Dear Invited Participant,

I am writing to invite you to a meeting of concerned individuals and experts to be held at the Benton Foundation in Washington, D.C. on January 19, 2000, in connection with the closure and transfer of the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) out of the Department of Commerce.

NCLIS is an independent agency charged by PL 91-345 to take a leadership position on matters pertaining to the library and information needs of the nation. Specifically, Section 1504(1) of that law says that the Commission shall "advise the President and the Congress on the implementation of national policy by such statements, presentations, and reports as it deems appropriate."

As you may know, Secretary of Commerce William M. Daley announced in August 1999, that he plans to shut down NTIS by the end of Fiscal Year 2000, and transfer its functions, programs and collections to the Library of Congress. Citing as the primary reason for taking this action, Secretary Daley said, "NTIS no longer operates as a self-sufficient agency under the ground rules set by Congress in the Anti-Deficiency Act." Explaining further, the Secretary said that the public could now go to various Federal Internet web sites (such as the Department of Commerce's e-commerce web page) and download an electronic version of a report for free instead of paying NTIS for a hard copy of the same report.

The Department of Commerce has proposed that the NTIS paper, microform, and digital collections, including the key bibliographic databases (nearly three million titles in total) be transferred to the Library of Congress. The materials would be housed there to ensure their continuing availability and accessibility, both internally to Government officials, and externally to business and industry, to the scientific research community, as well as to the general public.

Since Commerce announced its decision, both Congresswoman Constance Morella's Technology Subcommittee of the Committee on Science of the House, and Senator Bill Frist's Science, Technology, and Space Subcommittee of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee of the Senate, have held public hearings. NCLIS prepared and delivered invited testimony to the Senate Subcommittee, and sent a letter to the House Subcommittee furnishing its views and offering to testify

Moreover, the Commission has met with various Congressional subcommittee staff persons in both houses, as well as Department of Commerce officials to discuss the consequences of the planned NTIS closure. We explored various alternatives open to the President and the Congress, including the criteria that could be considered in reaching a decision.

In our letters and testimony to Congress, and our follow-on discussions with the cognizant Subcommittees and the Department of Commerce, NCLIS offered to conduct a 3-6 month investigation of the broader consequences of moving NTIS out of Commerce on the effectiveness of Federal public information availability, accessibility, and dissemination policies, programs, and practices.

Additional background details can be accessed at the NCLIS web site http://www.nclis.gov/info/ntis/ntis.html. Of course the Department of Commerce and Congress have materials on their own web sites as well.

On January 19, 2000, NCLIS is bringing together knowledgeable individuals and stakeholders in a free and open exchange type of meeting format:

1. To assess how NTIS is working now, the distinctive roles it plays in the Government's public information dissemination machinery, and the major contributions it makes;
2. To evaluate what legislative, policy, structural, programmatic, or other improvements could and should be made to the existing NTIS legislative and executive mandates, as well as the agency's product and service delivery machinery, so as to strengthen the Government's overall public information resources management and dissemination policies, programs and practices; and
3. To consider whether the Commerce Department's suggestion that Federal agencies should put up all of their public information products on web sites for three years is adequate to meet the requirements for permanent public accessibility and permanent records retention, especially as those requirements impact the responsibilities of libraries, archival and records authorities, the needs of scientific research, business and industry communities, and individual private citizens.

This meeting will be held in Washington, D.C., at the Benton Foundation's modern new location at 950-18th Street, N.W., second floor conference room. You may use the Blue Line Farragut West station and exit at 18th Street. Please use the 1800 K Street building entrance since the 950-18th Street entrance is not yet accessible and take the elevator to the second floor.

Because of your expertise, interest, and experience we invite you to prepare a brief statement, no more than 3 pages in length, capsulating your views of the relevant issues and concerns you believe are most critical to our discussions, and submit them as soon as possible to us, preferably as an electronic file. NCLIS can then circulate these statements to all prospective participants to give them a head start in understanding the stakes, the players, and other factors involved. In so doing we would also hope to thereby conserve time at the meeting. Alternatively, or in addition to your prepared statement, if you have authored, and/or are aware of an article in the literature germane to our discussions, please furnish us the citation(s).

We also invite your suggestions, if any, for amending the enclosed preliminary agenda. Please furnish any comments, along with your advance statement, to Woody Horton, NCLIS consultant, who will be co-moderating this meeting with consultant Sarah Kadec. A list of invitees is enclosed. Please feel free to suggest additional participants. Moreover, if you are unable to attend, you may wish to send a substitute.

We have reserved the Benton Foundation conference room for a possible follow-on second meeting on January 26, 1999, depending on the outcome of this first meeting.

We hope you will be able to join us in helping to clarify the many complex issues and concerns involved in this matter. Please confirm whether you will be able to attend, along with any statement, additional participant names, or other suggestions, to whorton@nclis.gov. Woody can be reached at (202) 606-9180, or faxed at (202) 606-9203.

List of Invited Participants Preliminary Agenda (below)

8:30-9:00	Coffee and registration
9:00-9:15	Introduction and Welcome Goals and Objectives of the Meeting	Robert S. Willard
9:15-9:45	Meeting Format Participant Introduction	Woody Horton
9:45-10:10	Background/Criteria for Assessment	Judith Russell
10:10-10:25	Administration Views	Speaker(s) To Be Announced
10:25-10:40	Congressional Views	Speaker(s) To Be Announced
10:40-12:30	Participant Open Discussion	Woody Horton Sarah Kadec (Co-moderators)
12:30-12:55	Summary	Judith Russell
12:55PM	Closure	Robert S. Willard
1:00	Adjourn

Note: Coffee will be available continuously; participants will be encouraged to break as necessary