US chemical library set to remain closed indefinitely.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s chemical library will not reopen. One six-shelf bookcase will soon be all that is left of the agency's once impressive database of chemical information.

The chemical library was closed as part of a broader library closure programme instigated in 2006 by the Bush Administration, without any public announcements or notice to its staff, according to the pressure group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The libraries hold the official records of the agency, which were made available to lawyers, scientists or anyone in the general public who wanted to use them. Last year, the newly elected Democratic Congress put a stop to the closures and started a process of reopening. According to PEER, however, Congress left it up to the EPA to propose a suitable reopening plan, with the result that the specialist chemical library will remain closed.

The chemical library, officially the Office of Prevention, Pollution G Toxic Substances (OPPTS) Library, provided research services to EPA scientists who review industry requests for the introduction of new chemicals. When it was closed, the majority of its holdings were dispersed (C&I 2006, 24, 14).

'Shutting its only library dedicated to the study of chemicals speaks profoundly to the perverse priorities of our current EPA,' said Carol Goldberg, PEER associate director. 'EPA has chosen to make its scientists far less capable of independently analysing whatever industry submits.'

In March, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a scathing report on the closures (C&I 2008, 7, 7). Then in May, the chairs of the US House of Representatives committees on science G technology, energy G commerce and government oversight, together with the Senate environment and public works committee, jointly asked the GAO to evaluate the EPA plan, the details of which were only just being revealed.

Under the plan, the EPA headquarters library would be reopened in an area of 150[ft.sup.2], 'an area smaller than a one-car garage', according to PEER. Within that space what remains as a very small remnant of the original OPPTS Library would form a 'special Chemical Collection'.