Librarians warn of EPA document cuts

The American Library Association (ALA) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) warn that EPA budget cuts will drastically reduce the value of the agency's library system. Despite agency assurances that all the former library materials will be available electronically, ALA, an organization of more than 60,000 librarians, says many unique technical reports, analyses, and correspondences will become inaccessible. The Bush Administration has already closed three of 10 regional libraries, as well as a facility at its Washington, D.C., headquarters that was its only specialized library for research on health effects and properties of toxic chemicals and pesticides, the organizations say. PEER, a watchdog nonprofit group, claims that EPA has been "frantically dispersing" its chemical library collections to preempt intervention by a Congress controlled by Democrats. EPA calls the charges baseless and says it will digitize all unique documents from the recently closed libraries by January. "By digitizing these documents, EPA is providing comprehensive access to agency materials through the EPA's public website," the agency says in a statement.