LISNews: Librarian News

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to reopen five closed libraries to the public by this fall, the agency said in a report last Thursday.

Three of the EPA's 10 regional libraries and two libraries at the agency's Washington headquarters were closed because of limited public use and resources being available online, EPA officials had said. The closings prompted criticism from lawmakers. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he welcomed the EPA promise to again make all its libraries available to the public, but he cautioned that "important questions about how these libraries will be staffed remain unanswered."

From the Boston Globe: 'If the nation's first subway system had a wise old uncle, it was George M. Sanborn.
Mr. Sanborn, who died Saturday, spent hours holed away in the state's quirky transportation library - where he worked nearly four decades - rummaging through tattered public documents to figure out the history of a manhole cover, the origin of a train station, or the portion of Massachusetts law that required conductors to wear hats. He was 77.' He had a typewriter on his desk, and spent his spare time restoring old trolleys.

EPA Closure of Libraries Faulted For Curbing Access to Key Data A plan by the Environmental Protection Agency to close several of its 26 research libraries did not fully account for the impact on government staffers and the public, who rely on the libraries for hard-to-find environmental data, congressional investigators reported yesterday.

Good news if your looking for DoD info. The Federation of American Scientists has used the Freedom of Information Act to reopen access to the Army's on-line Reimer Digital Library. There is however a warning certificate if you do try to enter the site.

Here's the story--from two days ago-- of the library's closing: "The Army has shut down public access to the largest online collection of its doctrinal publications, a move criticized by open-government advocates as unnecessary secrecy by a runaway bureaucracy." Both articles are from the Washington Post. Additional commentary from the New Civilization Network.