For the Benton Foundation Meeting of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science on the Department of Commerce's proposed closing of the National Technical Information Service

Introduction Let me begin by briefly summarizing my relationship with NTIS. I served as Assistant Director and Deputy Director of the Clearinghouse for Scientific and Technical Information (CFSTI) in the National Bureau of Standards, the predecessor organization to NTIS, from 1965 to 1969. In 1970, I conducted a study for the Assistant Secretary for Science and Technology of information distribution in the Department of Commerce which lead to the establishment of NTIS from CFSTI and several other smaller Commerce units. I served as Deputy Director and Acting Director of NTIS from 1970 to 1979.

Since 1979 I have been employed in large, private sector publishing concerns and have served on the boards of directors of several publishing and related enterprises. I have been retired since 1998. I have not had any substantive contact with either NTIS or the Department of Commerce since 1979.

Since being asked by NCLIS to participate in this meeting, I have reviewed the testimony and papers that appear on the NCLIS website. Most of the positions taken are reasonable and to be expected from the proponents of various points of view.

• NCLIS wants to use the proposed closing of NTIS as an opportunity to study how federal information distribution can be improved.
• LC wants to draw attention to the differences between its role and that of NTIS and to point out that it could not do the NTIS job without significant additional funding. It also points out that it was not consulted prior to the announcement of the Commerce proposal.
• GPO would like to take over NTIS and thereby close an existing loophole in Depository Library distribution and consolidate document sales operations. The GPO can not begin to estimate the additional appropriated funds that would be required to perform NTIS tasks but they warn that additional funds will be required.
• DOE would like to see some agency, possibly NTIS, have both the responsibility to perform the NTIS function and the necessary appropriated funds to properly do the job.
• The unions think NTIS has done the necessary cost cutting and would like to keep NTIS operating and save the jobs.

It is the position of the Department of Commerce, as set forth in its papers, testimony and press releases, that appears illogical, hastily developed, and without adequate staff work or coordination. The proposal for maintaining the public availability of government technical information (agency websites) is naive. The notion of moving the NTIS function to another agency without first consulting with that agency is absurd. Perhaps NTIS should be kept open and the office within the Department of Commerce responsible for this inadequate staff work should be closed.

The Basic Policy Issue
Some of the functions performed by NTIS benefit the people of the United States and government agencies as a whole. These are the functions that make the results of government funded research accessible to the public and maintain a searchable archive of government information. These functions are properly supported with public funds, i.e. appropriations. At present, unlike GPO or LC, NTIS is required to fund these "public good" operations from sales receipts and, surprise, prices are high and there is not enough money to fund the entire operation.

Other functions of NTIS benefit only the specific individuals who make use of NTIS services: the subscribers to NTIS announcement tools or microfiche and the purchasers of NTIS reports. These services should be paid for by the benefiting users on the basis of a user charge that recovers the incremental cost of the product or service distributed.

The notion of full cost recovery for NTIS is flawed and it lies at the root of NTIS' fiscal problems. If NTIS were to be transferred to LC or GPO, both organizations would require appropriations for the collection and processing of information. Were NTIS to receive such an appropriation, I suspect its fiscal problems would disappear.

The Government should fund, with appropriations, the collection of information by NTIS from other agencies, the initial processing of the information and the maintenance of the archive. This should be the Government's responsibility whether the function is located in the Executive or the Legislative branch, whether in Commerce, LC or GPO. The remaining NTIS functions should be supported with appropriate user charges, again, independent of organizational location.

This is not new policy, this is the basic Government user charge policy, which has been in place and applied to other agencies for decades. It is the NTIS enabling statute and its interpretation that is in error and should be changed to bring it in conformance with the basic policy. This will eliminate the funding issue, provide fiscal stability and make NTIS somewhat less entrepreneurial and more of a government agency.

The Depository Library Red Herring
The question of Depository Library distribution of the so-called "fugitive documents", the technical report literature, is a question that should be addressed by the Congress independent of the current NTIS issue. The notion of Depository Library distribution of printed documents in Title 44 is based on the economics of override printing - the low cost of printing extra copies during the initial print run. Where no copies are printed in any GPO printing plant, the typical situation with contractor produced technical reports, the economics of Depository Library distribution are very different and distribution is probably not justified. GPO should take this matter to its appropriation committee with appropriate budget estimates and cost benefit analyses. Then let librarians lobby the Congress that they should receive the 50,000 gray literature NTIS titles in addition to the 40,000 higher interest titles they currently receive from GPO and let the Congress determine whether it should increase depository library funding for the distribution of technical reports. If Congress decides to do so and is prepared to pay the price, the "problem of fugitive documents" can be solved regardless of the organizational location of the NTIS function.

Organizational Location of NTIS
NTIS could be located in Commerce, GPO or LC. A rationale can be developed for each. However, the fundamental orientation of each agency; GPO - printing, LC - library, Commerce - assisting business and technology transfer, should be considered in making a choice. Commerce would seem to be the best choice in terms of mission.

The Patent and Trademark Office of the Department with its role of granting a patent monopoly in return for the public release and dissemination of important technical information to business and industry and the Institute for Applied Technology both have related roles to NTIS. Commerce would seem to be the proper home for NTIS but for the obvious poor fit with the present Department management. Perhaps a change in funding with appropriated funds underwriting the "public good" central processing resulting in a more financially stable NTIS would result in a more receptive Commerce management.

Executive Branch functions should not be moved to the Legislative Branch without careful consideration. The People are best served by a separation of powers with proper oversight of Executive Branch activities by a watchful Congress. Not a Congress that is overseeing and funding its own sister agencies.

Next Steps
A study as proposed by NCLIS is clearly in order if for no other reason than to perform the staff work on the proposed change that was not performed by Commerce. NTIS functions and costs should be detailed in a paper provided to both LC and GPO, each of whom should then be asked to provide estimates of the costs of performing these tasks in their environments. The exercise should be repeated with the assumption that "public good" functions are paid for by appropriated funds. The Depository Library issue should not be a part of this evaluation. The results of this study, along with NCLS' views on how public access to Federal information can be improved, should be presented to the appropriate congressional committees.

PFU 1/17/99