RE: librarians as advocates for common sense environmental information

[Tom.Hughes, Mass Environmental Library <Thomas.Hughes@state.ma.us>]

One thing struck me in particular in the statement "I can understand why the EPA as an agency would hesitate to offend this most powerful single entity in national affairs. This could negatively impact its budget."  I understand the statement, and it is clear that government likes to avoid risk taking, and some at EPA may see providing access to a complete collection of relevant information, including credible peer reviewed information that may or may not support EPA conclusions. However, if you look at what NIH has done with the National Library of Medicine, Medline, etc... I think EPA management should be able to see where the opposite is true.  By providing such high quality access to all relevant information, the NIH has made it's information services invaluable to so many people that I'll bet they have a far more insulated and stable budget.  In addition, I believe that the result of providing its own staff with this information access is that the information NIH produces is higher quality.  I would love to see EPA try to follow the NIH lead and come up with a national environmental information resource that is relied on by researchers as THE primary source for locating credible, peer reviewed, environmental information and research.  I think we all would benefit, including EPA.