from ALA Committee on Legislation Chair Chadwick Raymond. The letter was drafted with input from the ALA Committee on Leg islation and its Government Information Sub com mittee with GODORT and ACRL Science and Technology Section representatives. Attached to the letter was the ALA Coun cil resolution passed at the 2000 Midwinter Meeting. T he resolution, “Resolution on No- Fee Permanent Public Access to Scientific and Technical Information (ST I),” recom m ends that NTIS b e transferred to GPO. ALA’s letter and resolution argued in part that: • there are econom ies o f scale in trans ferring NTIS to GPO, given the similar func tions and missions o f GPO and NTIS; • making NTIS materials available to the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) Lynne E. Bradley is Office of Government Relations director of ALA’s Washington Office; e-mail: leb@alawash.org broadens public access and serves the pub lic good; and • the nature o f NTIS functions— to pro vide governm ent scientific and technical in formation— is inherently a governmental func tion that should b e supported by federal ap propriations. Stevenson added that to say that the NCLIS d ocu m en t su gg ested con sen su s, w heth er “emerging” or not, did not reflect ALA’s posi tion. Other participants made similar com ments about the nature o f the “consensus.” Miriam Drake, dean and director o f librar ies at Georgia Institute o f Technology (a ma jor NTIS user), spoke about the need for sci entists and researchers to have the level o f cataloguing and abstracts presently provided by NTIS. She questioned whether GPO cata loging standards will meet those needs and expectations. Also discussed w ere the differ ent types o f users o f NTIS services versus what som e describe as the more general pub lic served by GPO. Another speaker com pared NTIS to a “boutique” and GPO to a “Wal-Mart.” In general, the com m ents from the par ticipants supported keeping NTIS at the Com merce Department. Other than ALA and GPO, no on e clearly advocated for the NTIS func tions to go to GPO. Everyone agreed on two things: that there should b e further study on the issue, and steps must b e taken to protect NTIS from losing m ore staff and resources — leading to a deterioration in services— while the debate continues in Congress. There is no clear indication o f intentions or timeline from Congress on the NTIS de bate. Som e observers suggest there will be immediate congressional action; others say it may b e a slow process. There is som e ur gency, however. NTIS is losing experienced staff. T he congressional appropriations process soon will need to decide w hether to pro vide funding to clo se NTIS or to k eep it operating as is for an interim period. The ALA O ffice o f G overnm ent Relations will m ake further reports as m ore information becom es available. ■ http://www.nclis.gov/info/ntis/ mailto:leb@alawash.org