1. PANELS BEGIN SUBMITTING DRAFT FINAL REPORTS
Panel One's Chairperson, Peter Urbach, who chairs the panel dealing with the challenge of recommending revisions to the NTIS business model, submitted a draft of the panel's final report to his panel members for their review and comment. Just as quickly as the panels agree to the text wording for their final reports, NCLIS will post those reports on the study web page for public review and comment with a cutoff date for receipt of comments. When all four panel reports become available, they will be sent to the Board of Experts for their review. After the Board of Experts' comments are received, and following the public review closing date, NCLIS will begin synthesizing the four panel reports into a single, overall NCLIS draft final report, taking into account the Board's comments as well as public comments.
Additional drafts are expected to be circulated to the panel members for the other three panels next week. The deadline for the panel final reports is October 15, 2000.
2. ADDITIONAL NCLIS STAFF-AUTHORED WHITE PAPERS POSTED
Two key papers authored by NCLIS staff, reflecting the cumulative findings and conclusions flowing from both of the two prior NCLIS studies dealing with public information dissemination (i.e. the GPO/Westat Survey "Assessment of Electronic government Information Products" completed in 1998, and "Preliminary Assessment of the Proposed Closure of NTIS," dated March 2000, as well as findings thus far in the current study, were published and posted. One paper, entitled "The Information Life Cycle Management," deals with the idea of an agency-level software package that would integrate the many information management requirements stemming from many different laws and policies into a single, integrated framework and software module. The federal records management community has led the way in this direction with the publication of the DoD 5015.2 standard in November 1997, but the concept embraced in the NCLIS white paper is much broader than complying with records requirements. Rather, the concept reaches out to all information instruments generated by a government official. In short, it integrates records requirements with the requirements for forwarding certain qualifying information to GPO for FDLP and/or sales program purposes, to NTIS for their clearinghouse databases, to other repositories for their special purposes, as well as meeting other requirements. The other paper identifies some key major paradigm shifts that underlie the shift from pre-electronic to electronic mediums and formats, including "myths" associated with each one, "realities," and suggestions for how to debunk the myths. Of course what is a "myth" and what is a "reality" is a preliminary NCLIS viewpoint at this juncture, and is subject to change and refinement as feedback is received; the intention is merely to stimulate debate in the context of the study. Both papers are asterisked and public review and comment is invited.
3. FirstGov EVALUATION
The American Library Association and GODORT have been invited to evaluate the FirstGov.gov portal, and NCLIS has asked GODORT to share their findings with NCLIS for purposes of the study. GODORT has agreed, but thus far their critical professional evaluation has not been completed. However, as we go to press, there is increasing public attention on the new portal. For example, on October 2nd the Subcommittee on Government Management, Information, and Technology of the House Committee on Government Reform, chaired by Congressman Stephen Horn, held hearings on the subject ("FirstGov.gov: Is it a Good Idea?"). Links to the hearings are posted on this study web page elsewhere (under both category 1 and category 6A). Additional informal evaluations appear in the form of articles, which are also linked to under category 6A on this web page.
4. NTIS SITUATION
NTIS current strength is reported to be slightly over 200. Readers may recall that in its final report on NTIS issued in March 2000, Recommendation 5 on page 8 of the report asked the Secretary of Commerce to take such internal policy, financial, personnel, and other actions as appropriate to the circumstances to ensure that NTIS staffing, operating budget level, plant capacity, service quality level, client base size, and oversight reporting to the Congress, not be eroded below a minimum satisfactory level. A year ago, NTIS staff was around 320, and 260 was the goal established by Commerce for the planned staffing reduction. But current strength is now at least 60 below the planned reduction, and dropping weekly. A hiring freeze remains in effect, but the agency is allowed to secure contractor assistance. However, losses of highly experienced professional staff are not appreciably ameliorated by hiring new staff, most of whom neither have the full experience, nor the in-depth expertise that was possessed by departing long-term professional direct-hire staff.
5. ASSOCIATION REVIEW OF NCLIS STUDY WEB PAGE CONTENTS
NCLIS has asked various library and information associations, including the American Library Association, the Special Libraries Association, the Association of Research Libraries, the Association of College and Research Libraries, the American Association of Law Libraries, the Software and Information Industry Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and others, to review the contents of the NCLIS study page for the purpose of calling the Commission's attention to inadvertent omissions of important material that could be helpful to the study participants, stakeholders, and other individuals tracking the study's progress.