Good Afternoon. I am Nancy Kranich, President of the American Library Association. On behalf of the over 60,000 members of ALA, I want to express my appreciation for the opportunity to participate in today’s public meeting.

For twenty years, I have personally been involved in the discourse on these issues. For far longer, the American Library Association has taken strong stands to ensure that the public has a right to access government information. We firmly believe that this right is fundamental to our democratic society.

In order to assure this access we also believe:

• that the government has an affirmative obligation to disseminate and provide broad public access to its information;
• that the government has an obligation to guarantee the authenticity and integrity of its information;
• that the government has an obligation to preserve its information and that includes the affirmative obligation to provide ongoing permanent public access; and
• that the government information created or compiled by government employees or at government expense should remain in the public domain.

We fully recognize how critical public access is to American society. We are particularly concerned today about the pending closure of the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). NTIS is essential to the advancement of research, science and technology and is so fundamental that it should be supported by sustained funding from Federal appropriations.

We also believe that the pressing need for permanent public access to all government information, including scientific and technical information, cannot be stressed enough. Everyday, in this electronic age, we are losing essential government information that is irreplaceable.

Finally, the American Library Association believes that these issues are so important that our members will discuss them extensively at our Midwinter Conference in January here in Washington, D.C. Likewise, we highly recommend that the public be granted the opportunity for full and robust discussion of these important issues.

As librarians we work with virtually every community in America. Everyday, we see first hand everyday the positive impact government information has on how people live, learn, work and govern.

Our Association and I, personally, look forward to continued discourse on these issues.

And now I would like to introduce Ann Miller, who is Chair of ALA’s Government Documents Roundtable, GODORT, who has further comments from the library community.