ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 9, Number 19 March 6, 2000 In this issue: Highlights of NCLIS Meeting on NTIS Closing Proposal On February 29, 2000, the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) held its third public meeting on the U.S. Department of Commerce's proposal to close the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) and transfer its functions to the Library of Congress (LC). NCLIS' stated purpose is to serve as a broker for the various stakeholders, provide analysis and basic research on the various options for dealing with NTIS. They also intend to make a report to Congress on March 15. At the meeting, comments were sought in response to the position paper, "Emerging Consensus Position Paper Proposed NTIS Closure and Transfer." The paper was approved by NCLIS on February 17, 2000 for public review and comment; the deadline for comments to be received by NCLIS is Friday, March 10. (To comment, see http://www.nclis.gov/info/ntis/ntis.html.) Only about 20 people attended the third meeting. No representatives from Congressional offices or the Commerce Department appeared to be in attendance. Librarians and GPO played prominent roles at the meeting. Acting Chair of NCLIS Martha Gould convened the meeting; Joan Challinor was the other NCLIS commissioner who attended. Also in attendance were NCLIS Executive Director Robert Willard, NCLIS Deputy Director Judith Russell, and NCLIS consultants Woody Horton and Sarah Kadac. John Stevenson, documents coordinator at the University of Delaware and an active GODORT member, represented 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 Legislation and its Government Information Subcommittee along with GODORT and ACRL Sci-Tech Section representatives. The letter is available at http://www.nclis.gov/info/ntis/alaltr.html. Attached to the letter was the ALA Council resolution passed at Midwinter Conference 2000. The resolution, "Resolution on No-Fee Permanent Public Access to Scientific and Technical Information (STI)," recommends that NTIS be transferred to the Government Printing Office (GPO) (see http://www.ala.org/washoff/cd002002.html). ALA's letter and resolution argued, in part, that: -- there are economies of scale in transferring NTIS to GPO, given the similar functions and missions of GPO and NTIS; -- making NTIS materials available to the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) broadens public access and serves the public good; and -- the nature of NTIS functions -- to provide government scientific and technical information (STI) -- is inherently a governmental function which should be supported by federal appropriations. Stevenson added that to say that the NCLIS document suggested consensus, whether "emerging" or not, did not reflect ALA's position. Other participants made similar comments about the nature of the "consensus." GPO Superintendent of Documents Francis Buckley indicated that GPO is interested in assuming appropriate NTIS functions and willing to develop a plan that would do so. A spokesperson for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) said that NARA also wants to continue to be considered as a viable option for receiving the NTIS responsibilities. Miriam Drake, dean and director of libraries at Georgia Institute of Technology (a major NTIS user), spoke about the need for scientists and researchers to have the level of cataloguing and abstracts presently provided by NTIS. She questioned whether GPO cataloging standards will meet those needs and expectations. Also discussed were the different types of users of NTIS services vs. what some describe as the more general public served by GPO. Another speaker used compared NTIS to a "boutique" and GPO to a "Wal-Mart." Advocates for keeping NTIS at the U.S. Department of Commerce also spoke. The head of the union at NTIS, Louisa Day, argued that both NTIS and GPO should and can exist and that Commerce should retain NTIS. Bonnie C. Carroll, a long-time consultant on many government information issues, emphasized the serious changes that will take place in technology in the next couple of years and the need to work toward a vision on these issues. A Software and Information Industry Association representative spoke but had not yet submitted written comments. In general, the comments from the participants supported keeping NTIS at Commerce. Other than ALA and GPO, no one clearly advocated for the NTIS functions to go to GPO. Everyone agreed on two things: that there should be further study on the issue, and steps must be taken to protect NTIS from losing more staff and resources -- leading to a deterioration in services -- while the debate continues in Congress. The NCLIS Web site includes the "Emerging Consensus" position paper, the major materials prepared by NCLIS, and comments and other communications from various stakeholders involved with these discussions, including those filed by ALA (see http://www.nclis.gov/info/ntis/ntis.html). Meeting minutes are also available. After the March 10 comments deadline passes, NCLIS staff indicated they will review them and develop their report to Congress. There is no clear indication of intentions or timeline from Congress on the NTIS debate. Some observers suggest there will be immediate congressional action; others say it may be a slow process. There is some urgency, however. NTIS is losing experienced staff. The Congressional appropriations process soon will need to decide whether to provide funding to close NTIS or to keep NTIS operating as is for an interim period. The ALA Office of Government Relations will make further reports as more becomes available. -- Lynne Bradley ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff; Editor: Deirdre Herman. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Mary Costabile, Peter Kaplan, Miriam Nisbet and Claudette Tennant. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Jennifer Hendrix, Carrie Russell and Saundra Shirley.