EPA Needs to Complete a Strategy for Its Library Network to Meet Users' Needs

This report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO-10-947), dated September 30, 2010, finds that although EPA has taken a number of steps to meet the needs of library users, it has not completed a plan identifying an overall strategy for its library network, with implementation goals and a timeline of what it intends to accomplish. Scheduled for completion in 2008, the strategic plan was to provide EPA staff and the public a detailed view of EPA’s library operations and future direction.

The draft outline of the strategic plan, however, is largely a placeholder list of current and planned EPA activities. For example, while it emphasizes the central role to be played by electronic library resources, the draft outline does not contain goals or a timeline for completing an inventory of holdings or digitizing those holdings. The draft outline also does not set out details of how funding decisions are to be made.

Given the current economic environment, without a completed strategic plan, including a detailed strategy for acquiring, deploying, and managing funding, EPA may find itself hard-pressed to ensure that the network can meet its users’ needs. The agency has reopened libraries closed during reorganization, although about half the network’s 10 regional libraries are operating with reduced hours. EPA has also developed standards for the regional and headquarters libraries’ use of space, on-site collections, staffing, and services.