RE: EMPACT: Libraries involvement lacking (Reply to: Effectiveness of the New EPA Office of Environmental Information

[Fred Stoss <fstoss@acsu.buffalo.edu>]

Linda,

No appologies are needed, required, or expected! I am glad that
my comments stimulated you to write. That is why this effort is a 
dialogue and not a lecture.

Your suggestion of EPA putting into the EMPACT proposal something
about libraries is a GREAT idea. Why didn't THEY think of it?
One reason could be that the EPa office providing the EMAPCT 
program didn't/doesn't include the EPA Library Network in THEIR
program planning activities. EMAPCT at the library level is a
natural match linking local/community information infrastructures 
and outreach to a national (EPA) central repository of such work!
It is a GRAND idea. 

I would only hope that the EPA Librarians and inforamtion 
managers participating in this dialogue take Linda's comments
seriously and go to EVERY SINGLE EPA PROGRAM OFFICE and have 
included in every RFP that is issued a statement that requires
the state, county, tribal, city organization, institution, or 
agency to involve their respective library(ies) and library 
networks and that the EPA Library Network be given the tangible
resources of funds, staff, and other resources to make this 
local-EPA information connection work.

Just as the American Library Association is empowering librarians
with resources and strategies "to sit at the table" with regard
to building sustainable communities, so must the EPA Library 
Network be allowed to "sit at the table" in the EPA's planning 
activities.

Fred Stoss
Science and Engineering Library
University at Buffalo