Subject: RE: EMPACT: Libraries involvement lacking (Reply to: Effectiveness of the New EPA Office of Environmental Information
I am a Librarian with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. I am writing for the first time during this dialogue. I have spent the time I could afford during the past duration looking over the messages and responses. Today to Fred Stoss, I want to say that if there is a problem with city and county governments, and I don't like painting with such a broad brush, in their lack of consideration for local libraries as points for dissemination of information, then the very simple solution for EPA to have instituted into the call for proposals would have been to require inclusion of the local, area, or regional librarian or library board in the grant proposal submitted. That kind of simple, direct, from the top, tangible concern for libraries will buttress and renew awareness among government body members and among librarians for each other and their respective spheres of concern.
As I followed the discussion in this dialogue I noted that only a very few people are participating, that there is an almost constant call for doing something new, something else. Why not evaluate the existing EPA dissemination of information programs, look at effectiveness in meeting whatever goals EPA has set for itself in terms of info dissemination, decide which current actions are most effective, streamline those through electronic and traditional means, and eliminate those programs that are not yielding to further the established goals. I have strong objections to the idea that EPA can unilaterally call on public libraries to serve EPA programs. It if far to easy to stand and point outside rather than to examine one's own sphere of influence. Most of the best quality programs I know are elegant in their simplicity, and they get the job done.
I read Fred's reply to the woman who is on an environmental quality board in NY. Fred could have been more helpful, by including the phone numbers or addresses, or perhaps his in his reply to her so that she could have continued her search for the information she needed. But there was much more in her message; and that is the scientific complication involved in environmental issues. It is this tremendous amount of technical and scientific data that is needed to even begin to grasp the idea of an "environmental issue". EPA publishes a range of documentation from simple pamphlets to the most intricate compilations of scientific data. There are different audiences for different types of publications. EPA has demonstrated it knows that by the fact of the publication program. EPA publishes catalogs of its publications and technical reports. I have no objection to this hardcopy approach even in the electonic age. (I know the same is online). Some information is better communicated in hardcopy, some is better communicated in the electronic media. Melding the various sources of information regardless of media to meet the needs of information seekers is the role of librarians. EPA as a national level organization needs to recognize this, and support librarians and the field of library and information science by working with national level library organizations and library/info sci schools. There is existing structure already in place and I believe EPA can work in collaboration with the entities that are part of the stucture.
That kind of approach will allow librarians to work with members of environmental quality boards or citizens who want to know about environmental issues and while working the librarians will know that a solid bibliography and body of available, accessible, well organized EPA information, data, and commentary is there for use. But EPA information would not have solved that inquiry from our intrepid discussion from the NY board.
Because the environmental sciences encompass so much, and so much more than EPA is about or even deals with, I am concerned about the EPA focus on libraries, unless that focus is from a highly philosphical frame of thought. There is valid scientific disagreement over the science of environmental issues, even gasoline additives or lack thereof are an issue, which become politicized all too quickly. EPA by it place in government cannot escape the politicization. For this reason I believe EPA needs to create coalition with national and international agencies when it begins to talk about disseminating information through libraries. If EPA were to build an information dissemination program that encompasses all science based views about the environment, my confidence in that body of information would be high. I would believe I am accessing an unbiased repository, well organized, well rounded, totally representative of any environmental issue.
Being an environmental science librarian at that point would be a dream. But can I expect EPA to become so highminded and free of all prevailing political thought? I would hope so, I dream so. If EPA could provide an organized structure for the amorphous body of information in the world that has grown from concern about the environment, the contribution to the futhre, to mankind, to the planet, and eventually to the universe would be unmeasurable.
I encourage EPA to think bigger. Don't worry about what local libraries can do for you, look at the resources that need harnassing and organizing and please get busy. Govenment has the funds, the power, the communication channels, the ability to attract brainpower, to design, to prototype, to do. The EPA OLS is a great example. Now go do something bigger and more far reaching. And please, when you design calls for proposals, include Libraries as a requirement in the returned proprosals. That would be a tremendous help to all of us at every library level, public, state, and national. We are all here to help those public citizens, if you make our lives easier, the help that flows downward will be measurably better. We need your help from your level. And your goal of enjoying environmentally informed citizens will be better served.
My apologies to Mr. Stoss for using his message as my spring-board to this dialogue.
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