EPA was established in December 1970 to consolidate a variety of federal research, monitoring, standard-setting, and enforcement activities into one agency to ensure the protection, development, and enhancement of the total environment. To help accomplish its mission, EPA in 1971 established a library network that came to comprise 26 libraries located across the country. The library network functions as a collection of independent local libraries, catering primarily to the needs of local EPA staff and walk-in public patrons. The libraries are funded and managed by several different regional and program offices at EPA (see fig. 1). EPA defines network libraries as those of its libraries with an official membership presence in the global Online Computer Library Center system. The combined EPA library network collection contains a wide range of general information on environmental protection and management and on basic and applied sciences, as well as extensive coverage of topics related to the statutory mandates that EPA must meet. Several of the libraries maintain collections focused on special topics to support specific regional or program office projects. The libraries thus differ in function, scope of collections, extent of services, and public access. In addition to its physical locations and holdings, the EPA network provides staff and public access to its collections through the following: its online library system, a Web-based database of all of EPA library holdings, also known as EPA’s online “card catalog”; interlibrary loans to another library within the network or to other libraries; a Web site combining two databases—EPA’s National Service Center for Environmental Publications (NSCEP) and its National Environmental Publications Internet Site (NEPIS)—which provide an online gateway for access to available print and digital documents, respectively; and desktop access for staff to online journals, the Federal Register, news, databases of bibliographic information, and article citations. In addition, librarians are available in each library to catalog and maintain collections and to assist EPA staff and the public with research. In 2003, EPA began studying options for operating its library network in the future. In August 2006, the agency issued a reorganization plan, titled EPA FY 2007 Library Plan: National Framework for the Headquarters and Regional Libraries. The focus of this plan was a reorganization of the headquarters library and the 10 regional libraries, all of which received substantial funding from EPA’s Office of Environmental Information. The 2007 library plan identified a new model for library services, which consisted of three components: a coordinated library network, instead of stand-alone operations; more electronic delivery of services; and maintenance of existing essential services. During implementation of this plan, EPA closed the Chicago, Dallas, and Kansas City regional libraries and closed its headquarters library to physical access, although the headquarters library remained as one of three repositories for storing print collections. Another library located at EPA headquarters within the Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances (referred to as the “chemical library”) was not subject to budget reductions and was not discussed in the reorganization plan, but, like the headquarters library, was also closed to physical access. EPA also reduced or eliminated the library staff at the closed libraries. Several other libraries reduced their operating hours, and some libraries disposed of their materials or dispersed them to other EPA libraries or to non-EPA libraries. EPA also began to digitize EPA documents not currently in NEPIS, beginning with documents in the libraries being closed. EPA’s reorganization plan also discussed how the closed libraries were to handle their collections, directing them primarily to disperse the collections to other libraries. EPA’s implementation of its reorganization plan caused widespread concern among its staff, the public, interested parties, and Congress. In response to these concerns, congressional committees directed $1 million in funding to restore the libraries recently closed or consolidated, asked us to review EPA’s reorganization plan and its implementation, and directed EPA to prepare a report regarding actions to restore publicly available libraries. In addition, EPA in January 2007 imposed a moratorium on its reorganization efforts. Until April 2007, EPA’s library network operations had been guided by EPA’s Information Resources Management Policy Manual, which stated that the library network was to provide EPA staff with access to information to carry out the agency’s mission and that the libraries were to provide state agencies and the public with access to the library collection. The Policy Manual also defined the role of a national library program manager, who was to have responsibility for coordinating major activities of the library network, although not budget authority for the libraries. EPA replaced this manual in April 2007 with an interim library policy and, in May 2009, with its final library policy. The final May 2009 policy also defined key roles and responsibilities, including those of the national library program manager and those of “federal library managers,” who were to have first-line responsibility for operating the physical libraries and providing services. EPA lifted the moratorium in June 2009, following implementation of its May 2009 policy and 6 of 12 proposed procedures for the library network. After we issued our report in February 2008, Congress held hearings on EPA’s library network reorganization efforts, which were followed by the release of EPA’s March 2008 report addressed to Congress, in which EPA stated that it would reopen the closed libraries by September 30, 2008. In our 2008 report on EPA’s library network reorganization, we assessed the reorganization effort against our past work on key practices and implementation steps to assist mergers and organizational transformations. These key practices include ensuring that top leadership drives the transformation, establishing a coherent mission and integrated strategic goals to guide the transformation, and setting implementation goals and a timeline to show progress from day one. Although it has been preparing a strategic plan for its library network for 3 years, EPA has not completed a plan identifying its overall network strategy, with implementation goals and a timeline for what it seeks to accomplish. In our 2008 report, we stated that EPA was developing a library strategic plan for 2008 and beyond, which was to detail library services for staff and the public and lay out a vision for the library network’s future. EPA has had a draft outline of this strategic plan since July 2007. We reported that in October 2007, EPA’s Office of Environmental Information asked local unions throughout the agency to comment on a draft of the plan. The draft outline of the strategic plan envisions the library network as “the premier environmental library network that provides timely access to information and library services to its employees and the public” and proposes to realize this vision by increasing emphasis on electronic resources and using new information technologies. The draft outline of the strategic plan also lists several principles as the foundation for present and future directions of the library network: setting overall goals and objectives and a direction for implementation; periodic review of the plan to evaluate progress and update strategies to respond to new opportunities or challenges; soliciting input from internal and external stakeholders; and developing the plan in a transparent manner by reporting progress and soliciting input from interested parties. According to EPA officials, since 2007, EPA has been in the process of assessing library users’ needs, which is to be completed before they believe they can finish the strategic plan. EPA officials have stated that a working group led by the national library program manager is to resume work on the plan later in 2010. The draft outline of the strategic plan is largely a list of current and planned EPA activities—primarily placeholders to be completed. For example, under the heading, “Digitization,” the text states that the digitization procedures will outline the methods to be used by EPA libraries to prepare and send EPA documents for digitization and inclusion in NEPIS; no goals or timeline for implementing these activities—which we previously reported are among the key components of successful organizational transformations—are given. We have found that an organization’s transformation is strengthened when it publicizes implementation goals and a timeline to build momentum and show progress. Despite an emphasis on the central role to be played by electronic library resources, the draft outline of the strategic plan briefly describes procedures for packing and shipping documents to be digitized, without describing actions to be taken to digitize holdings or target dates for accomplishing those actions. EPA holds an enormous amount of environmental information, including publications generated by its program offices, as well as research publications generated under contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements. A large portion of this information exists only in print form. As part of its vision for the library network, according to the draft outline, EPA is seeking to convert this information into a digital format to make it more widely available and readily accessible to users. Yet the draft outline of the strategic plan does not describe criteria for deciding what documents should be digitized, for deciding whether or how to digitize copyrighted documents of value, or for scheduling the funding needed and a time frame for completing the digitization. Without such criteria, EPA cannot ensure that it is digitizing the most valuable or important documents or providing users with information most relevant to them. Furthermore, although the draft outline of the strategic plan includes a placeholder for a section describing a funding model for the network, it contains no detail. Under the heading, “Funding Model,” the text states that this section in the plan will address how EPA will ensure that the network libraries have “adequate funding” and will discuss how funding decisions are made, along with the Office of Environmental Information’s role in the funding process. But the draft outline of the strategic plan does not define what constitutes adequate funding, although inadequate funding has been a concern for the library network since fiscal year 2007. Until then, library spending had remained relatively stable, ranging from a high of $9.2 million in fiscal year 2002 to a low of $8.2 million in fiscal year 2006. In fiscal year 2007, when EPA’s budget was reduced, library spending was $6.3 million. The draft outline of the strategic plan also does not set out the details of how funding decisions are made. Setting out details for how such decisions are to be made, to ensure that they are informed and transparent, is especially important because of the decentralized nature of the library network.