A Comprehensive Assessment of Public Information Dissemination 

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APPENDIX 5. LETTER FROM NCLIS CHAIRPERSON MARTHA B. GOULD TO 

SECRETARY OF COMMERCE NORMAN Y. MINETA, AUGUST 1, 2000 

United States National Commission on Libraries and Information Science 

August 1, 2000 

The Honorable Norman Mineta 

Secretary of Commerce 

Department of Commerce 

14th Street and Constitution Avenue N.W. 

Washington, D.C. 20230 

Dear Mr. Secretary: 288 

First of all, let me congratulate you on your appointment as the new Secretary of Commerce. 

Undoubtedly the President can depend on your proven outstanding leadership abilities as a public 

administrator, sensitive to the needs of both the Congress and the Executive, to assist the 

Administration to accomplish its remaining goals and objectives. I'm also convinced that you will help 

to build a solid platform for the future. 

I am writing to alert you to a recently concluded study which the United States Commission on 

Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) completed in March of this year, dealing with the planned 

closure of the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). Your Department announced plans in 

August 1999, to close that agency down, and transfer its resources and programs to the Library of 

Congress. In our report to the President and the Congress (copy enclosed), we pointed out that the 

dramatic changes taking place in how, and at what cost, the general public is now able to far more 

easily and cost-effectively access the Federal Government's vast store of electronic information are not 

just scientific and technical information (STI) challenges. Rather, the STI challenges are, in reality, a 

part of the same broad set of issues and concerns with which the entire government is faced, for all 

kinds of data and information it makes publicly available and accessible. 

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, chaired by Senator John McCain, 

requested just such a follow-on study of broad reforms needed in the government's public information 

dissemination laws and programs, and requested my Commission to undertake the second study. The 

Committee requested that a final report be submitted by December 15, 2000. 

Many other Senate and House committees have also expressed an interest in seeing the results of the 

study. I have already alerted the President, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and 

the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy of the study, and wanted to alert you also 

as you take office. Details of our early planning can be viewed at 

http://www.nclis.gov/govt/assess/assess.html. 

We are pleased that a high level former Department official participated actively in the earlier NTIS 

study to which I alluded above, and we would like to continue that kind of direct working relationship 

with the Department for the current study. To that end, we would welcome your designation of a 

 

288 Available at http://www.nclis.gov/govt/assess/mineta1.html and http://www.nclis.gov/govt/assess/assess.appen5.pdf.
U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science 

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liaison official with whom we can coordinate the study's planning, implementation, and the review of 

draft final reports. I would appreciate your furnishing me with the name and contact information for 

this individual at your earliest convenience. 

I look forward to hearing from you on this matter and, again, wish you success in your challenging 

endeavor! 

Sincerely yours, 

/signed/ 

Martha Gould 

Chairperson 

 

P.S. I know you attended the Washington, D.C. memorial service for Jeanne Hurley Simon, my 

predecessor as chair of NCLIS. I am sorry that I did not get the chance to meet you then. Jeanne was a 

strong supporter of broad public access to government information. I know she would be greatly 

pleased to see you take over the leadership at the Commerce Department (even though you're not from 

Chicago!)