Washington, DC - The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) announces the third open meeting in its study of the August 1999 proposal by Secretary of Commerce William Daley to close the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) and transfer its collections, function, services, and assets to the Library of Congress.
In an effort to ensure that all have the opportunity to be heard, NCLIS is scheduling the additional meeting of interested parties to review a draft of the Commission's findings. The Commission will then review all comments, before making its final recommendation to Congress and the Administration. The meeting will be held on February 29, 2000 from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. in Room 253 Russell Senate Office Building.
More than 75 major stakeholders representing federal agencies, the private sector, library associations and other organizations attended the two previous meetings convened by NCLIS to examine the Commerce proposal and to recommend options for the future of NTIS. Proposed options have been narrowed to reflect the results of the discussions among the participants.
Background information can be viewed on the NCLIS website at http://www.nclis.gov/info/ntis/ntis.html. The information includes letters to legislators and NCLIS testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space, Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation as well as comments, reports and summaries of the earlier meetings.
Anyone wishing to make comments on the deliberations or to present statements may contact Woody Horton at (202) 606-9200 or through e-mail at whorton@nclis.gov no later than 10:00 a.m. February 25, 2000. All comments received will be made publicly available on the NCLIS website.
The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science is a permanent, independent agency of the Federal government charged by Public Law 91-345 to appraise the adequacies and deficiencies of current library and information resources and services and to advise the President and Congress on national and international policies and plans.