A somewhat urgent sounding post from FreeGovInfo: “[A]t a time when the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are greatly ramping up the need for evidence-based medicine in the military, the Pentagon seems to be choosing to gut their medical information resources.”
Category: libcrisis
ALL 15 Jackson County Library branches WILL BE CLOSED…
“The Jackson County Library Information blog is a place to share information regarding the funding and closures of our 15 branch libraries. All fifteen branches of the Jackson County [OR] Library System will close beginning April 7, 2007 for an indefinite period of time due to lack of funding.” This is a sad sad blog, including posts like “Why Jackson County Must Close Libraries” “How you can help” and a Library Stories page. [thanks rick]
one more very important survey
This survey is very important. Librarians’ Index to the Internet is facing a 50% cut in their primary funding as of July 1st. They are looking for ideas on how to survive this drastic cut as well as soliciting ideas on the services they provide as usual. The LII survey is here, it’s short and sweet.
EPA libraries slated to close under new budget proposal
Big ugly news in the Government/Special libraries sector. The proposed US Budget includes slashing the EPA library budget by 80% which means no more library and no more electronic catalog.
The size of the cuts will force the Headquarters library and most of the regional libraries to shut their doors and cease operations. Each year, the EPA libraries
- Handle more than 134,000 research requests from its own scientific and enforcement staff
- House and catalog an estimated 50,000 “unique†documents that are available nowhere else
- Operate public reading rooms and provide the public with access to EPA databases.
“Access to information is one of the best tools we have for protecting the environment,” added Ruch, calling the cuts the “epitome of penny wise and pound foolish.” “By contrast, closing the Environmental Protection Agency libraries actually threatens to subtract from the sum total of human knowledge.”
Add to this the proposed elimination of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science by rolling it into the Institute of Museum and Library Services and you have to wonder what sort of price we’re paying for the deep budgetary hole the country has been falling in to.
underfunded libraries
I’d love to see an update, with hard data, of this map of underfunded libraries. Rochelle points out the questions she has when she does what any librarian should do and evalutates her source. If anyone has more info about this, feel free to help her out. Id lvoe to see something like this [with hard data, updated for 2005] on the main page of the PLA web site, updated daily.