EPA closes libraries

The Environmental Protection Agency has begun to close down its regional network of libraries, in response to the President's FY 2007 budget which proposes $2 million in cuts to the EPA library system, and in anticipation that Congress will not restore these cuts. A press release of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility reports that regional libraries in Chicago, Dallas and Kansas City will be closed by Sept. 30, while regional library hours and services will be gradually reduced; public access to EPA libraries and collections will end as soon as possible; and as "many as 80,000 original documents which are not electronically available will be boxed up ('put their collections into stasis,' in the words of the EPA memo) and shipped for eventual “'digitizing.'”

A letter written by union presidents representing approximately 10,000 EPA employees denounced the planned closure as "one more example of the Bush Administration’s efforts to suppress information on environmental and public health-related topics while cloaking these actions under the guise of 'fiscal responsibility.'”