PubScience Threatened

["MARGARET LANDESMAN" <mlandesm@library.utah.edu>]

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Subject: ACT!/GVTI: PubScience Threatened by FY2002 

Library supporters are asked to contact the Senators on the Appropriations
Subcommittee (listed below) and ask them to FULLY FUND PubSCIENCE in the
Department of Energy FY2002 Appropriations bill.

PubSCIENCE, an extremely important Department of Energy database, is
threatened with a cut in FY2002 budget proposals in H.R. 2311, the 2002
Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill.  Elimination of this
service denies no-fee public access to an important database for
government funded research and development reports, citations, and even
some full articles.

It is not in the public good to cut or eliminate this service which denies
scientists, engineers, students, researchers and many others access to
publicly-funded research and information not available elsewhere.  
Thirty-five publishers have provided access to over 1200 journals through
PubSCIENCE.

The House of Representatives Appropriations Committee has voted to cut
funding for the Technical Information Management program citing unfair
competition with the private companies wanting to develop and sell such a
service.  Pressure must be applied to the Senate to retain funding for
this unique and critical program in the Department of Energy.

ACTION ALERT:
Please contact Senators listed below and ask them to 
support full funding for PubSCIENCE. A sample letter follows 
at the end of this e-mail message. 

Robert Byrd (D-WV) - Chairman
Ted Stevens (R-AK) - Ranking Member
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
Diane Feinstein (D-CA)
Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO)
Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Tom Harkin (D-IA)
Larry Craig (R-ID)
Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Christopher Bond (R-MO)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Conrad Burns (R-MT)
Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Pete Domenici (R-NM)
Harry Reid (D-NV)
Arlen Specter (R-PA)
Ernest Hollings (D-SC)
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)
Robert Bennet (R-UT)
Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
Patty Murray (D-WA)
Herbert Kohl (D-WI)

[2] ALA SENDS LETTER SUPPORTING FULL FUNDING FOR PubSCIENCE

ALA Washington Office Executive Director Emily Sheketoff sent a letter on
July 3, 2001, to all the Senators on the Appropriations Subcommittee
clearly stating ALA's support for full funding for PubSCIENCE.  The letter
reads as follows:

Dear Senator:

The American Library Association (ALA) strongly advocates for the public's
right to equal, ready and equitable access to information, especially
information created by the government.

ALA believes that an important part of the Department of Energy's mandate
is to provide for the accessibility and dissemination of scientific
knowledge that was created as the result of government-sponsored R & D.  
The PubSCIENCE service saves the user time-consuming research of web sites
and allows access to journal information at any time by directly linking
to the publisher's site to obtain the full text.

The American Library Association supports fully funding the Department of
Energy's Technical Information Management program, at the $8.97 million
level for FY2002.  This level is necessary to ensure the work that makes
PubSCIENCE and other Department of Energy information resources available
to the public.

Your continued support for this economical way of making important science
information easily accessible to all will be appreciated by your
constituents and scientists everywhere.

Sincerely,
Emily Sheketoff
Executive Director, ALA Washington Office

Following is another sample letter to Senators on the 
Appropriations Subcommittee. 


Dear Senator xxxxxx,

I urge you to vote for full funding for the Technical Information
Management program, part of H.R. 2311, the 2002 Energy and Water
Development Appropriations bill.  This program funds the important
resource PubSCIENCE.  To ensure free public access to government sponsored
physical science research, the Technical Information Management program
must be fully funded.

The PubSCIENCE database contains citations and in some cases, links to
articles in scientific journals.  Researchers in government and industry
as well as librarians, educators, students and the scientific public use
this database.  For- profit and not-for-profit journal publishers have
volunteered their information, free of charge, to be disseminated through
PubSCIENCE. Researchers can search articles in 1,250 journals from 35
publishers.

PubSCIENCE focuses on journals in which Department of Energy researchers
report their scientific discoveries.  Much of the research in PubSCIENCE
is produced with federal funds, and PubSCIENCE provides access to
government sponsored research and development, originally paid for by the
American taxpayers.

PubSCIENCE was developed to provide free access to taxpayer funded
research and development programs sponsored by the Federal government.  
The House Appropriations Committee cut funding for the Technical
Information Management program out of concern that the program is
duplicating services already available from the private sector.  However,
given that the research is paid for by the taxpayers, it is essential that
the public and researchers be able find it through a free resource like
PubSCIENCE, not a private sector for pay resource.

I urge you to vote for full funding for the Technical Information
Management program, which will support free access to publicly funded
scientific research and development.

******

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Margaret Landesman
Head, Collection Development
Marriott Library
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0860
phone: (801) 581-7741
fax: (801) 585-3464
e-mail: mlandesm@library.utah.edu