The Honorable Joan R. Challinor, Commissioner
National Commission on Library
and Information Science (NCLIS)
lll0 Vermont Avenue, N.W.
Suite 820
Washington, D.C. 20005-3552

Dear Ms. Challinor:

I want to thank you for the opportunity to comment on the NCLIS "Emerging Consensus Position Paper". I strongly support the need for a centralized U.S. government clearinghouse of federally sponsored scientific and technical information (STI). I am also a proponent of subsidized access (I suggest the term "subsidized access" since there is no such thing as free access) to the NTIS collection by U.S. Depository Libraries. It is clear to the research community that NTIS functions must be preserved for the public good, especially for future as well as current generations of researchers. Accordingly, I respectfully suggest that additional facts need to be brought to light that may impact on the position taken by the American Library Association, and perhaps some others, regarding the merger of NTIS, its employees, and collection with the Government Printing Office.

The Department of Commerce's justification for transferring NTIS and its collection to another agency is based primarily upon two arguments: (1) NTIS is not financially viable, and (2) current technology (i.e. the Internet) has rendered NTIS' mission an anachronism. Ironically, if such logic were to be applied to a possible NTIS merger with the Government Printing Office, then perhaps the sales program of the Superintendent of Documents would also have to be a candidate for elimination by the decision makers.

NTIS has undergone a major restructuring in the past year and is actually generating annual surpluses without the support of an annual appropriation from Congress. Meanwhile, it appears that the Superintendent of Documents activity in the Government Printing Office is bleeding red ink. A recent Depository Library Council Newsletter, summarized a presentation given by the Public Printer, Mr. Michael Dimario, at the 1999 Fall Meeting of the Council. Mr. Dimario's remarks underscore his concerns about the weaknesses within GPO's sales program. The summary documents some of the more significant problems the program is facing.

"The Sales program is in great difficulty. It is losing $1 million a month. Mr. Dimario asked the staff to look at the situation, but in the meantime, since this is a self sustaining program, it cannot continue to tolerate these losses, he has imposed a 15% increase in the cost of publications. At the same time, Sales is studying ways to cut costs. They are moving from a paper warehouse in northern Virginia to Laurel, MD to cut the cost of storage."

It seems to me that losing $1 million a month, if unchecked, could quickly jeopardize the viability of GPO's sales program. Whereas NTIS has been successful in creating residual revenue streams from its electronic value-added subscriptions, GPO has undergone what appears to be a risky strategy of migrating more and more of its print products to the Web under the auspices of free public access. Perhaps this is the reason that their sales program is in such dire straits.

GPO is really in no better position than NTIS when it comes to new hires. Unlike NTIS' arbitrary restriction on new hires imposed by the Department of Commerce, GPO is prevented from hiring based upon the wishes of Congress. The Newsletter states:

"Overall there is concern about the workforce at GPO. There has been a longstanding hiring freeze and GPO is now losing talent…" "There are 3200 employees now, which is the smallest GPO has been since WWII. Congress was asked not to cut the level of personnel again, but they did anyway. There is a provision, however, that if GPO gets really desperate they can go back and maybe hire a few more, but that is a big if."

The value of NTIS' mission of capturing federally sponsored scientific and technical research and the impact of that research on improving the nation's economy and security should not be underestimated. Consequently, I believe that any shift of responsibilities from NTIS to another agency should be based solely upon whether such a shift will provide better service, at a lower cost to the taxpayer. Considering NTIS' success in maintaining its Clearinghouse, while at the same time developing new and innovative value-added electronic products, as well as making the transition from a predominantly paper dissemination environment to an electronic distribution model, I will have to side with the functions remaining at NTIS.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to be heard.

Sincerely,

Melvin S. Day
Former Director, NTIS

cc: Judith C. Russell, Deputy Director
Robert S. Willard, Executive Director
Martha Gould, Acting Chair/NCLIS
Woody Horton, Consultant