March 10, 2000

Woody Horton
National Commission on Libraries and Information Science
1110 Vermont Avenue, N.W., Suite 820
Washington, DC 20005-3552

Dear Mr. Horton,

I am writing in response to the "Emerging Consensus Position Paper, Proposed NTIS Closure and Transfer" approved by NCLIS February 17, 2000 for public review and comment. I have been a government information librarian in the University of California since 1971, and have headed the Government Information and Maps Department at the University of California, Davis since 1983. Our library was the initial participant in the NTIS pilot project to deliver electronic images to depository libraries.

I commend the National Commission on Libraries for its comprehensive review of the history and current situation of the National Technical Information Service, and for conducting three public hearings to solicit comment and information. I support the findings and recommendations of the NCLIS position paper, with these specific comments:

I strongly agree with NCLIS finding that "The mandated NTIS mission is fundamentally sound and has very high strategic value to the U.S. economy, but the current NTIS business model is flawed and needs to be changed and updated."

The products and services of the National Technical Information Service are indeed a critical national asset. In my nearly thirty years of government information work, NTIS has been an invaluable resource. Without NTIS, my staff and I would have been unsuccessful in filling many of the researcher requests for current or retrospective technical report literature with which we have assisted. In some instances, it may have been possible to eventually locate a copy of a report through contacts to various agencies, but in many cases the reports would have been either unfindable or not feasible to locate within the research timeframe. NTIS has been successful in collecting a large proportion of the technical report literature generated by government agencies.

We have found the dissemination programs of NTIS also of benefit. Because of the environmental research programs at the University of California, Davis, we have subscribed to all of NTIS Environmental Protection Agency reports since the early eighties when these reports ceased to be distributed through the depository library program. For other agencies, we have purchased reports individually from NTIS, or acquired reports from the California State Library, which subscribes to all of the available NTIS Selected Research in Microfiche categories.

Many requests for technical reports are not current; users come in daily with citations from the 70s and 80s, and less frequently from the 50s and 60s. One of NTIS' most important services has been the production of its bibliographies, which organize and make accessible scientific and technical information for the nation. Government Reports Announcements, published under various titles since 1946 (online since 1996) has been the single most important resource for identifying technical reports. In our library, the EPA Bibliography compiled from NTIS records is also an invaluable resource. We subscribe to the NTIS database on CD-ROM through a private vendor (Silver Platter) and in the past have used it via Dialog as well. We have found NTIS' development of its web site, with title access to the last ten years of publications, to significantly expedite and expand access to its reports.

Another essential service of NTIS is the subscription "World News Connection" which replaces the Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports. Scholars around the country rely upon the worldwide translations distributed through this service.

It is highly unfortunate that the Department of Commerce does not value the importance of NTIS and has made what appears to be an ill-considered recommendation to discontinue NTIS' critically important functions and transfer its archives to whomever will take them. It is abundantly clear, based on the difficulties we all have in locating a report that NTIS does not happen to have picked up, that discontinuing NTIS' functions of gathering and indexing technical report literature would have a highly negative and far reaching impact on the ability of American researchers to effectively access and make use of federally-sponsored technical report literature.

I agree with the comments in NCLIS' position paper (findings 2-4) that "the collection and dissemination of government information for the public is fundamentally a government obligation" and should be supported by appropriated funds. Working with NTIS staff on the pilot project was an illuminating experience. I was dealing with talented staff members trying to develop a new way of delivering information, an operation that did not involve a revenue stream. Time needed to be carved from revenue-producing functions, making it more difficult to support development work for the depository library pilot. With persistence, NTIS staff developed the ability to deliver requested electronic versions of reports. Initially, NTIS delivered reports by ftping files to a library computer; a later development involved placing the reports on a NTIS web site for pick up by the end-user. NTIS bibliographic databases had to be modified to add an indication to records as to which titles were available in electronic format. The requesting mechanism made use of the online ordering system NTIS was developing for its sales program. A separate database of electronic titles was set up for the pilot project. The number of documents available for request was expanded. Future goals for the project included the ability to allow for IP address recognition of requests from depository institutions so that a password would not be required, making the operation more self-service.

The Department of Energy developed an effective method of delivering its reports online, making use of the large appropriation formerly used to support distribution of DOE reports in microfiche. By contrast, the NTIS project was done on a shoestring. I have no doubt that with some funding, the depository library pilot project could be expanded and made a highly effective method of delivering technical report literature. The functionalities developed for this project are also immediately transferable to the NTIS sales program. Purchase of an electronic, fiche or paper version of a report should be equally viable options. Bell and Howell's Proquest Digital Dissertations (formerly UMI) database and sales program is an example of a similar program: dissertations in recent years can be purchased in PDF format (or in fiche, film or paper), delivered to a web site and accessed via a PIN number. The UC system is supporting free access for UC campuses to the UC dissertations, much as an appropriation to NTIS could support depository library access to digital technical reports.

The $5 million suggested as temporary support of NTIS seems a very modest amount; I would hope that this amount or more could be supported and I would be willing to contact my own legislators in support of NTIS funding.

The eventual location of NTIS' functions in the government hierarchy is a complex matter and I agree with NCLIS recommendation 5 that more time is needed to investigate the pros and cons and costs and benefits. I would like to see NTIS operations situated in an agency that appreciates the invaluable functions that NTIS currently supports, and has the capability, funding and motivation to develop those functions with new methods of delivery. The Government Printing Office seems a logical location because of its similar functions of acquiring government information from a wide variety of agencies, preparing a comprehensive bibliography of government information, working with electronic formats, and operating a sales program. GPO's Library Programs Service also has a uniquely close working relationship with its user community. To retain NTIS in the Department of Commerce would, in my opinion, require a major change in attitude toward support of NTIS. Neither the National Archives and Records Administration nor the Library of Congress manage sales operations similar to the scale that NTIS and GPO handle. Overall, I agree with NCLIS that short-term and long-term alternatives should be considered over the proposed 18-month study period, and that in the interim, NTIS current operations should be supported with an emergency appropriation.

I strongly support recommendations 1-5 of the Emerging Consensus Position Paper requesting that the President direct the Secretary of Commerce to retain NTIS through FY 2001, asking Congress to appropriate funds to support NTIS mandated governmental activities of collecting, organizing and preserving scientific and technical information, recommending use of appropriated funds to expand the pilot project, and requesting that the Secretary of Commerce take action to maintain or restore to appropriate levels NTIS staffing, plant capacity and service levels.

Please let me know if I can provide any additional information or assistance to the National Commission on Libraries in this important matter.

Sincerely yours,

Linda M. Kennedy
Head, Government Information and Maps Department
University of California, Davis