GAO PROBES EPA LIBRARY SHUTDOWN From : Patrice McDermott, Director, Open the Government.org The Government Accountability Office is now investigating why EPA is closing its libraries, after Congress members, EPA employees, open government groups, and the Society of Environmental Journalists raised concerns. EPA Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock is now publicly promising that EPA library material will be available digitally in the very near future - even as branch after branch of the EPA library system is being closed. "I have asked anyone to inform me, anonymously or otherwise, of any instance where they are unable to obtain a document they need that was previously available. And I am not aware of a single instance where that is happened, but I am all ears." Peacock can be reached at 202-564-4711 or by email. Still, Greenwire's Darren Samuelsohn reports that "The Bush administration has already shuttered EPA's Washington headquarters' library and regional posts in Chicago, Dallas and Kansas City. And there are reduced hours and public access in EPA's regional libraries in Boston, New York, San Francisco and Seattle." How the public or EPA employees are to access the documents Peacock promises them remains an unresolved question. Those who want documents from EPA's library will want to know that the digital system is already online and working - to the degree that some documents have already been digitized. A user can point his/her Web browser here to search for relevant documents, some of which will be available online. The Catch-22 is that paper copies of undigitized documents must in many cases be obtained through the EPA library holding them - which will in many cases now be closed. How long will digitization take? Peacock claims that all paper documents from now-closed branches will be digitized by January 2007 or sooner. Complete digitization of all documents in the system could take 2-3 years, Peacock says. He says he expects no restriction of public access during the interim.