Daniel S. Jones

“ I have been a trustee of my local public library for 10 years. I have been a member of the American Library Association for 25 years. All of my customers are librarians, and a number of my products actually facilitate the further use of Government information.
Now, since the passage of PRA, my fellow IIA members and I have witnessed a number of agency initiatives that fly in the face of both the language and the intent of PRA. I can best explain these problems by citing the experiences of my company.
I began NewsBank 25 years ago and now employ 400 people in Connecticut, Vermont, and Florida. ”

“ Now, is the loss of private company jobs the objective of an agency of the Department of Commerce? I certainly hope not. NewsBank's experiences with the World News Connection are especially relevant to today's hearings, in that NTIS has demonstrated the dangers that lie in not strictly enforcing PRA principles. ”

“ When NTIS created this competitive product about 2 years ago, it appears that they did not demonstrate any significant effort to comply with the PRA. As a result, much of its content, as I mentioned, duplicates the very same information which is found in my products and that of other publishers that are private. ”