U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science 

1-206 

APPENDIX 7. LETTER FROM NCLIS CHAIRPERSON MARTHA B. GOULD TO 

SECRETARY OF COMMERCE NORMAL Y. MINETA, OCTOBER 10, 2000 

United States National Commission on Libraries and Information Science 

October 10, 2000 

The Honorable Norman Y. Mineta 

Secretary 

U.S. Department of Commerce 

14th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW 

Washington, DC 20230 

Dear Secretary Mineta: 291 

Thank you for your letter of September 1, 2000 in response to my correspondence describing the 

studies of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science aimed at updating and 

strengthening the government’s public information dissemination laws, policies, and programs, 

including the mission and programs of NTIS. You indicated that Ms. Laureen Daly, Senior Advisor, 

Office of Policy and Strategic Planning, would be the Department’s Liaison to work with the 

Commission on these studies. I am pleased that Ms. Daly will be meeting with the Commission’s 

deputy director and our project consultant next week. 

However, I want to take this opportunity to share my deep concern that NTIS is rapidly falling below 

the minimum satisfactory level of staffing needed to sustain it as an effective program to support 

federal R&D information dissemination to the public. In our report last March, we warned the 

President and the Congress this situation might occur if corrective actions were not taken. 

Specifically, we have learned from a number of federal agencies that the hiring freeze imposed on 

NTIS (despite the ability of that agency to compensate in part for the loss of key direct-hire 

professionals with contractor assistance) is being viewed with alarm; these agencies rely on NTIS to 

disseminate their scientific and technical information and they are fearful that the freeze’s continuation 

will adversely impact their missions. We also have evidence of increasing concern by the nation’s 

corporate and federal depository library communities—as well as private contractors—which heavily 

rely on the scientific and technical information products and services of NTIS. 

I think you will agree that, no matter where, ultimately, NTIS is located organizationally, its functions 

and operations must continue. We cannot afford to lose the skills and experience of key NTIS staff as 

personnel, uncertain of their agency’s future, seek opportunities in environments far less unsettled; yet 

if key staff do leave, we must insure adequate and speedy replacement. If you concur in that reasoning, 

would it not be prudent to bring the agency to the minimum satisfactory level of staffing and service? 

Wherever NTIS ends up, we should be confident that skilled workers, along with their equipment and 

real property, could then be transferred as a fully functioning operating entity. 

The alternative, it seems to me, will be the continued, gradual erosion of the agency’s capability, 

inevitably reaching a point where it will have become so dysfunctional that revitalizing it would be 

 

291 Available at http://www.nclis.gov/govt/assess/mineta2.html and http://www.nclis.gov/govt/assess/assess.appen7.pdf.
A Comprehensive Assessment of Public Information Dissemination 

1-207 

extremely daunting, if not impossible. Whether NTIS remains in Commerce or is transferred to 

another agency such as the Library of Congress as originally proposed, this situation would affect all 

of us concerned with the information handling capabilities of our government and our nation. 

I urge that you look into the matter and take swift action to remove the hiring restrictions before the 

situation becomes any more critical. 

Sincerely yours, 

/signed/ 

Martha Gould 

Chairperson 

cc: Laureen Daly