UNITED-STATES SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL-INFORMATION POLICY IN THE CONTEXT OF A DIFFUSION-ORIENTED NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY POLICY

Science and technology information (STI) policy in the United States has been treated as a specialized topic of concern to libraries, publishers, and information providers in and outside the government for most of the post-World War II period. As such it has not enjoyed much visibility on the national agenda. This problem has been exacerbated by U.S. science and technology policy during these four decades: a focus on the generation of technology in pursuit of federal agency missions, leaving to market forces the diffusion of the benefits to the economy of these mission-oriented technology investments. The debate over U.S. competitiveness has drawn attention to U.S. shortcomings in the use of technology and science in the downstream elements of the innovation process, which is reflected in low productivity growth in manufacturing, higher costs, lower quality, and slower response to market demand than some competitors enjoy. A diffusion-oriented, or capability-enhancing, technology policy would give high priority to a number of areas of information policy: building knowledge infrastructure, increasing R&D productivity, building a strong secondary literature and improved information services for STI, among them. Early signs that the Bush administration may be willing to move in this direction suggest that information policy may be headed for a revival of interest and priority.