Reference Materials for the Dialogue

Federal and State Agency Web Sites

• Federal Departments and Agencies with Environmental Responsibilities
  
  
  • Council on Environmental Quality
  • United States Environmental Protection Agency
    
  • United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service
  • United States Army Corps of Engineers
  • United States Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • United States Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
  • United States Department of Interior
  • United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission
    

• State Departments and Agencies with Environmental Responsibilities
• List of State Environmental Web Sites. Prepared by Resources for the Future. August 2000.

• Summary of Survey Results for State Environmental Departments.The summary includes a chart evaluating State Environmental Departments' use of the Internet based on selected criteria. The report was compiled by Resources For the Future. August 2000.

• Environmental Law Institute Report. June 1999. Building Capacity to Participate in Environmental Protection Agency Activities: A Needs Assessment and Analysis. This report examines and identifies approaches to build the capacity of communities to participate in EPA decision-making processes.
  

• EPA Government-wide Survey: Background, Summary Findings, and Follow-up Plans. Reference librarians who use EPA's web site were asked about the organization and ease of using EPA's web site. December 1999.

• EPA WebWorld 2000 Conference Summaries. This was the first WebWorld conference that gathered information and feedback on the vision of EPA's role in facilitating access to and dissemination of environmental information. July 2000.

• Information Renaissance’s Suggestions for Using the Internet to Build Capacity to Participate in Environmental Protection Agency Activities. August 2000.

• Tell Us Your Information Needs. EPA Region 3 focus groups on environmental needs. Presents the results of five focus groups conducted to gather input on a variety of environmental information topics throughout the Mid-Atlantic states. April 2000.
  

EPA's Public Participation Policies

• EPA's Public Participation Requirements. The 1981 Policy on Participation, its present Draft Policy, and the 1999 Public Comments on the Policy are archived here.
• Federal Register Notice and Request for Comment on EPA's Public Participation Policy, 1999.
• EPA's June 1998 Report of the Common Sense Initiative's (CSI) Stakeholder Involvement Workshop explains actions needed to integrate EPA's stakeholder involvement activities and presents finding from CSI Council Stakeholder Involvement Workgroup.

• EPA's Concerned Citizens Web page. Various EPA program and regional offices also maintain Concerned Citizens Web pages. Hot links to these pages are located at the bottom of this page.

EPA's Stakeholder Involvement Web page

• EPA's Main Environmental Justice site.
• EPA's Site on State, Tribal and Local Resources.
• President Clinton's Executive Order on Environmental Justice.

Environmental Library Resources

• National Council for Science and the Environment
• Pace University Virtual Law Library

Digtal Divide and Internet Usage Issues

• Digital Divide and Libraries Talking Points. The paper explores the library's role bridging the digital divide. Produced by the American Library Association. August 2000.
  

• Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide. A 1999 report by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The report provides comprehensive data on the level of Internet access by Americans and where they are gaining access.

• National Survey of U.S. Public Library Outlet Internet Connectivity 1998-1997. Findings are included in the 1998 National Survey's Summary Results and in the March 1999 report Moving Toward More Effective Public Internet Access.

• Survey of Internet Use. Nie and Erbring, Stanford Institute for Quantitative Study of Society, February 2000. This study is an assessment of the social consequences of Internet use based on a large representative sample of American households.

Library and Research Center Fact Sheets provided by the American Library Association.

• Equity on the Information Super Highway. Offers general demographic information on Internet access from homes. March 1999.
• How many libraries are on the Internet? Presents information on the extent of Internet connectivity from public, school and academic libraries. May 1999.
• How many libraries are there in the United States? Provides a breakdown of public, academic, school, special, armed forces, and government libraries throughout the country. July 2000.
• Library Operating Expenditures: A Selected Annotated Bibliography. Describes sources of information on library operating expenditures on public, academic, and school libraries. July 2000.

• Public Library Use. Answers questions about public libraries including how are they used, who is using them, and what people think of them. February 2000.

• Who uses public libraries? Provides information on the demographics, frequency and usage of public libraries. November 1998.

• Your Right To Know: Government Information. Addresses the trend toward less public access to government information. March 1999.

• Library Advocacy Trainings Available.This website provides a information on three advocacy training programs to help libraries educate their communities about the Internet and related issues, including children's access, intellectual freedom and the use of filters. Sponsored by the American Library Association. April 2000.

• Libraries Build Sustainable Communities introduces the concept of sustainable community development as a process for making choices about the future, and suggests activities to guide communities and libraries toward becoming sustainable. The project is a partnership between the American Library Association and Global Learning Inc. whose web site contains a summary of the report.

• Report on the Assessment of Electronic Government Information Products, for the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, March 1999. The report assesses electronic medium and format standards for the creation and dissemination of electronic information products through the Federal Depository Library Program.

Other Topics

• Electronic Freedom of Information Act. June 14, 2000. Hearing before House Committee on Government Reform on the Agency Response to the Electronic Freedom of Information Act.
  • Opening Statement of Subcommittee Chairman Stephen Horn.

  • Statement of Joshua Gotbaum , Executive Associate Director and Controller, Office of Management and Budget .

  • Statement of Patrice McDermott, Ph.D., Policy Analyst, OMB Watch.

  • Statement of Ian Marquand, National Freedom of Information Committee Chair, the Society of Professional Journalists.

Other Environmental Materials

• National Report Card on Environmental Attitudes Knowledge and Behavior. Presents the results of survey research conducted to better understand what Americans know about the environment and how that knowledge relates to their attitudes and daily actions. The national survey is conducted by The National Environmental Education and Training Foundation (NEETF). Reports from 1997,1998 and 1999 surveys are included.

• Resources for Economic Viability in Sustainable Agriculture. This resource provides nearly 200 linked and annotated resources on the topic including federal and NY State resource, educational institutions, not-for-profit organizations, electronic discussions, commercial sites with useful agriculture information and generalized tools for small business. July 2000.

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