In 2004, SALIS led a campaign to oppose the decision by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) to end funding for ETOH — the Alcohol Problems and Science Database. Though it received wide support from leading alcohol and drug researchers and research organizations, sadly the Save ETOH effort was unsuccessful. Funding and development for ETOH ceased on December 31, 2003.
An archived version of ETOH, 1971-2003, is available to search from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, Butler Center for Research Addiction Research Library.
Since then, more databases and libraries in the field of alcohol and other drugs have faced elimination, cutbacks in services, and reductions in resources and staff. An early example was that closure of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Library in June 2007. This unfortunate trend continues throughout the library community in other disciplines, in the U.S. and around the world.
The Save ETOH Campaign materials have been preserved to document the value of ETOH as a record of our fight for a cause we believed in. Refer to:
- ETOH Campaign Overview, 2007
- The Value of the ETOH Database: A Position Paper. February 2004
- SALIS Resolutions to Save ETOH, May 2004
- SALIS Press Release, June 2004
- What will it cost if we lose ETOH? May 2004
- ETOH / PubMed Search Comparisons, May 2004
- To Praise ETOH, not Bury It. SALIS News, Spring, 2004.
Two quotes from anthropologist Margaret Mead sum up the commitment within SALIS to stand up for the value of information:
“I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world.”
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”