LibrarianActivist.org

Archive for the ‘environment libraries’


Obama and EPA libraries

Published November 17th, 2008 in elections, environment libraries | No Comments »

In October, Obama sent out letters to a few US Agencies addressing concerns and issues that the President of the American Federation of Government Employees (John Cage) had inquired about. Concerning the letter to the EPA, Obama states:

I strongly oppose attempts by the Bush Administration to thwart publication of EPA researchers’ scientific findings, as well as the attempt to eliminate the agency’s library system. In an Obama Administration, the principle of scientific integrity will be an absolute, and I will never sanction any attempt to subvert the work of scientists.

Worrysome EPA libraries reopening

Published October 7th, 2008 in environment libraries | No Comments »

The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) are concerned that the EPA library reopenings will not return the libraries to the state they were before they were shut down.

Here are few of the concerns:

  • The minds which plotted their closure remain in charge
  • Most of the re-opened new libraries will be housed in less space and one, in Chicago (formerly the largest regional library), will re-open without permanent furniture and shelving
  • Collections are broken up and disbursed in a fashion that they may never be reassembled
  • Library acquisition and management decisions are done under a political appointee

Bookmobile on a bicycle in Japan

Published July 26th, 2008 in Community, book exchange, environment libraries, social responsibilities | No Comments »

28-year old Kazuhiro Doi has been biking around Japan for the past two years, visiting libraries and sharing a collection of books about the environment and social issues with the Japanese public.

He says he first read a book by Think the Earth and was astounded by the “careless deeds human beings have imposed on Earth,” and was moved to make a collection of books available to people across the country.

So, he quit his job and built a custom bookmobile to attach to his bike. He has visited about 1,200 libraries in Japan so far, and hopes to visit every library in the country by the time he turns 30.

EPA library reopenings a farce

Published May 27th, 2008 in environment libraries | No Comments »

PEER has reported that although the EPA libraries have been ordered to reopen their libraries, they are being placed in ridiculously small spaces with few resources. According to the news report pertaining to the Chicago EPA library::

  • The re-opened library will be in a vacant reception area on the 16th floor of a federal building;
  • The re-opened library will occupy less than one-tenth the area of the closed library and will be only slightly larger than the typical men’s restroom in that same building;
  • No provision is made to restore the unique Great Lakes ecological collection or to recover any of the other holdings from the former library.

EPA libraries to reopen in the Fall

Published April 3rd, 2008 in environment libraries | No Comments »

A colleague sent me a link to a story in American Libraries that says that the EPA National Library Network Report to Congress calls for the reopening of the four libraries that were closed back in 2006, that they will contain collections, that will be staffed by librarians that will offer reference services and that 1$ million will be spent on this. The report was published after the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee’s hearing in which it was stated that “No library should be closed until its holdings have been effectively cataloged, evaluated, and digitized.” In February, a GAO report said that the EPA library closures were “hasty and ill-considered.”

Now if only something could be done to restore funding to our own Environment Canada libraries.

EPA libraries get new funding

Published January 11th, 2008 in environment libraries | No Comments »

After a series of controversial library closures (see this history at SLA website), a new bill has been approved in Washington that will allocate $1 million to restore EPA’s network of libraries.

The amended bill includes $1,000,000 above the request to restore the network of EPA libraries recently closed or consolidated by the Administration. (…) The Agency is directed to submit a report to the Committees on Appropriations regarding actions it will take to restore publicly available libraries to provide environmental information and data to each EPA region within 90 days of enactment of this Act. (more info)

This is great news for the EPA, but north of the border, Environment Canada is still struggling to get appropriate funding, both for its libraries and its research activities. I wrote an article about it last year, and an article and video by the CBC was posted last Fall. It would be great if CASLIS or the SLA (its Canadian Chapters), could drum up an advocacy campaign, the likes of which happened in the US over the EPA library closures.

- DD