There has been much consternation among researchers and the general public about the closing of EPA's various libraries around the country.  It appears that recent pressure by various officials and researchers has led to a moratorium of sorts on further closings or changes.  On February 6, 2007, American Library Association President and Princeton Public Library Director Leslie Berger testified before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as to the importance and value of the environmental, legal and scientific information in these libraries.  Ms. Berger asked the Committee to request EPA to "halt all library closures," discuss a plan for the future with stakeholders and "stop dispersing and dumping of any of their library materials immediately."  View her entire testimony here:

http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/woissues/governmentinfo/fedlibs/epalibraries/E...

It appears that the EPA received the message.  On May 8, the EPA's Director of the Office of Information Analysis, Mike Flynn, wrote to the Special Library Association's Chief Policy Officer, Doug Newcomb, that "no changes are being made in the EPA Library Network at this time" and "no changes will be made until we have completed stakeholder input and review."  View the entire contents of this e-mail here:

https://www.sla.org/PDFs/advocacy/050807MikeFlynnEmail.pdf

We continue to watch these developments with interest.  In the meantime, many of the EPA's regional libraries remain open to the public.