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GGD-92-27R 1 (1992-08-13)

handle is hein.gao/gaobackcu0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 

             I 'fated States
GAO          General Accounting Office
             Washington, D.C. 20548

             General Government Division
             B-249843


             August 13, 1992                                       I

             The Honorable Constance Morella                      147363
             House of Representatives

             Dear Ms. Morella:

             This is in response to your letter to us concerning the
             inquiry received from Florence Perman, your constituent,
             regarding the high cost of certain government publications.
             Ms. Perman questioned why Affirmative Employment Statistics
             should cost $35 per copy, and Pay Structure of the Federal
             Civil Service should cost $19 when ordered from the National
             Technical Information Service (NTIS). She noted that the
             World Almanac, with similar but more voluminous statistical
             data, is available to the public for $7.95.

             Under Section 3704-A of Title 15 of the United States Code,
             NTIS was set up to function as a clearing house for the
             collection and dissemination of scientific, technical, and
             engineering information. By law, NTIS is to be self-
             sufficient and should recover any costs it incurs in
             performing services for members of the public such as making
             documents available for sale (Title 15, U.S. Code 1153).
             Consistent with this legal mandate, NTIS officials told us
             that all operating costs, including salaries, rent,
             utilities, marketing, promoting, printing, and postage, are
             paid from sales income, not from tax-supported congressional
             appropriations.

             In addition to serving as a clearinghouse, NTIS serves as a
             permanent archive for all reports acquired by the
             government, now numbering over 2 million. These reports
             represent hundreds of billions of dollars spent by federal
             agencies, state and local government, and foreign
             governments on research and development. Maintaining this
             archive requires the dedication of money, facilities, and
             personnel. These costs are included in the prices set for
             the information products made available by NTIS.

             According to NTIS, it receives approximately 65,000 new
             information products on an annual basis, in addition to the
             2 million reports in the archive. Of the 2 million reports,
             only 300 reports sold more than 100 copies last year. It is

                                        GAO/GGD-92-27R, Publication Costs

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