NTIS and copyright

On August 12, Commerce Secretary William M. Daley announced his intention to close the National Technical Information Service. NTIS is the federal government's central agency for the sale of scientific, technical, engineering, and business related information produced for or by the U.S. government. Its collection includes about 3 million publications representing billions of dollars of information paid for by taxpayers. It distributes more than 170,000 subscription issues annually, maintains online databases, distributes electronic and printed products, provides custom information services and manages web sites for other agencies. About a third of NTIS's orders for technical reports are for material five years old or older. Its records indicate some 60,000 U.S. customers. Although it is one of the largest publishers in the world, you won't find its titles in Books in Print or in other typical trade distribution channels. It gets no appropriated funds to carry out its mission and so must charge prices that cover its costs.

Little or nothing that NTIS publishes is protected by copyright. NTIS has been running in the red since 1993. The Commerce Department Inspector General says, "even with significant efforts to improve its profitability, NTIS can no longer generate sufficient revenue to remain self-supporting." The press release adds, "if this proposal is not implemented, NIS will be in danger of going bankrupt."

More info is at http://ntis.webjump.com/

Albert Henderson
Editor, PUBLISHING RESEARCH QUARTERLY
<70244.1532[_at_]compuserve.com> Received on Mon Aug 23 1999 - 12:24:12 GMT