Q. I am looking for a cast study on diversity management programs at the EPA from within the last five years. I am looking in Public Administration

This has proven a very difficult question, and I found very little specifically focused on the Environmantal Protection Agency over the past five years.

President Obama's Executive Order 13583 (Establishing a Coordinated Government-Wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce, August 23, 2011) will likely trigger a number of department/agency-specific studies and plans, but the pace is glacial.  The most up-to-date indicators of activity appear to be at the Office of Personnel Management's (http://www.opm.gov) website.  Enter this phrase in their search box:  Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce to retrieve their list of documents, news releases, policy proposals, etc.  Unfortunately, in my cursory browse through the first search results I did not see a document focused on the EPA, but the EPA may be noted within.

I also tried searching the catalog of the U.S. Government Printing Office and the database of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (formerly the U.S. General Accounting Office).  You may want to double-check me, but I found nothing pertinent to the mid-2000s onward.  If you search these sources, be sure to use the phrase "human capital" and the word "workforce," both of which are likely to turn up in relevant documents.

Our likely journal article databases (ABI-Inform Global, Business Source Premier, Military and Government Collection, Sage Premier, Wiley Online Library) failed to turn up anything of particular help.  Again, you may want to double-check me if you have not searched in these databases.

During the 1990s, the EPA contracted for or conducted several studies of workforce diversity.  In 2000, the House Committee on Science held a hearing on Intolerance at EPA: Harming People? Harming Science?.  We have copies of these documents filed in the U.S. Documents Microfiche cabinets on the 1st Floor of the library.  I pasted the catalog records into a PDF file and I will send the file to you attached to a separate message. We have several machines available which can be used to view the microfiche cards and scan PDF copies of pages.  If you want to examine these documents, I recommend printing the PDF file and bringing it with you to the Reference Desk on the 1st floor.  My colleagues there can help you find the microfiche and get you started on the machines.

Regards,

James Shaw, Director of Collections and Government Documents Librarian, Criss Library, UNO