Information on the NCLIS study of the planned closure of NTIS undertaken in the October 1999 - March 2000 timeframe is available at "Preliminary Assessment of NTIS Closure." The Comprehensive Assessment of Public Information Dissemination that NCLIS embarked on incorporates the next stage of the NTIS study.

(Former) Chairperson Martha Gould presenting
Senator Joseph Lieberman a copy of A Comprehensive Assessment of Public Information Dissemination, Final Report, Volume 1

Final Report and Appendices

(Vol. 1 and 2: limited copies available in print; Vol. 3 and 4 available in electronic format only)
• A Comprehensive Assessment of Public Information Dissemination,
  Final Report, Volume 1 (January 26, 2001) (PDF)
  (Executive Summary, Report, and Appendices 1 through 10) (PDF)
• A Comprehensive Assessment of Public Information Dissemination,
  Final Report, Volume 2: Legislative and Regulatory Proposals (PDF)
  (Appendices 11 through 12)(PDF) [Volume 2 contains the Commission's legislative proposal: The Public Information Resources Reform Act of 2001 (Appendix 11) and suggested revisions to the Paperwork Reduction Act and OMB Circular A-130 (Appendix 12).
• A Comprehensive Assessment of Public Information Dissemination,
  Final Report, Volume 3: Supplementary Reference Materials (PDF)
  (Appendices 13 through 34) (PDF) [Volume 3 contains supplementary reference materials, including White Papers, Panel Reports, survey results and bibliographies.]
• A Comprehensive Assessment of Public Information Dissemination, Final Report, Volume 4: Compilation of Recent Federal Statutes Pertaining to Public Information Dissemination (DRAFT ONLY); (Appendix 35) (PDF) (available in electronic format only)
  [Volume 4 contains A Compilation of Recent Federal Statutes Pertaining to Public Information Dissemination. The Index to the Compilation is available in Appendix 32]
• Executive Summary (PDF)
• Appendices
  • Volume 1 (Appendices 1-10) (PDF)
    • Appendix 1. Letter from Senator John McCain to NCLIS Chairperson Martha B. Gould — June 12, 2000
    • Appendix 2. Letter from NCLIS Chairperson Martha B. Gould to Senator John McCain — June 27, 2000, replying to letter of June 12, 2000
    • Appendix 3. Letter from Senator Joseph I. Lieberman to NCLIS Chairperson Martha B. Gould — July 17, 2000
    • Appendix 4. Letter from NCLIS Chairperson Martha B. Gould to Senator Joseph I. Lieberman — August 7, 2000, replying to letter of July 17, 2000
    • Appendix 5. Letter from NCLIS Chairperson Martha B. Gould to Secretary of Commerce Norman Y. Mineta — August 1, 2000
    • Appendix 6. Letter from Secretary of Commerce Norman Y. Mineta to NCLIS Chairperson Martha B. Gould — September 1, 2000, replying to letter of August 1, 2000
    • Appendix 7. Letter from NCLIS Chairperson Martha B. Gould to Secretary of Commerce Norman Y. Mineta — October 10, 2000
    • Appendix 8. Letter from Secretary of Commerce Norman Y. Mineta to NCLIS Chairperson Martha B. Gould — November 21, 2000, replying to letter of October 10, 2000
    • Appendix 9. NCLIS Press Release Announcing the Comprehensive Assessment of Public Information Dissemination — June 26, 2000
    • Appendix 10. NCLIS Principles of Public Information — June 29, 1990
  • Volume 2 - The Legislative and Regulatory Proposals (Appendices 11-12) (PDF)
    • Appendix 11. The Public Information Resources Reform Act of 2001
      • Schematic Representation of the Components of the Proposed Public Information Resources Reform Act of 2001
        The file is available as PDF and as PPT (Microsoft^® Powerpoint). It needs to be printed landscape.
    • Appendix 12. Suggested Revisions to The Paperwork Reduction Act and OMB Circular A-130
  • Volume 3 - Supplementary Reference Materials (Appendices 13-34) (PDF) (available in electronic format only)
    • Appendix 13. NCLIS Study Plan Outline — July 25, 2000
    • Appendix 14. Some Issues/Concerns to Address — July 25, 2000
    • Appendix 15. Some Important Information Age Paradigms Shifts and Their Associated Myths and Realities — written by F. Woody Horton, NCLIS Consultant
    • Appendix 16. Government Information Life Cycle Management — written by F. Woody Horton, NCLIS Consultant
    • Appendix 17. An Invited Retrospective Appraisal of the 1982 NCLIS Public Sector/Private Sector Task Force Report — written by Robert M. Hayes, Chairman, NCLIS Public Sector/Private Sector Task Force and Member, NCLIS Group of Experts
    • Appendix 18. The World Wide Library — written by Christopher Burns, Member, NCLIS Group of Experts
    • Appendix 19. FirstGov: A Preliminary Assessment — written by William H. Price, Member, NCLIS Group of Experts
    • Appendix 20. Linking The Information Life Cycle Concept With Digital Libraries — written by Satadip Dutta, Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) and Reviewed by Edward A. Fox and Shalin Urs
    • Appendix 21. Creating the Magic of Information — written by Paul G. Zurkowski, Member, NCLIS Group of Experts
    • Appendix 22. Study Panels and Group of Experts Memberships
    • Appendix 23. Panel One: Final Report on A Reformed NTIS Business Model for the Internet Age
    • Appendix 24. Panel Two: Final Report on Federal Agency Needs for Central Information Services and Information Management
    • Appendix 25. Panel Three: Final Report on Citizen, Business, Lower Levels of Government, Library, and Other Needs for Public Information Products and Services
    • Appendix 26. Panel Four: Final Report on Renewed and Strengthened Partnerships Between the Public and Private Sectors for Public Information Dissemination
    • Appendix 27. Survey of Selected Federal Agency Policies, Programs and Practices Relating to Public Information Dissemination — conducted by F. Woody Horton and Sarah Kadec, NCLIS consultants
    • Appendix 28. Survey of the Public Information Needs of Disadvantaged and Special Populations — conducted by F. Woody Horton and Sarah Kadec, NCLIS consultants
    • Appendix 29. Public Information Resources Maps — compiled by the Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC) and the Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT) of the American Library Association (ALA)
    • Appendix 30. European Commission Green Paper on Public Sector Information in the Information Society
    • Appendix 31. A Bibliography of Government Information Dissemination Resources — compiled by Sarah Kadec and Barbara Whiteleather, NCLIS Consultants
    • Appendix 32. A Bibliography of National Information Policies — compiled by Dean Toni Carbo and graduate students, School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, and updated in 2000 by Marilyn Ochoa
    • Appendix 33. Index to a Compilation of Recent Federal Statutes Pertaining to Public Information Dissemination
    • Appendix 34. NCLIS Comprehensive Assessment Web Page Table of Contents as of January 26, 2001
  • Volume 4 - Compilation of Recent Federal Statutes Pertaining to Public Information Dissemination (DRAFT ONLY.)
    • Appendix 35. A Compilation of Recent Federal Statutes Pertaining to Public Information Dissemination (PDF) (available in electronic format only)

Congressional and Executive Branch Communications Not In the Appendices

• NCLIS letter to Senate and House Majority and Minority Staff Directors - July 7, 2000
• Letter from Representatives Constance Morella and Tom Davis to GAO re: NTIS - August 1, 2000 (PDF)
• Federal Information Policy Act of 2000
  introduced 7/27/00 by Congressman Davis, referred to Committee Government Reform. Access thru Thomas, Bill & Summary Status for 106th Congress 2d Session, type in H.R. 5024
• House Appropriations Committee directed GAO study of SuDocs Functions and Programs - July 27, 2000
• FirstGov.gov Hearings: FirstGov.gov: Is it a Good Idea?; House Committee on Government Reform - October 2, 2000
• NCLIS letter to The Honorable Donald L. Evans,
  Secretary of Commerce - February 6, 2001

Study Goals, Organization, Plans, Meetings, & Schedules Not In the Appendices

• NCLIS Public Meeting Scheduled - 342 Dirksen Bldg., Monday Dec. 4, 2000, 1:00-5:00 p.m.
• Study Status Report - as of August 12, 2000
• Study Status Report - as of September 5, 2000
• Study Status Report - as of September 20, 2000
• Study Status Report - as of October 5, 2000
• Study Status Report - as of October 19, 2000
• Panel Meetings Announced for September 2000
• Comprehensive Assessment of Public Information Dissemination Reforms - September 2000 (Powerpoint^® Presentation; best viewed in Microsoft^® Internet Explorer)
• NCLIS Commission Meeting Announced for November 15, 2000

Stakeholder Communications

• Comments at NCLIS Public Meeting - December 4, 2000
  • National Association of the Deaf (NAD) - Nancy J. Bloch
  • Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC) - Susan M. Tarr
  • American Library Association (ALA) - Nancy Kranich
  • Government Documents Roundtable (ALA/GODORT) - Ann Miller
  • American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) - Mary Alice Baish
  • Printing Industries of America (PIA) - Ben Cooper
  • Dan Duncan, Consultant
  • OMB Watch - Patrice McDermott
• Other Stakeholder Comments to NCLIS (Pre-Publication)
  • American Library Association to NCLIS re draft Executive Summary and draft Proposed Legislation Excerpts documents; November 27, 2000
  • NCLIS Proposal: Public Information as a Strategic National Asset
    Information Retrieval & Library Automation, Vol. 36, No. 7, December 2000
  • Ken Wasch, President SIIA; December 6, 2000
  • Daniel S. Jones, President, NewsBank, Inc.; December 8, 2000
  • The American Council of the Blind submitted by Krista Dubroff, Policy Analyst ; December 8, 2000
  • The Archivist of the United States John W. Carlin; December 8, 2000
  • Morton Bahr, President, Communications Workers of America (AFL-CIO, CLC); December 14, 2000
  • GladysAnn Wells, Director, Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records; December 15, 2000
  • Paul A. De Giusti, Director, Washington Affairs, The McGraw-Hill Companies; January 2, 2001
  • Edward J. Black, President and CEO, Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA); January 3, 2001
  • Keith M. Fiels, President, Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA); January 3, 2001
  • Prudence S. Adler, Associate Executive Director, ARL; Mary Alice Baish, Acting Washington Affairs Representative, AALL; Lynne Bradley, Director, Office of Government Relations, ALA; Ann E. Miller, Chair, GODORT, ALA; January 3, 2001
  • Nancy M. Bolt, Assistant Commissioner for Libraries, Colorado Department of Education; January 4, 2001
  • Public Printer Michael F. DiMario; January 4, 2001
  • NTIS Bargaining Unit; January 31, 2001
  • Clara P. McLeod, Chair, Cartographic Users Advisory Council (CUAC)
• Other Stakeholder Comments to NCLIS (Post-Publication)
  • NCLIS’ wasted motions; Federal Computer Week, March 26, 2001, Column by J. Timothy Sprehe
    
  • A wealth of information ; Scripps Howard News Service , April 10, 2001, Opinion by Mitzi Perdue
  • Letter from Senator Joseph I. Lieberman to NCLIS Chairperson Martha Gould, April 16, 2001 (PDF)
  • Two Reports on the Dissemination of US Government Information, The Scout Report (Volume 7, Number 12), April 13, 2001
  • Comments from Philippe Queau to Robert Willard via email, May 9, 2001
  • NCLIS Report Calls for Reform, FLICC Newsletter (No 196, Winter 2001)

Panel and Group of Experts Communications

• PowerPoint Presentation, Peter Urbach, NCLIS Mtg. - November 15, 2000
• PowerPoint Presentation, Kurt Molholm, NCLIS Mtg. - November 15, 2000

Study-Relevant Articles, Reports and Directives, Publications, Studies, and Conferences

Additional references are included in the bibliographies in Appendices 31 and 32 in Section 1 above

A. Articles

• The Electronic Envelope, by William H. Price - 1986; Information Management Review Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall 1986
• The Issue of Access to Federal Information, Kurt N. Molholm, October 1990
• Premises for Developing World Wide Web Strategies, Kurt Molholm, ICSTI Forum: Quarterly Newsletter of the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information, No 27, March 1998)
• Information Overload, by Eric Yoder, Government Executive, August 2000
• Out Front on Access, Editorial, Federal Computer Week, August 7, 2000
• First Gov: All bark, No Bite by Patrice McDermott, Federal Computer Week, August 14, 2000
• NTIS’ Continuing Punishment, by J. Timothy Sprehe, Federal Computer Week, August 28, 2000
• The Business Impact of Government-wide Portals, Patricia B. Wood, Access America, September 7, 2000
• Print No More: U.S. Code, Code of Federal Regulations and the Federal Register, by Tim Coggins, Virginia Lawyer, Vol. 49, No. 3, October 2000 (PDF)
• Your Tax Dollars at Work: The Internet Should Serve as the U.S. Government's Primary Archive, Barbara Quint, Information Today, Vol. 17, No. 9, October 2000
• Industry Frets Over FirstGov, William Matthews, Federal Computer Week, October 3, 2000
• Filegate.gov, by David Corn, Wired Magazine, November 15, 2000

B. Reports and Directives

• Public Sector/Private Sector Interaction in Providing Information Services
  A reprint with editorial changes and supplementary material of an NCLIS report originally published in February 1982.
• Prepared Statements of Daniel P. O'Mahony, Brown University, on Public Access to Government Information in the 21^st Century
  • Testimony before the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration - Tuesday, June 18, 1996, 9:00 a.m.; 301 Russell Senate Office Building
  • Prepared Statement before the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration - Tuesday, June 18, 1996; 301 Russell Senate Office Building
  • Responses to Questions Submitted for the Record
• Goals for Revising U.S.C. Title 44 to Enhance Public Access to Federal Government Information, Developed by the Inter-Association Work Group on Government Information Policy - May 1997
• Concepts for Reform of Title 44; Eric Peterson, Joint Commitee on Printing, U.S. Congress - September 12, 1997
• Government Information Dissemination Programs: Proposals For Change And Related Initiatives; Association of Research Libraries (ARL) - May 1998
• IRM and the Freedom of Information Act, Key Excerpts from Presidential and Attorney General Directives - 1999
• IRM & the Freedom of Information Act, Dept. of Justice, by Owen Ambur - November 20, 2000

C. Studies

• Information Technology and the Conduct of Research: The User's View, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine Panel chaired by Donald N. Langenberg - 1989
• Scientific and Technical Information Policy Implementation Under OMB Circular A-130: Report of Agency Findings and Recommendations, A-130 Implementation Guidelines Group for Scientific and Technical Information - May 1995 (PDF)
• Permanent Public Access to Electronic Federal Government Information NAS/CSTB Draft Concept Paper: Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, National Academy of Sciences - Revised May 12, 1999
• The Facts of the Matter: Finding, Understanding, and Using Information About Our Physical World Workshop Report on a Future Information Infrastructure for the Physical Sciences - May 30-31, 2000
• Value of Information and Information Services: How Decision Makers Value InformationU.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration - August 1999
• Public Library Internet Services: Impacts on the Digital Divide Stage I Final Report, by Charles R. McClure and John Carlo Bertot - August 20, 2000
• International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Working Group on Electronic Communication: Final Report, Martin Blume, Chair - September 2000 (PDF)
• Who's Not OnlinePew Internet and American Life Project - September 25, 2000
• The Impacts of the Internet on Public Library Use: An Analysis of the Current Consumer Market for Library and Internet Services, by Eleanor Jo Rodger and George D'Elia, Urban Libraries Council - October 2000
• Performance Measures for Agency Websites, by C. McClure, J. T. Sprehe, and K. Eschenfelder, study commissioned by GPO, DTIC, and EIA - October 2000
• The Role of Government in a Digital Age, by J. Stiglitz, P. Orszag and J. Orszag, study commissioned by the Computer and Communications Industry Association, -October 12, 2000
• HANDLES AND PURLS—A Comparison, Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) - October 20, 2000
• How Much Information? Univ. of Calif. Sch. Info. Mgt. & Systems - November 22, 2000
• National Academy of Sciences/Computer Sciences and Technology Board Home Page

D. Conferences

• Fifth Solomons Interagency Conference On Public Access Proceedings;
  U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources - January 27-28, 1994
• Framework for a New Federal Information Dissemination and Access Program - Chicago Conference 1993
  Association of Research Libraries (ARL)
• Group of Eight Okinawa Charter on Global Information Society and Global Service Trust Fund Project - July 22, 2000
• Workshop Report on a Future Information Infrastructure for the Physical Sciences - May 31-31, 2000 (PDF)
• 21st Annual National Online Meeting & IOLS 2000 (PowerPoint^® Presentation; best viewed in Microsoft Internet Explorer) Grey Literature in Government: Mixing Up Black & White by Bonnie Carroll (IIA) and Bonnie Klein (Defense Technical Information Center; May 16-18, 2000 (New York, NY)
• The Myth and Reality of Electronic Publishing TeleconferenceWednesday, November 15, 2000; 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time
• NARA is holding a conference on "Digital Strategies - 2000"at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. The program is available at http://www.nara.gov/program.html
• The Santa Fe Convention for the Open Archives Initiative

E. Correspondence

• Letter from the Department of Commerce to the American Library Association Washington Office - August 11, 1988
• Letter from Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) to GSA re FirstGov Activity - July 20, 2000
• Letter from the Superintendent of Documents to Directors of Federal Depository Libraries - August 25, 2000

Web Site Links

Listed below are links to web sites that organize and facilitate public access to a wide range of federal government information, provide public information locator tools, provide online databases, offer special insights for how to efficiently and effectively access government information, or illuminate policy, legal, security, privacy, or similar kinds of issues and concerns related to information access and dissemination. These links are cited here for research and study purposes. Listing them here does not necessarily imply NCLIS endorsement.

A. Sites Under Development

• FirstGov; A U.S. Government website that will provide free rapid access to government information and services to the public.
• FirstGov: Information for Webmasters - September 20, 2000
• Consumer.gov; U.S. Government website that will provide consumer information to the public, covering such areas as health, safety, security protections, availability, and so forth.
• FirstGov.gov Hearings: FirstGov.gov: Is it a Good Idea?; House Committee on Government Reform - October 2, 2000
• Audio-Video URL for House FirstGov.gov (You will need a media player in order to access this clip.)
• FirstGov: Not Yet Prime-Time; About.com Web Search Guide - September 25, 2000
• Impartiality Of E-Government Portal Questioned; NewsBytes - October 2, 2000
• FirstGov Comments - Government Information. Technology Committee, GODORT, and Government Information Subcommittee of the American Library Association (ALA) - October 18, 2000

B. Sites Operational

(1) Government Sites (including government web-based search utilities, e.g. search engines, data miners, etc.)
• Access America links
• The Access Board - Standards for Electronic & Info. Tech. re RAA of 1998 S508
• American Memory
• Archival Information Locator (NAIL)
• CENDI
• Council for Excellent in Government Report on e-Gov by Hart-Teeter
• Depository Library Materials Not Found On the Web - Current Research Results
  • http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/GODORT/2k0508missing.html
• DOTbot
• e-Government; An Experiment in Interactive Legislation
• EPA Library Web Link Initiatives
• Falling through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide, NTIA, 1999
• Federal IT Accessibility Initiative - Section 508 of Rehabilitation Act
• Federal R&D Project Summaries
• Federal Webmasters Forum
  • EGov & CIO Links
  • Home Page
  • Meeting Schedule
• FedWorld
• Government Information Locator Service (GILS)
• GPO Access
• GrayLIT Network
  GrayLIT Network provides a portal for over 100,000 FULL_TEXT technical reports located at the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Collections in the GrayLIT collaboration include the DOE Information Bridge; the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) Report Collection; the EPA National Environmental Publications Internet Site (NEPIS); the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab Reports; and the NASA Langley Technical Reports.
• Legislative Process - The House
• Legislative Process - The Senate
• Library of Congress - Thomas
• A List of Reports Pursuant to Clause 2, Rule III of the Rules of the House of Representatives House Document 106-37; January 6, 1999 - Referred to the Committee on House Administration and ordered to be printed.
• Map Stats
• National Academy Web Site, key recent STI reports:
  
  1. A Question of Balance: Private Rights and Public Interests in Scientific and Technical Databases (1999);
  2. Preserving Scientific Data in our Physical Universe: A New Strategy for Archiving our Nation's Scientific Information Resources (1995); and
  3. Bits of Power: Issues of Global Access to Scientific Data (1997).
• Rules for The House
• U.S. Courts
  • U.S. Courts - Directory of Electronic Public Access Services (PACER)
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Web Metadata Inventory; Improving Access to EPA's Public Information
• U.S. Supreme Court
• Web-Based Federal Agency Consumer Complaint Handling (PDF)
• World Wide Web Home Page Guidelines and Best Practices, WWW Federal Consortium, 1996

(2) General Search Engines

• AltaVista
• Excite
• Go Network
• Go-to.com
• Google
• GovernmentConnection.com; Government Web Site Directory Product
• GovernmentGuide.com - America Online (AOL)
• GovSpot
• Home.mining.com
• HotBot
• LookSmart
• Lycos
• Netscape
• Netscape's News Search
• Northern Light
• Snap.com
• Webcrawler
• Yahoo!

(3) Academic, Public Interest, Association, and Other Sites

• American Society of Access Professionals
• Association of Knowledgework Home Page
• Association of Public Data Users (APDU) Home Page
• Federal Web Locator, Villanova University
• The GODORT (Government Documents Round Table of the American Library Association) Fed Docs Task Force's Frequently Used Sites Related to U.S. Federal Government Information
• GovBot, University of Massachusetts
• Inter-Association Working Group on Government Information Policy (IAWG) - UC Berkeley Library host site, containing 'Federal Information Access Act of 1998' proposed legislation and other material
• Librarea - Active Worlds, Virtual (3-D) Libraries Experimental Program - Nov. 6, 2000
• Meta-Subject Index to Government Information, GEM State November 15, 2000
• Northeast Document Conservation Center, Handbook for Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation and Access - Dec. 13, 2000
• OMB Watch - Easy Access to Federal Information Policy - Sept. 19, 2000
• U.S. Federal Government Agencies Directory Search Engine, Louisiana State University
• Washburn University School of Law