ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


764 I C&RL News ■  October 1999

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n e Lynn E. Bradley

D e p a rtm e n t o f C o m m e rce  A n n o u n ce s
In te n tio n  to  C lo se  NTIS
The Commerce Departm ent m ade a “surprise
announcem ent on August 12 that it w ould close
the National Technical Information Services
(NTIS). Commerce Secretary William M. Daley
indicated that NTIS’s core business— the sale
o f governm ent docum ents in microfiche and
o n  paper— “is rapidly becom ing less of the
necessity it w as as agencies an d  groups have
b egun to post their reports o n  the Internet fo
free.” Daley proposes transferring NTIS archives
to the Library of Congress an d  having govern
m ent agencies provide scientific technical and
information (STI) to the public for free via the
Internet for “long periods o f time.”

D aley’s an n o u n cem en t follow ed reports
that congressional appropriators decid ed  not
to fund $2 million to su p p lem en t th e NTI
budget. Established in 1950, NTIS has p ro
vided fee-based access to governm ent scien
tific an d  technical reports an d  is su p p o se d  to
b e  self-supporting through its sales program .
T h e C o m m erce D e p a rtm e n t a rg u e d  th a t
“changes in th e information marketplace have
m ade obsolete th e n e e d  for NTIS to  serve as
a clearinghouse and, thus have in turn m ade
it increasingly difficult for NTIS to  m aintain
its o p eratio n  o n  a self-sustaining basis, as
established by C ongress.”

The NTIS statutory m andate to be  self-sup
porting w as a key issue raised at a Septem
b e r 14 hearing o n  the proposal by the Sub
com m ittee o n  T echnology o f th e H ouse Sci
ence Committee. Testifying o n  b ehalf o f fiv
library associations w as Caroline C. Long, as
sistant university librarian for collection ser
vices at G eorge Washington University Library.
In addition to ALA, Long testified o n  b ehal
of th e American Association o f Law Libraries,
the A ssociation o f R esearch Libraries, the
Medical Library Association, an d  th e Specia
Library Association.

“It is imperative the essential functions and
services that NTIS provides continue, w hethe
at NTIS or at o ther federal agencies,” Lon

Lynne E. Bradley is d e p u ty  executive d ire c to r o f ALA’
Washington Office; e-mail: leb@alawash.org

 

” 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

r 
 

­
 
 

 
 

S 
­
­
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

­
­
­
­
e 
­
­
 
f 
 
 

l 

 
r 
g

said. “T hese core functions— inherently gov­
ernm ental— are identifying, collecting, dis­
sem inating an d  archiving scientific, technical, 
an d  business inform ation.”

O ther w itnesses included D eputy Secre­
tary o f Com m erce Robert Mallett, w h o  w as 
asked critical questions ab o u t h o w  th e d e ­
partm ent cam e to its decision, an d  even if 
they h ad  consulted w ith th e Library o f C on­
gress before announcing their proposal. (They 
h a d  not.)

Public Printer Michael DiMario testified to 
th e im portance o f including STI in th e Fed­
eral D epository Library Program. H e also em ­
p h asized  that, “th e  similarities in function 
b e tw e e n  GPO an d  NTIS, th e fact that both 
are ex p erien ced  in operating o n  revolving 
funds, the potential for valuable synergies of 
technologies an d  staff expertise that could 
benefit public access to G overnm ent infor­
m ation— all of these are reasons for a realign­
m ent o f NTIS functions w ith G PO .”

Ken Allen, chair of the NTIS advisory com ­
mittee, sp o k e ab o u t the im portance o f STI 
an d  th e n e e d  to have b o th  electronic and 
tan g ib le/p a p e r form ats continue to  b e avail­
able. B onnie Carroll, p resident o f the Infor­
m ation International Associates, Inc., also ar­
g u ed  th e n e e d  for continuing to  k eep  m ul­
tiple form ats available during th e infancy of 
th e Internet.

All o f the w itnesses sp o k e about the n eed  
to thoughtfully a n d  systematically ap proach 
th e closing o f NTIS a n d  h o w  to retain its im­
portant functions, including addressing the 
problem s o f fugitive docum ents an d  perm a­
n e n t public access.

Librarian o f Congress Jam es H. Billington 
w rote for the record: “G iven ad eq u ate re­
sources, [LOC could] b e  a logical successor 
to NTIS for th o se functions that com plim ent 
the Library’s m ission.” H owever, such NTIS 
functions as high volum e do cu m en t distribu­
tion, brokering agency databases to  th e in­
form ation industry, an d  publication o f infor­
m ation products “are b ey o n d  the Library’s 
current m an d ate.”

ALA will continue to m onitor this critical 
issue. ■

s 

mailto:leb@alawash.org


C&RL News ■  October 1999 / 765