Haven't seen this mentioned here yet, and it's too important to miss:
Representatives for 10,000 scientists, engineers, and other specialists with the Environmental Protection Agency have written a letter of protest, asking Congress to stop the administration from closing the EPA's technical research libraries... a process that already has begun.
The letter complains the closures are "one more example of the Bush administration's effort to suppress information on environmental and public health-related topics."
According to a news release from
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility:
The EPA scientists, representing more than half of the total agency workforce, contend thousands of scientific studies are being put out of reach, hindering emergency preparedness, anti-pollution enforcement and long-term research, according to the letter released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
In his proposed budget for FY 2007, President Bush deleted $2 million of support for EPA's libraries, amounting to 80% of the agency's total budget for libraries. Without waiting for Congress to act, EPA has begun shuttering libraries, closing access to collections and reassigning staff. ...
I wonder if this will be discussed on the Sunday talking head shows. I'd love to hear how conservatives defend giving billions of dollars in tax cuts to the super-wealthy while hampering the vital work of our environmental scientists to save a couple of million.
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UPDATE: Many are asking if there is any recourse on this matter. This morning, kfred suggested looking into http://dspace.org/introduction/index.html -a digital repository system developed by MIT Laboratories and Hewlett-Packard Labs. Any insights or thoughts on this intriguing idea? Any other suggested solutions? One question I have: if benefactors wanted to $ave the libraries or help fund the transfer of materials to a repository, would/could the government allow it?