American Library Association Government Documents Round Table

February 24, 2000

The Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) of the American Library Association (ALA) would like to comment on the Emerging Consensus Position Paper: Proposed NTIS Closure and Transfer, approved by NCLIS Feb. 17, 2000 for public review and comment. GODORT supports this paper, but notes that it does not include all of the language in the American Library Association Council's resolution CD#20.2, Resolution on No-Fee Permanent Public Access to Scientific and Technical Information (STI). This resolution states:

"That the American Library Association (ALA) urges that the clearinghouse functions of the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) for unclassified scientific and technical information (STI) remain centralized to facilitate use by researchers and businesses to promote technological advances and economic growth; and, that ALA urges the Congress to pass legislation to transfer these centralized NTIS clearinghouse functions for STI to the Government Printing Office (GPO), which has responsibility for printing, procurement, and dissemination of all formats of government information; and, that the ALA urges Congress to require a systematic implementation plan supported by adequate funding to transfer the NTIS clearinghouse functions; and, that any implementation plan for the transfer of these clearinghouse functions from NTIS be developed with the full participation of the affected communities including the ALA, education, research, and publishing communities, the government agencies, Congressional representatives and others, as appropriate; and, that Congress provide sufficient annual appropriations to support the continuing NTIS clearinghouse functions; and, that any plan should broaden and expand public access to STI by including these products, materials, and information through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP); and, that copies of this resolution be sent to appropriate members of Congress, the Comptroller General of the United States, the Chair of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS), the Secretary of Commerce, the Director of NTIS, the Librarian of Congress, the Public Printer and other appropriate agencies."

GODORT, the American Library Association group whose focus is government information, is concerned that the proposed closure of NTIS threatens a major loss of public access to valuable information. We want to be certain that the NTIS materials will be permanently accessible to the public and remain available through a central source. At this time, GODORT sees the best alternative in the event of an NTIS closure as the transfer of collections and service responsibilities to the Government Printing Office so that the materials would be made available through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). In any case, the issue of funding is critical: wherever the NTIS functions end up, there must be continued appropriations to support them. The notion that this kind of information collection and distribution can be self-supporting is particularly questionable given that the failure of NTIS to support itself was provided as one of the initial rationales for terminating the program.

John A. Stevenson
GODORT member and
Coordinator, Government Documents and Maps Processing Unit

University of Delaware Library
181 S. College Ave.
Newark, DE 19717-5267

(Endorsed by the GODORT Steering Committee, February 2000)