RE: EPA Set to Close Library Network and Electronic Catalog

["Grefsheim, Suzanne \(NIH/OD/ORS\) [E]" <SG8D@NIH.GOV>]

As the Director of the NIH Library I feel I should respond, if 
for no other reason than to assure the many colleagues who have 
alerted me to this posting.  First, the NIH Library serves the 
information needs of the researchers and administrators who work 
at NIH.  We are funded by fees charged to the institutes and 
centers (ICs) that make up the National Institutes of Health.  I 
am confident that as long as we continue to provide the resources 
and services NIH researchers need to do their work, we will 
continue to receive adequate funding.  If we fail to do so, then 
we too could be in jeopardy.  So far we remain highly valued by 
the NIH community and receive the funding we need to do a good 
job.

That having been said, we are not responsible for PubMed Central. 
PMC is a service of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), which 
is one of the 27 NIH ICs.  NLM's budget, including initiatives 
such as PMC, is a direct Congressional appropriation.  I cannot 
speak for NLM, but it is my impression that their commitment to 
PMC is as solid as their commitment to maintaining GENBANK or 
PubMed is.  I haven't seen any concern among the scientific 
community about NLM's continued maintenance of these databases.

Suzanne Grefsheim
Director, Division of Library Services
Office of Research Services
National Institutes of Health
10 Center Drive, MSC-1150
Bethesda, MD 20892
301.496.2448 (voice)
301.402.0254 (fax)
http://nihlibrary.nih.gov

-----Original Message-----
From: Martin Frank [mailto:Mfrank@The-APS.org]
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 7:00 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: EPA Set to Close Library Network and Electronic Catalog

Will the NIH Library Be Next?  The closing of the EPA Library 
should serve as a cautionary note to those who believe that NIH 
should be the one to archive the biomedical literature.  At a 
time of shrinking budgets, projected to be $28.39 billion in 
FY2011, a 13.8% decrease from existing funding levels adjusted 
for inflation, can we truly rely on the NIH Library and 
PubMedCentral as a future archiving solution? Marty

Martin Frank, Ph.D.
Executive Director
American Physiological Society
Email: mfrank@The-APS.org


>>> cahamake@email.uncc.edu 2/17/2006 8:34 PM >>>
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=643

Under G.Bush Jr.'s proposed budget, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency is slated to shut down its network of libraries that serve its
own scientists as well as the public, according to internal agency
documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility (PEER). In addition to the libraries, the agency will
pull the plug on its electronic catalog which tracks tens of thousands
of unique documents and research studies that are available nowhere
else."


Chuck Hamaker
Associate University Librarian Collections and Technical Services Atkins
Library University of North Carolina Charlotte Charlotte, NC 28223 phone
704 687-2825