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public will lose the ability to access this data 
in a usable format and in some cases, access 
would be denied completely.

ALA has long fought for effective public 
access to government information. The asso-
ciation believes that the loss of these important 
resources, in a time of striving for greater 
government transparency, is a step backward. 
It is a mistake to end usable access to this 
information without a plan in place to ensure 
that the public has another way to locate it. 

Congress recently returned from the Au-
gust recess and picked up the FY2012 budget 
process. 

As ALA continues to lobby Congress to 
preserve funding for the Statistical Compendia 
Branch, members need to hear from residents 
in their states and districts who uses this tool. 

We encourage all ACRL members to call 
their representatives offices. As always, you 
can connect with your representative through 
the ALA Legislative Action Center at capwiz.
com/ala.

Those with questions about this issue can 
contact Jessica McGilvray, assistant director for 
the ALA Office of Government Relations in the 
ALA Washington Office, at (800) 941-8478. 

Jenni Terry is press officer at ALA’s Washington Office, 
e-mail: jterry@alawash.org

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n eJenni Terry

In mid-April, Congress finally solidified the 
FY 2011 budget that will fund the government 
through September 30. Those who followed the 
Congressional soap opera know that this bud-
get plan was the product of months of debate, 
which culminated in a budget that made $38.5 
billion in cuts compared to the FY 2010 levels, 
and included a 0.2 percent across-the-board 
cut for all nondefense discretionary spending.

Unfortunately, many programs of importance 
to libraries received funding cuts. However, one 
key program—the Census Bureau’s Statistical 
Compendia Branch—survived the knife in 2011 
but remains on the cutting board for 2012.

The Statistical Compendia Branch compiles 
and releases reports such as the Statistical Ab-
stract and the County and City Data Book that 
includes important and usable data routinely 
accessed by the American public. Closing this 
branch would mean the end of these reports 
and easy access to this valuable data.

Providing usable, informative government 
information to the American public is required 
for a healthy democracy. Since 1878, the U.S. 
Census has been compiling these data and 
making them available to the American people. 

ALA has received numerous stories de-
tailing how such reports as the Statistical 
Abstract have benefited the public and how 
deeply concerned they are at the potential 
loss of these resources. This information 
is used to teach college students about 
government information and statistics, help 
small businesses locate statistics about their 
county and environs, and provide university 
faculty with a go-to place for government 
data. Though some of this data is available in 
other locations, this compilation is created in 
such a way as to be usable to a wide variety 
of consumers. 

It is also true that not all of the data in-
cluded is published in other locations. If this 
avenue of openness is closed, the American 

2. National Center for Education Statistics 
predicts a decreased rate of growth in high 
school graduates in the second decade of 
the new millennium. nces.ed.gov/programs 
/projections/projections2018/sec3b.asp. 

3. Larry MacPhee, “Learning Spaces: 
A Tutorial,” EDUCAUSE Quarterly 32 
(November 1, 2009), www.educause. 
e d u / E D U C A U S E + Q u a r t e r l y 
/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum 
/LearningSpacesATutorial/163854 

4. Existence value is most commonly used 
in environmental economics. An excellent 
treatment is www.eoearth.org/article/Total 
_economic_value. 

(“The knowledge commons,” cont. from page 
469)