RE: Welcome to the Dialogue!

["Terry A. Greene" <tgreene@jsi.com>]

How wonderful to learn of this conference! I strongly believe 
that libraries are key to ensuring public access to environmental
information. 

As a member of a nonprofit that assists the public to fully 
participe in environmental health decisionmaking in their
communities, I have worked collaboratively with the EPA, 
libraries and library associations to create community outreach 
projects. For the Every Community's Right-to-Know Project I 
surveyed and held trainings for librarians across Massachusetts 
on using environmental information resources, such as EPA 
right-to-know databases, that were followed by community 
workshops co-sponsored with the local libraries for their 
patrons (at which various sectors from advocates to business
and local government attended and often presented their work).  
Several resource materials resulted, including a resource manual for library 
patrons and a guide used in national train-the-trainer sessions
for those wishing to replicate the project.  

Greatly looking forward to the Internet forum and to learning 
more about everyone else's work.  My most pressing concern is
that in addition to getting the most accurate and useful 
data on the net, that EPA also ensure that people know it's 
there, understand it's value, and are able to fully use it to 
help their communities.  These are areas where librarians 
provide excellent partners.

Terry Greene
Associate of the Center for Environmental Health Studies
JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc.
44 Farnsworth Street
Boston, MA 02210
(617) 482-9485
www.johnsnow.org