The National Technical Information Service has played an important role in acquiring, organizing, indexing and disseminating scientific and technical information since the middle 1940s. As a professional librarian working for two universities, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Congress I have worked with NTIS staff and policy makers to assure the continued existence of NTIS. While at EPA, I persuaded my regional office to provide copies of thousands of its sci/tech reports to NTIS as well as paying NTIS to index, preserve and provide access to those reports. As a Professional Staff Member at the Joint Committee on Printing I worked with NTIS, GPO and the Federal Library Committee to find ways for NTIS, GPO and LC to cooperate in the bibliographic control of sci/tech reports. As a member of the JCP staff I participated in a series of inspections of NTIS's daily activities as well as of the Department of Commerce's physical plant with the goal of persuading NTIS to provide the Depository Library Program with free access to the information under the care of NTIS. Starting in 1978, I sat in on a number of meetings with Congressional staff and others where the fate of NTIS was debated. Congress considered the possible merger of NTIS with GPO as well as other options such as privatization.
As a result of my interaction with NTIS, its partner departments and agencies and its customers I would like to make several comments.
1. NTIS provides a valuable service to government agencies, researchers, the Congress and the public. That service is possible because it is based upon the work of talented, knowledgeable staff who have a good working relationship with the publishing agencies. NTIS staff are as valuable as the collection and the services and they should be transferred as a unit to another agency that will welcome them as the professionals that they are.
2. NTIS can not survive under any circumstances without the work, financial support and expertise of the agency publishers, librarians and technicians. These agencies depend upon NTIS to do much of the work that they cannot do on their own and NTIS depends upon them for master microforms, databases and indexing. These agencies are partners with NTIS in developing the standards and procedures that allow NTIS to function. GPO, the Library of Congress, the National Archives and the Federal Library Committee are also partners with NTIS.
3. Over the years the standards used for bibilographic control of sci/tech information has been a source of contention between the sci/tech community and the library community. A series of discussions and studies have been conducted comparing LC and the library community's standards (MARC and the Anglo American Cataloging Rules) and the sci/tech (CENDI) agencies rules (COSATI). Efforts to adopt a common set of rules acceptable to both groups have failed even though the studies have shown that they are similar in many ways. The difference has often been used as a reason to justify duplication of acquisition, organizing, indexing and dissemination programs. This duplication of effort and the competition between NTIS and GPO for many of the same customer agencies has hampered the public's access to sci/tech information. This current crisis is an appropriate time to eliminate the duplication in standards and arrive at a common standard that would allow the incorporation of sci/tech indexing/cataloging records into the online catalogs of libraries all over the world.
4. Moving NTIS intact to GPO would assure that LC and NARA would receive sci/tech publications as required by law since GPO already complies with the law in providing the sci/tech publications that they are currently receiving to LC and NARA and the depository library program. GPO is currently providing printing, binding, dissemination (depository and sales) and cataloging services for most of the same agencies as NTIS. NTIS and GPO are competing every day for the same high volume publications for their sales programs. This competition has not lowered the cost of government nor the price to the public. It has simply confused the public. It has also provided an excuse to agencies for not complying with the depository library laws that require that agencies provide their publications and information to depositories. They can simply shift the blame for non compliance to NTIS, who can in turn say that it is the agencies responsibility under the law. Either way the public loses.
5. Congress and the executive branch have been struggling since the early 1970s as to whether a new system needs to be established to handle the production, organization and dissemination of government information. Publishing agencies in the Legislative, executive and judicial branch will continue to publish their own information and will use the support agencies available to them no matter what branch they are located in. They will comply with the laws that require them to deposit their records at NARA, provide publications and information to LC and the depository program, and to provide public access under FOIA. Agencies will go to support agencies that provide them with the services that they need. Many of them will provide their information to a number of support agencies as well as providing information out of their own agencies. If NTIS is put out of business the agencies will turn to the support agencies that continue to exist. It is the public that will suffer as they struggle to find out where they can go to access the information that they need. The public will also suffer if the solution to saving the public's investment in and access to sci/tech is sacrificed on the altar of looking at unrealistic solutions that have escaped concensus for almost 30 years.
5. The establishment of a new national library is worthy of consideration but it is not something that can be agreed to in the short term. The idea raises many questions that must be answered. Would such a library replace the libraries of the agencies that are now collecting. preserving and providing access to sci/tech literature. Those libraries contrary to NTIS are using MARC and AACR and are cataloging into library cataloging utilities. Those libraries are members of the Federal Library Committee and not necessarily members of CENDI. The American Library Association Federal Librarians Round Table endorsed the ALA resolution urging that NTIS be transferred to GPO. IT would seem appropriate that the two camps in the sci/tech agencies discuss their agencies policies and programs in the area of sci/tech pubishing, indexing and dissemination.
Bernadine Abbott Hoduski Government Information Advisor, 100 N. Lamborn, Helena, Montana 406-449-9974.
My comments are based upon my career as a scientific and technical librarian and Professional Staff Member for Library and Distribution Services with the U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on Printing. They do not represent any association or organization.