Since James was a day early with his BOTM announcement, I'll be a day early with my first post. It's easy, because I did not write this one.

This message is posted on behalf of Jerry Baldwin, a transportation librarian.
For further questions, Jerry can be reached at:
jerry.baldwin@dot.state.mn.us

Transportation librarians, most of whom are employed in government agencies within the US Department of Transportation (USDOT), state DOTs or transit agencies are seeking support in attempting to develop library services in a field that has long neglected them. Within USDOT, the newly formed Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA, at http://www.rita.dot.gov ) has responsibility for the National Transportation Library (NTL, at http://ntl.bts.gov ).

RITA has drafted a Strategic Research, Development and Technology Plan [PDF] and is seeking comments on the plan. I have submitted comments on the draft regarding its failure to address library and information issues.

We would appreciate any additional comments, especially from anyone familiar with government library services and networks and their role in research programs. Instructions for submitting comments are in the July 12 Federal Register [71 FR 39394].

Note that comments are due by August 9.

I'm a day early with the announcement for our blogger-of-the-month for August, but that balances out for last month when I was a little late ;-) I'm pleased to announce that Peggy Garvin will be our BOTM for August. (For more on Peggy, see her biography). Peggy's had a long career with government information in Washington DC, both in the private sector and with the Congressional Research Service. We look forward to reading what's on Peggy radar this month.

I also want give a big THANKS!!! to Jessamyn West who was a real trooper in being our BOTM for both June AND July. Who else but Jessamyn could have made the connection betweeen food recycling and govt information or would create a contest over at librarian.net to come up with ideas for FGI blog posts?!

As always, check in the center column for Peggy's blog posts this month. And feel free to leave comments or contact us at admin AT freegovinfo DOT info if you'd be interested in being BOTM for FGI.

This post, all earlier postings in this series, and my "not a lawyer" disclaimer can be found at http://freegovinfo.info/title44 or through our library under Nonlawyer's Journey through Title 44.

Now that you have discovered that I am not infallible, which I hope you realized before now from the weekly disclaimer, let us turn to the next section of the Sales program law, Sec. 1702. Superintendent of Documents; sale of documents

----------------------------------------

TITLE 44--PUBLIC PRINTING AND DOCUMENTS

CHAPTER 17--DISTRIBUTION AND SALE OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS

Sec. 1702. Superintendent of Documents; sale of documents

The Public Printer shall appoint a competent person to act as Superintendent of Documents who shall be under the control of the Public Printer.
When an officer of the Government having in his charge documents published for sale desires to be relieved of them, he may turn them over to the Superintendent of Documents, who shall receive and sell them under this section. Moneys received from the sale of documents shall be returned to the Public Printer on the first day of each month and be covered into the Treasury monthly.
The Superintendent of Documents shall also report monthly to the Public Printer the number of documents received by him and the disposition made of them. He shall have general supervision of the distribution of all public documents, and to his custody shall be committed all documents subject to distribution, excepting those printed for the special official use of the executive departments, which shall be delivered to the departments, and those printed for the use of the two Houses of Congress, which shall be delivered to the Senate Service Department and House of Representatives Publications Distribution Service and distributed or delivered ready for distribution to Members upon their order by the superintendents of the Senate Service Department and House Publications Distribution Service, respectively.

(Pub. L. 90-620, Oct. 22, 1968, 82 Stat. 1279.)

Historical and Revision Notes

Based on 44 U.S. Code, 1964 ed., Secs. 71, 73 (part) (Jan. 12, 1895, ch. 23, Sec. 61, 28 Stat. 610; June 25, 1910, ch. 384, Sec. 1, 36 Stat. 770; Aug. 7, 1946, ch. 770, Sec. 1(62), 60 Stat. 871).
This section incorporates only part of former section 73. The balance will be found in section 308 of the revision.
``House of Representatives Publications Distribution Service'' is substituted for ``House Folding Room'' because of the change of name under authority of Public Law 88-652.

Section Referred to in Other Sections

This section is referred to in section 4102 of this title; title 28 section 594.

------------------------------------------------

The main thing I want you take from this section and our prior consideration of 44 USC ch. 19 is that the Superintendent of Documents is in charge of two potentially mutually exclusive programs. On the one hand this section of the law puts her in charge of the sales of public documents. In Chapter 19 of Title 44, she is named as the head of the Federal Depository Library Program, which mandates free public access to government information through the depository library system. Taken together, the law requires the Superintendent of Documents to provide free access to government information products while finding effective ways to sell them.

One view, understandably held by current Superintendent of Documents Judy Russell, is that the Depository and Sales programs are complementary. As she stated in her justified correction of my last installment:

By providing a means for individuals and organizations to purchase copies of Federal government publications, the GPO Sales Program complements free public access through tangible depository collections and free online access. It will continue to serve the public by providing an alternative to using tangible Federal publications in libraries or downloading/printing copies from the Internet.

Prior to the Internet age, I believe the programs were complementary. If you wanted to view a government document but were unwilling or unable to pay for it, you could go to one of the nation's Federal Depository Libraries. If you wanted copies of government documents for your own use, or faster than a library could receive and process them, then you could walk into a GPO Bookstore or order documents by mail. In the early 1990s, I worked in the library of the Los Angeles office of the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers. As an acquisitions clerk, when I needed to get a government document fast, all I had to do was walk several blocks to the Los Angeles Government Printing Office (GPO) book store. It was great. They were well stocked and the staff were always friendly and professional.

In age of paper, the sales program and the depository system did different things. For my lawyers at O'Melveny, it wouldn't have made sense to find a depository and borrow the document. For someone interested in a part of a single report, it wouldn't make sense to buy the whole thing when they could copy a page at a depository library.

In an Internet age, I can see at least two potential major conflicts between the sales program and the depository program. First is that if GPO ever wants to sell electronic information products, they will have no alternative but to restrict depository access to that product. Otherwise, why would you buy a subscription to that product? Some of the ways that free access could be crippled but still "provided" are:

1. Limit access to the information product to the physical depository library, thus forcing people to walk into a building if they want free access.
2. Provide a simultaneous user license to allow depositories to provide remote access to a few users.
3. Provide a DRM crippled version of an information product for free and a fee licensed version for greater functionality.

For a few products NOT sold by GPO, the future is now. Stat-USA and publications from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) Online Document Library are two databases that GPO has been able to obtain free access for depositories on the condition that access must take place within the bricks and mortar of the depository library and only a few people at a time may access the product. Unsurprisingly, since it might diminish subscriptions, neither the Stat-USA site nor the NCDC site informs you that free access through depository libraries is available. If you're a regular citizen, you'd get the impression that you would need to shell out several hundred dollars for access to either site. A very high barrier when you just want to know the rainfall in Des Moines for 1999.

As far as I'm aware (and I hope GPO staff will correct me if I'm wrong), there is currently no electronic product directly produced by GPO that is being sold to the public. But this could change. It's all a matter of policy and I see nothing in the law to stop sales of electronic information as long as some kind of free access is provided, even if it is inconvenient to citizen end users.

The second potential conflict that I see between the sales program and the depository program is tangible products being restricted to sales products and libraries forced to link to an electronic product, whether or not it is the proper format for users. We almost saw an example of this with the recent publication of:

American Military History, V. 1: The United States Army and the Forging of a Nation, 1775-1917

American Military History, V. 2: The United States Army in a Global Era, 1917-2003 (Casebound-Paper)

Paper copies of these two volumes were initially offered for sale, but not made available through the depository program except in online format. This may have been done through a defensible reading of SOD 301 - Superintendent of Documents Policy Statement, which states in part:

3. When the product is available both online and in a tangible format, the standard practice will be to disseminate the online version to depository libraries. At the time an online publication is identified for inclusion in the FDLP, it is captured and stored in the GPO electronic archive, unless GPO has an interagency agreement for permanent public access to the material. A tangible product will be distributed only if the online version is:
a. Incomplete. For example:
i. Online products that contain only selected or abstracted portions of the content provided in its entirety in the tangible product, or
ii. Kits comprised of mixed media tangible products where only a portion of the title is online.
b. Not recognized by the publishing agency as the controlling official version of a publication. That is, the publication is placed online for informational purposes and when discrepancies exist between the tangible and online versions, the tangible version takes precedence and is viewed as the controlling official version.1
c. Not easily identifiable as an official publication. For example, this can occur when the electronic version is on a non-verifiable Government or unofficial web site.
d. Very difficult to use, thus impeding access to data or content. For example this can occur when the product design imposes technological barriers to usage.
e. Not cost-effective. The costs associated with disseminating the online product exceed those for the tangible product. For example, this situation may arise with fee-based online services.
f. Fee-based, and created, all or in part, through the use of non-appropriated funds. For example, this can occur when the publishing agency designates the product as cooperative as provided in 44 U.S.C. Sec. 1903.

Although a defensible reading of SOD 301, it was a disappointment as one could argue that long books are in fact difficult to use in online format, especially if it is a PDF document being delivered over a slow connection. Some of the discussion about this document on govdoc-l noted that there was another part of SOD 301 that could have authorized tangible distribution (emphasis mine):

4. If a product is disseminated to depository libraries online and a tangible format is available, the tangible product will also be distributed if the tangible product meets special conditions or needs, i.e., when:
a. There is a legal requirement to distribute the product in tangible format, e.g., Journals of the House and Senate;
b. The tangible product is of significant reference value to most types of FDLP libraries, as may be the case with certain compilations, legal resources, permanent legal records or products of historical importance;
c. The tangible product is intended to serve a special needs population. For example, this could occur when the publication is in Braille or large print;
d. The commonly accepted medium of the user community is tangible format. For example, this could apply to maps and/or charts; or
e. The product is essential to the conduct of Government. GPO has identified a list of "Essential Titles for Public Use in Paper or Other Tangible Format" http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/estitles.html. When those titles are published in tangible format they will be made available for selection by depository libraries in that format.
i. If an agency ceases to publish an Essential Title in tangible format in favor of online dissemination, GPO will request electronic files suitable for printing from the publishing agency and its authorization to reproduce and distribute the title to depository libraries.

I think most depository librarians would agree that a two volume history of the US Army up to 2003 would definitely fall under 4(b) of SOD 301. In the end, it looks like GPO agreed with the community and obtained more physical copies to distribute to selecting libraries after considerable outcry on govdoc-l.

But a process like the one above insures only that items the community immediately notices for sale will get into the program in tangible format, even when a printed book may be a much better format, particularly for older users who are interested in history.

Next time we will skip over a few provisions of 44 USC ch. 17 and consider sec 1706, which allows private parties to have short print runs of documents done by GPO.

FGI wishes to extend HUGE thanks to Christine Gray of the University of Idaho Library for providing a large number of photos to use as cover art on our Best Titles Ever! page. If you haven't visited our page in the past week, it's worth another look.

In hopes of getting yet more covers of these public domain, yet weird and/or intriguing titles, I have established the Best. Titles. Ever. photo group on Flickr. If you've got photos to contribute and you're a Flickr member, please post them there. If you're not a Flickr member, but want to contribute please e-mail those covers to me at dnlcornwall AT alaska.net.

Even with Christine's mighty contribution, we are still lacking several covers I hope one of you can fill:

• ALONE: Facts about Mental Health and Mental Illness was revised to:

  YOU ARE NOT ALONE: Facts about Mental Health and Mental Illness

  [HE 20.8102:Al7/985]

  "One of my favorite titles is from the National Institute of Mental Health, 1985. The document had a printing error in the title and was ordered destroyed by the Superintendent of Documents. "This error seriously detracts from the point that the publisher was trying to make."

  Find "Alone" in a library
  Find "You are not alone" in a library

• Kill or get killed : riot control techniques, manhandling, and close combat, for police and the military. U.S. Marine Corps [D 214.9/6:12-80] with illustrations! Find in a library

  (James notes that it was such a hot title that someone actually published it privately -- in the same year! Check out the OCLC records: 25298518 (US doc) 3328029 (paladin press). It looks like they were published at the same time, or at least in the same year.)

• Let potatoes fight. [Y3.F73/2: WGC/ w49]
• Virtual Cement and Concrete Testing Laboratory Consortium, Annual Report. [C 13.58/4:]. Lori says: "Virtual cement and concrete? A virtual testing laboratory? A virtual consortium? Who knows?
  Find in a library
• Wake up America: a national sleep alert. [Y3.2: SL2/SL2] Find in a library

With few exceptions, federal government records and publications (which are a form of record) are in the public domain and can be used without fear of the copyright police.

Digital cameras have become relatively inexpensive and easy to use and photo sharing sites like Flickr are able to hold many images. This means we now live in a world where individuals, some of them librarians have the means to do very fast, though not necesarily high quality, digitization of government documents.

The next time you, your library or organization notices you have a document that would contribute to a hot topic, why not take some quick images and post it to the web like I've done with the 1977 Army publication Your Conduct in Combat? Putting the page images on Flickr also potentialy opens up this publication to people who wouldn't go to a documents web site, let alone a physical depository.

I'm NOT recommending this approach for preservation or even medium term access since documents done in this way aren't full text searchable and in some cases (see inside front cover) don't seem to photograph properly. But I think doing things like this could be a marketing tool for your depository or an aid in online discussions you might be having. And who knows, maybe it would help get you support for properly digitizing large volumes of materials, once your funders get a glimpse of the treasures you have.

And assuming I'm not the first person to hit on this idea, I'd love to hear other examples of DIY personal digitization of government documents. We probably won't devote a whole page to it since we're busy with the best. titles. ever. page, but we at FGI are always interested in new things being done with government information. It's yours and it's copyright free - now use it!

One clear benefit of having government information in electronic format is the ability to quickly and easily tie government documents to other material. With the large number of news stories involving government activities or government resources, tying government documents to news media seems like a natural.

Two state libraries that I know of are taking this natural step:

• New Mexico News Plus
• Documents in the News (Washington State Library)

New Mexico appears to highlight documents while Washington highlights the news stories. Both look like good approaches to me and I hope both institutions get a lot of thanks and praise for their creativity!

While I know of a few universities who provide this kind of service, these are the first I've seen from State libraries. Anyone else have an example?

The Center for Technology in Government released this new report based on a survey of all fifty states:

Preserving State Government Digital Information: A Baseline Report
By Theresa A. Pardo, G. Brian Burke, and Hyuckbin Kwon.

According to the press release, the authors identify six major barriers to the sucessful preservation of state government digital data:

1. Capability for preserving state government digital information is low.
2. There is no consistent approach to addressing “at-risk” information.
3. Authority for setting standards and responsibility for providing digital preservation services is dispersed.
4. Executive, legislative, and judicial agencies operate parallel digital preservation efforts.
5. Digital preservation and Enterprise Architecture initiatives are not well-connected.
6. Efforts to develop strategic digital preservation programs are hampered by problem focused practices and funding and staffing models.

I look forward to reading the entire paper and might have some more to say about it. If you've read the paper, please leave a comment or drop us a line.

In addition to the paper, the CTG staff also published a set of state profiles that includes information on specific projects. Hopefully in the coming weeks we'll be able to highlight some states whose initiatives seem especially promising.

Peggy Garvin is BOTM for August, 2006. Peggy is an independent information professional (aka librarian) based in Washington, DC. Her firm, Garvin Information Consulting, provides writing, training, and consulting on finding U.S. government information, web and database searching, and evaluating information products. Her 20-year career in DC -- both in the private sector and at the Library of Congress Congressional Research Service -- has focused on public policy information and electronic information products. She currently serves as chair-elect of the Special Libraries Association Government Information Division.

Peggy has been a fan of the FGI site since its inception and is honored to be August BOTM.

In my last installment of Nonlawyer's Journey through Title 44, I stated:

"In an age of paper, the Sales Program helped provide some of the funding needed to make publications freely available to the public through Federal Depository Libraries."

I was wrong about this. Thankfully Superintendent of Documents Judy Russell caught wind of this entry and sent me the comment below:

----- Original Message -----
From: "Russell, Judith C. (SuDoc)"
To: "'Discussion of Government Document Issues'"
Cc:
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006 5:05 AM
Subject: RE: New Discussions at FGI: July 24, 2006

In his most recent analysis of Title 44, Dan Cornwall states: "In an age of paper, the Sales Program helped provide some of the funding needed to make publications freely available to the public through Federal Depository Libraries."

The GPO Sales Program is by statute a self-sustaining program. Revenue from the Sales Program has never been used to fund the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), which receives its funding from annual Congressional appropriations.

By providing a means for individuals and organizations to purchase copies of Federal government publications, the GPO Sales Program complements free public access through tangible depository collections and free online access. It will continue to serve the public by providing an alternative to using tangible Federal publications in libraries or downloading/printing copies from the Internet.

Judy Russell

Judith C. Russell (jrussell@gpo.gov)
Managing Director, Information Dissemination (Superintendent of Documents)
U.S. Government Printing Office
Phone: 202-512-0571
Fax: 202-512-1434

Judy also made a comment on the mistaken entry which I've now incorporated into my commentary as an update. I do regret the error and hope others will be as willing and quick as Judy to correct mistakes as they come up.

Thanks Judy!

Another unusual venue that net neutrality popped up in today was on show 76 of the Celtic Music News Podcast during an interview with Newfoundland musician Jim Fidler. His short remarks on how the end of Net Neutrality would doom musical creativity and political diversity show up around the 15 minute mark. Be warned that a good chunk of the interview is NOT work safe if profanity isn't smiled upon at your place of work.

Net Neutrality. It's not just a good idea, it SHOULD BE the law.

Update: July 25, 2006 to reflect correct spelling of Mr. Fidler's province. Thanks to the anonymous alert reader.

People across the country are beginning to understand what is at stake with preserving net neutrality. The July 24, 2006 edition of American Catholic Radio has an interview with Michael Copps, commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission starting roughly at the 20 minute mark. He talks about the need to avoid Internet toll booths and how the loss of network neutrality would hurt minority non-commercial voices including Catholic media. Also some good discussion of how media consolidation has made it harder to hear local voices and new music.

Net Neutrality is sometimes presented as a liberal issue, but the reality is that it cuts across ideology, and based on the above interview, religious lines as well.

From time to time we at FGI hear from people who don't think that federal government information should be free. They talk about how giving information away that the private sector could sell is "unfair competition."

While we at FGI have talked about how government information is already paid for through citizen taxes, the Government Accountability Office released a report last week that shows that citizens are already charged twice for information -- once through their taxes and again by the many hours they are compelled to do government paperwork.

The study:

Paperwork Reduction Act: Increase in Estimated Burden Hours Highlights Need for New Approach, GAO-06-974T, July 18, 2006

has this to say about the number of hours Americans spend filling out paperwork:

After 2 years of slight declines, OMB reports that paperwork burden grew in fiscal year 2005 and is expected to increase further in fiscal year 2006. Estimates in OMB's annual report to Congress show that the total paperwork burden imposed by federal information collections increased last year to about 8.4 billion hours--an increase of 5.5 percent from the previous year's total of about 8.0 billion hours.

In nearly all cases, not filling out these forms is non-optional and in many cases is used to build government information products. How much does this time contribution translate into dollars? If we make the absurdly conservative assumption that every person filling out a government form is paid the federal minimum wage of $5.15/hr, then 8.4 billion hours works out to $43.6 this year alone.

Nearly forty-four billion dollars a year in confiscated time to generate the raw data to build federal information products. If Congress appropriated a tenth of that amount just one year, I bet it would be enough to endow the Government Printing Office (GPO) with enough funds that they could scrap their sales program and provide free information to every citizen for the next century. With that much money, we could probably endow the sales only National Technical Information Service so it could become a free information dissemination service too.

So to subject Americans to buying government information projects isn't just double billing, it's really triple billing! We say no!

Just to clarify, the GAO report did not directly address the dissemination of government information, but does clearly show the citizen's burden in providing raw data to the government.

This entry is aimed squarely at the 133 of you currently subscribing to our RSS feed through Bloglines. If you subscribe to the RSS feeds through another reader service, please keep reading.

As we've mentioned before, we at FGI are trying to get feedback on the types of stories and topics users would like us to cover. So we set up a poll. But so far only 12 people have voted in our poll and none have left comments.

Since you've gone to the trouble of subscribing to the FGI feed, it seems like you have at least a passing interest in what we post here. So we'd like to hear from you. So please take just a moment to open our poll and vote on the kind of stories you'd like to see in the future.

If you're NOT reading this post through a feed reader, we'd still like to hear from you!. If you don't want to vote in our poll but still would like to help steer our coverage, please either leave a note in the comments below or e-mail us at admin "AT" freegovinfo.info.

Thanks!

Thanks to a bundle of information provided by Jennifer Manning of the Congressional Research Service (CRS), I have updated my 50 State Bluebook Guide. Where CRS indicated that a blue book was not available online and I hadn't found one in print I included their links to "state facts" pages.

But there are a few states left where neither I nor the good staff of the Congressional Research Service could come up with either a blue book or an official gov't handy guide to state facts, preferable online:

• ARKANSAS
• GEORGIA
• LOUISIANA
• NEW JERSEY
• SOUTH CAROLINA

If you have knowledge about a "blue book" like title/government directory/state facts site for one of the states above, would you either mention it in comments below or in e-mail to dnlcornwall AT alaska.net? Thanks!

Earlier this year, Daniel estimated the average size of an online federal document as between 5MB and 10MB. Libraries investigating digital deposit and provision of permanent public access to these resources need to estimate the cost of storage for these documents.

For the past week, I've played around in an entirely nonrandom sample of online docs to try to get an accurate estimate. Although I'm not close to a reliable estimate, I'd still like to share what I've done...

The process:

1. grabbed all (1,234) MARC records with 856 fields from DDM2 for the GPO Timestamp range 2006 06 01 - 2006 06 30
2. used wget to retrieve all URLs listed in those 856 fields
3. slapped the wget logs into a vaguely useful excel spreadsheet (thanks to liberal regexp-ing in jEdit)

The basic results:

'Course, these numbers don't mean much against a little scrutiny. The 856 field often points to table of contents pages (when it points to the document at all...), and that single page is all that gets counted in this simple investigation.

PDF files might offer a better estimate than HTML files. Although publishers can
split up documents into multiple PDF files and have a "Table of Contents" PDF file point to these multiple resources composing a single bibliographic unit, this doesn't appear to be too common. When 856 fields point to PDF files, they tend to be self-sufficient, whole bibliographic units. So here are the numbers for pdf files retrieved using the 856 fields:

In a true demonstration of futility, I looked at 124 of the HTML files (of the 525 in the June 2006 DDM2 sample) that are stopping points for the 856 pointers. Most of these totally-non-random-sample HTML pages to not constitute the entire document described in the MARC record. I developed various wget capture strategies for 84 of these online documents, and the average size of the "cluster" of files captured per 856 pointer was 8.17 MB (median: 3.19 MB, std dev: 13.09 MB).

In a vaguely related exercise, I grabbed the various files composing Foreign Relations of the United States, vols. E-1, E-5, and E-7. Sure, they're outliers w/r/t size, but I thought I'd mention them anyway...

CONCLUSION:

I don't have one yet. At the end of the week, though, 5-10 MB seems like a pretty good estimate to me.

This post, all earlier postings in this series, and my "not a lawyer" disclaimer can be found at http://freegovinfo.info/title44 or through our library under Nonlawyer's Journey through Title 44.

After a few weeks hiatus, I'm ready to tackle another major section of Title 44 that affects the dissemination of government information and Federal Depository Libraries. I'm speaking of 44 USC chapter 17: Distribution and sale of public documents. While this is a section of law that many depository librarians, myself included, wish didn't exist, it does and so needs to be examined. In addition, it was first proposed with good intentions. In an age of paper, the Sales Program helped provide some of the funding needed to make publications freely available to the public through Federal Depository Libraries. In a mostly electronic age I believe that the existence of the sales program is a direct threat to free access to government information, at least to access at times and places of a citizen's choosing.

But I'll more to say about the interactions current and possibly future between the depository program and the sales program after we've concluded our examination of chapter 17. Unless people ask questions either through comments or by e-mailing me at dnlcornwall AT alaska.net

We begin our consideration of chapter 17 with Sec. 1701:

TITLE 44--PUBLIC PRINTING AND DOCUMENTS

CHAPTER 17--DISTRIBUTION AND SALE OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS

Sec. 1701. Publications for public distribution to be distributed by the Public Printer; mailing lists

Money appropriated by any Act may not be used for services in an executive department or other Government establishment at the District of Columbia, in the work of addressing, wrapping, mailing, or otherwise dispatching a publication for public distribution, except maps, weather reports, and weather cards issued by them or for the purchase of material or supplies to be used in this work. The Public Printer shall perform this work at the Government Printing Office. The head of an executive department, independent office, and establishment of the Government at the District of Columbia, shall furnish from time to time to the Public Printer mailing lists, in convenient form, and changes in them, or penalty mail slips, for use in the public distribution of publications issued by the department or establishment. The Public Printer may furnish copies of a publication only in accordance with law or the instruction of the head of the department or establishment issuing the publication.
This section does not apply to orders, instructions, directions, notices, or circulars of information printed for and issued by an executive department or other Government establishment or to the distribution of public documents by Senators or Members of the House of Representatives or to the Senate Service Department, House of Representatives Publications Distribution Service, and document rooms of the Senate or House of Representatives.

(Pub. L. 90-620, Oct. 22, 1968, 82 Stat. 1278.)

Historical and Revision Notes

Based on 44 U.S. Code, 1964 ed., Sec. 95 (Aug. 23, 1912, ch. 350, Sec. 8, 37 Stat. 414; July 2, 1954, ch. 455, title I, Sec. 101, 68 Stat. 397).
``House of Representatives Publications Distribution Service'' is substituted for ``House Folding Room'' because of the change of name under authority of Public Law 88-652. The term ``executive department, independent office, and establishment of the Government'' is substituted for ``executive department and other Government establishment'' for uniformity.

Section Referred to in Other Sections
This section is referred to in section 1722 of this title.

As near as I can read this section, it seems to keep maintenance of mailing lists of items with the agencies, while insuring that agency money won't be used in mailing publications to customers. But if a publication is being distributed within the government only, then the agency picks up the distribution tab.

If someone has some better insight, please offer it in the comments. Next time we will look at 44 USC 1702, which spells out some of the sales duties of the Superintendent of Documents, the same official who is in charge of the Federal Depository Library Program.

[Update - July 25, 2006]
I was mistaken about the Sales Program EVER subsidizing the depository program. Here is the the real story straight for Superintendent of Documents Judy Russell:

----- Original Message -----
From: "Russell, Judith C. (SuDoc)"
To: "'Discussion of Government Document Issues'"
Cc:
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006 5:05 AM
Subject: RE: New Discussions at FGI: July 24, 2006

In his most recent analysis of Title 44, Dan Cornwall states: "In an age of paper, the Sales Program helped provide some of the funding needed to make publications freely available to the public through Federal Depository Libraries."

The GPO Sales Program is by statute a self-sustaining program. Revenue from the Sales Program has never been used to fund the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), which receives its funding from annual Congressional appropriations.

By providing a means for individuals and organizations to purchase copies of Federal government publications, the GPO Sales Program complements free public access through tangible depository collections and free online access. It will continue to serve the public by providing an alternative to
using tangible Federal publications in libraries or downloading/printing copies from the Internet.

Judy Russell

Judith C. Russell (jrussell@gpo.gov)
Managing Director, Information Dissemination (Superintendent of Documents)
U.S. Government Printing Office
Phone: 202-512-0571
Fax: 202-512-1434

I apologize to all the govdocs jockies who are a little underwhelmed by my 101 approach to all things document-y, but I've been enjoying all the new stuff I've learned. Today I'm talking about Federal Depository Libraries.

If you went to library school you may have had a class in GovDocs where you learned about FDLs and their complicated and mysterious cataloging and classification system and met very odd people who made these systems their lives. By the end of the GovDocs class, most people were terrified but a few were hooked. I can remember almost every GovDocs librarian I've ever met and I don't think this is true for any other type of librarian I've encountered.

So, here are some things you need to know. Other GovDocs fanboys and fangirls, please add more information in the comments. This page has an intro to the FDL program for further reading.

• The US has 1250 Federal Dpository Libraries nationwide. You can find the one nearest you by going to this page. Want to print a list for your state? Go to this page.
• The broad purpose of these libraries is to "provide local, no-fee access to Government information in an impartial environment with professional assistance"
• ANYONE can go into a FDL, even if the collection is part of a larger private library that you would not otherwise have access to. This is true, for example, at the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library where they have a very strict visitor's policy and you have to read all the way to the bottom of this page until you see the words "Government Document U.S. depository (Bobst 6th floor) open to general public"
• The purpose of these repositories is changing in the face of the shift to more and more information being created and disseminated digitally. The FDLP was created and mostly maintained as an avenue to get print publications from the Government Printing Office to the public who they serve. The GPOs role is shrinking

The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.

Hi all. Spurred by the recent posts on govdoc-l, I've made a page to collect all of those strange/odd/intriguing/inspiring government documents. Check it out and let us know if you have a favorite that you'd like to add to the list.

Below are some government document titles that are interesting/strange/intriguing. We set this up after several emails on govdoc-l.

Click on any cover for a larger image. All images hosted by Flickr.

We've created a WorldCat List for the titles below when we could find records. Some of them aren't in WorldCat or GPO's Catalog of Monthly Publications.

Please send your suggestions for this list to admin AT freegovinfo DOT info.

If you want to explore the possible future barriers to the enjoyment of titles like these, please explore our issues page.

• M16A1 rifle : operation and preventive maintenance. DA Pam 750-30. While the title is not particularly funny, the fact that this is a comic book (and a heavily mysogynistic one at that) distributed to all US military personnel in Viet Nam makes this a good title to highlight here.

  Find in a library

• After the Cold War: Living with Lower Defense Spending. (1992) Office of Technology Assessment. [Y 3. T 22/2:2 C 67/SUMM. This one seems funny in retrospect!
• ALONE: Facts about Mental Health and Mental Illness was revised to:

  YOU ARE NOT ALONE: Facts about Mental Health and Mental Illness

  [HE 20.8102:Al7/985]

  "One of my favorite titles is from the National Institute of Mental Health, 1985. The document had a printing error in the title and was ordered destroyed by the Superintendent of Documents. "This error seriously detracts from the point that the publisher was trying to make."

  Find "Alone" in a library
  Find "You are not alone" in a library

• An Annotated list of Literature references on carpets and rugs 1940 to 1963 [A77.17:C22]. (June 1965, Department of Agriculture) An Excerpt: There is no magic instrument endowed with a power to give its bearer a complete single factual answer to many of the questions asked by consumers today on the selection and care of carpets and rugs (so the Ag Department needs to tell us, obviously)

  Find in a library

• The Bear Essentials (Irregular) [HE 20.3057:]
• Child Maltreatment: A "What to Do" Guide for Professionals Who Work With Children - Published by Canada's National Clearinghouse on Family Violence. Contributed by Amy West.
  Find in a library
• Citizenship and the Strawberry Jam: FDA's Life Protection Series (1967, for FDA and US dept of health, education and welfare)
• Cooking up solutions: cleaning up with lasagna [EP 1.2:C77] Find in a library
• Dante Home Reading Course. [I 16.12: 18] - Photo contributed by Christine Gray.
• Design of Clean Rooms - A Classified List of Selected References 1955-1964
• Distinguishing Bolts from Screws. US Customs and Border Protection, March 2006.
• Do you know oatmeal? [A 1.26:6] - Photo contributed by Christine Gray
• Don't be a "sugar daddy" to moonshiners! The True story of moonshine. [T 22. 2: M77]. Find in a library.
• The Doubtful Identity of Fungus No.517, by C. Audrey Richard, Pathologist. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, [no date]; Published in Proceedings of the American Wood Preservers' Association, 1937.
  Find in a library
• Elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation : are we doing enough? [Y 4.J 89/2:S.HRG.108-445] Find in a library
• Employment of homosexuals and other sex perverts in government (1950)
• Epic of Gilgamesh: Clinical Practice Guidelines for Post-Deployment Health Evaluation and Management (Flash movie). Department of Veterans Affairs / US Department of Defense. Originally posted on FGI blog. (Added 12/30/06)
• Everything you always wanted to know about shipping high-level nuclear wastes [E 1.16: 0003] Find in a library - Photo contributed by Christine Gray.
• Fakability of the air force preference inventory - Find in a library
• Familiarity and recognition of nonsense shapes
• Fastener Quality Act : report of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on S. 795. Find in a library.
• Fatalgrams. U.S. Dept of Labor, Mine Safety and Health Administration. [L 38.15:] Find in a library / Get the T-Shirt (Not affilated with FGI) - Photo contributed by Christine Gray. As were photos for:
  • Fatalgram 98-240
  • Fatalgram 98-234
• Fertilizers in a national emergency [A 1.6: 966] Find in a library - Photo contributed by Christine Gray
• The golden age of bathing. [I 29.2: B32/4] Find in a library - Photo contributed by Christine Gray.
• Gobbledygook has gotta go. Bureau of Land Management [I 53.2: G53] Find in a Library.
• Government versus homosexuals.
  by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Naval Affairs. (1975)

  Find in a library

• Health effects of pesticide use on children [Y 4.L 11/4:S.hrg.101-569]
• Hills Bros. coffee can chronology : field guide
  by Steve Lanford; Robin Mills; Chuck Adkins; United States. Bureau of Land Management. Fairbanks District Office.
• Identifying sheep killed by bears [A 13.79:INT-313]. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, 1981. - Photo contributed by Christine Gray.

  B says:

  It is an oldie, but still brings a chuckle when I think of it. In 1981, I began as a
  clerk in the Gov Pubs unit at ******** University. On my first day, I was to open a new box of materials and process it all the way through to get some sense of the work flow. "Identifying Sheep Killed by Bears" was the very first publication I pulled from the box. It kind of set the tone for my time in the department.

  Find in a library

• The impact of computer aliens along the Mexican and Canadian borders. [Y 3.W 52:2 C 73/PT.2]. This is the cover title of part 2 of this 3 part set of hearings, published in 1968-69.

  David says:

  This is my favorite typographical error on a Federal publication. The publication deals with the impact of nonresident alien workers who travel daily to jobs in U.S. border cities.

• Impregnation of concrete pipe. [Prepared] for the Water Quality Office, Environmental Protection Agency., [EP 2.10:11024 EQE 06/71]. Find in a library. James S. says:
  

  The title alone is pretty funny in a puerile kind of way, but the cover picture is downright creepy in a Freud kind of way.
  Regardless, we should thank the brave young servicemen who were willing to sacrifice themselves for love of science and love of country.

• Index of blank forms, [D 101.22:310-2/]. Amy says:
  

  It has been discontinued, although not for the reason you might think: "Merged with: Index of administrative publications; Index of blank forms; Index of doctrinal training organizational publications; Index of technical publications; Index of supply catalogs and supply manuals, excluding types 7, 8, and 9, to form: Consolidated index of army publications and blank forms."

  Find in a library - Photo contributed by Christine Gray.

• Kill or get killed : riot control techniques, manhandling, and close combat, for police and the military. U.S. Marine Corps [D 214.9/6:12-80] with illustrations! Find in a library

  (James notes that it was such a hot title that someone actually published it privately -- in the same year! Check out the OCLC records: 25298518 (US doc) 3328029 (paladin press). It looks like they were published at the same time, or at least in the same year.

  Daniel was able to obtain a PDF copy of a 1991 reprint of the Marines publication (Fleet Marine Force Reference Publication (FMFRP) 12-80, Kill or Get Killed,) and found it bore this note:

  Copyright 1976 Paladin Press.
  Reprinted with permission by
  Paladin Press, P.O. Box 1307,
  Boulder, CO 80306.
  Web site: http://www paladin-press .com

  In addition the author is listed as a retired officer, so it looks like the private pub came first!)

  - Cover photo provided by Kathy Amen.

• Know your 8-inch Howitzer. Dept. of the Army, Headquarters, US Army Armament, Munitions and Chemical Command], 1984- [D 101.22/12:750-6] Find in a library - Photo contributed by Christine Gray.
• Methods of reduction of psychological stress due to radiation, AFPTRC-TN (series) [D301.36/7: 57-19].
• Lawn Mowers: Noise and Cost of Abatement (EPA 1974)
• Let potatoes fight. [Y3.F73/2: WGC/ w49]
• Let's use TV! [ED 1.302: T23] Find in a library - Photo contributed by Christine Gray.
• L.U.S.T.LINE Subtitle is: A report on Federal and state programs to control leaking underground storage tanks. A publication of the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission, funded with support from EPA's Office of Underground Storage Tanks.

  Link to the publication's online archives and index

  David says: My favorite article title from L.U.S.TLINE (from #41, June 2002): "Looking for Leaks in All the Wrong Places: A Short Story With an Epiphany," by Marcel Moreau

• Manual for Medical Examination of Aliens. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service. [FS 2.6:Al 4/956]. Find in a library
• Meat is ammunition, play fair with it! [PR 32.5002:M 46/2] Monthly catalog, 1945, p. 648.

  A wartime exhortation to U.S. consumers to adhere to meat rationing limits.

• Methods of reduction of psychological stress due to radiation
• National community fallout shelter design competition (1965)
• National Money Laundering Strategy [T 1.67/2:]. I've heard there's corruption in government, but this is ridiculous!
• Out of the vapors: a social and architectural history of bathhouse row [I 29.2:B 32/3 ] Find in a library - Photo contributed by Christine Gray.
• PMS Blue Book. HE 20.4001/2: PMS in this case stands for Program Management System. Find in a library - Photo contributed by Christine Gray.
• Patents in space. [Y4.J89/1:99-16] Find in a library - Photo contributed by Christine Gray.
• Plane Clothes: Lack of Anonymity at the Federal Air Marshal Service Compromises Aviation and National Security. What a painful pun!

  Here's the PDF from fas.org because the link to text at gpoaccess didn't work (as of Aug 8, 2006)! Please contact us if you click the link and it works.

• Preservative treatment of poles (USDA 1911)
• Psychological Aspects of Equipment Design (1949). (USAF document. Attached is a page from the document "knobshapes." Photo contributed by Sarae Montgomery.
• Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act of 2002 : hearing before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, One Hundred Seventh Congress, second session on H.R. 5519, October 10, 2002 [Y 4.J 89/1:107/109]. James says: wikipedia points out the ironic acronym of the title, "RAVE act"! Who ways our representatives aren't hip to the groove?!

  Find in a library

• Relation of Barium to the Loco-weed disease
• Some effects of modification of information about a previous response upon the acquisition of two lever positioning habits. USAF
• "Sprocket Man" (PDF). U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (AKA CPSC Comics!)

  Find in a library

• Status Report of U.S. Treasury-Owned Gold [T 63.131:] The person who submitted this says:
  

  this one has a perfectly boring title but I have nicknamed it "Gold-hoards of the T-men", which sounds much more exciting!

• State-of-the-art dummy selection. U.S. Dept. of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. TD 8.2:D 89/5/v.1 Find in a library. Janette says:
  

  I guess the other volumes were classified "top secret".

  Photo contributed by Christine Gray.

• Step into action! A guidebook for the above-knee amputee. US Dept of Health, Education and Welfare. [FS 2.6/2:ST 4/964] Find in a library - Photo contributed by Christine Gray
• Trends in Money Laundering [T 1.67:] and National Money Laundering Strategy [T 1.67/2:] - Photo contributed by Christine Gray.
• The use of a sentence completion test in measuring attitudes toward superiors and subordinates
• Virtual Cement and Concrete Testing Laboratory Consortium, Annual Report. [C 13.58/4:]. Lori says: "Virtual cement and concrete? A virtual testing laboratory? A virtual consortium? Who knows?
  Find in a library
• Vitamin A in war and peace. [A 1.59:2] - Photo contributed by Christine Gray
• Wake up America: a national sleep alert. [Y3.2: SL2/SL2] Find in a library
• A winning combination: wild horses and prison inmates. [I 53.2: H78/10] Find in a library - Photo contributed by Christine Gray.
• WRA: A Story of Human Conservation. (Hosted at the Internet Archive!) U.S. Dept. of the Interior, War Relocation Authority, 1946. (I 59.2:W 19/3:). Jim says:
  

  This is the final report of the agency which oversaw the World War II internment camps for US citizens of Japanese and other suspect descents. The title is the very definition of Orwellian, and I often use it to help drive home the point that government documents are mirrors of their time.

  Find in a library

• (Canadian govt document) "Who Are the Zombie Masters and What Do They Want?" (PDF). A 1994 discussion paper prepared for the Premier's Council on Health, Well-Being and Social Justice. Find in a library
• Young scientists look at drugs (1968 for FDA/HEW)
• 
  Your personal affairs / Armed Forces Information and Education, Department of Defense. [D 2.14:PA-6] 1963

Now that you've had a taste of the kinds of information your government produces, why not explore the issues that may prevent full access to government information in the future?

Let's talk about Open Access to taxpayer funded government information.

The open access movement wants nothing less than "Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature on the internet. Making it available free of charge and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. Removing the barriers to serious research." The argument for open access to government information is fairly simple: tax money has already paid for this work, restricting access to it through copyright, fees, print-only publication or other complicated access or licensing requirements is antithetical to the idea of scholarship and the purpose of government. This is an Internet-era desire since the costs associated with publication can now be mitigated down to something manageable. Read much more about Open Access here.

There are recognized exceptions, of course, such as classified, military research, research that leads to patents, and research published in some royalty-producing form, such as books. The Office of Management and Budget has a publication that describes the value in maximizing access to information, but stops short of mandating that access to government information be free. In OMB Circular A-130 they state that

"In determining whether and how to disseminate information to the public, agencies will: (i) Disseminate information in a manner that achieves the best balance between the goals of maximizing the usefulness of the information and minimizing the cost to the government and the public;"

Federal Computer Week argues that this "maximizing usefulness" clause allows for the distribution of raw data to the private sector who can repackage and "value add" to the data making the government's cost of distribution lower while not totally restricting non-fee-based access.

As one example mentioned briefly here earlier, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had been technically providing access to their weather data to the public all along, but it was in a proprietary format and difficult to work with. People who wanted easy to understand weather data had to use commercial weather providers. At the end of 2004, NOAA began making their digital forecast database available in standard XML format. Who likes this? The public. Who doesn't like this? Private sector companies that resell this data. However, since they often have the ears of our elected representatives, we have seen our own government trying to legislate restricted access to government information in order to benefit the private sector.

What other hurdles are there to open access? The NOAA example includes a few: non-proprietary data formats, unfair leveraging of private sector's "rights" to value add and resell data, and legislators themselves. There are also the restrictions mentioned above: web and accessibility standards for information (requiring people to use one browser, or one type of computer), copyright and restrictions on distribution, and fees for obtaining copies of government information.

Of course, the major hurdle is often mental, or perhaps ideological. We don't know we have the right to this information. We will take no for an answer. The people with the information have their own reasons for not making it as easy as humanly possible to obtain. Many of those reasons are even prosaic (though possibly obstructionist) and reasonable-seeming. In the wake of 9/11, with the government's increasing tendency to want to circle the wagons in the name of cautiousness, now more than ever it's important to continue to say "That's my information, and I'd like some more." [thanks to libwitch for the inspiration]

Further Reading

• Open Access Librarian blog
• Open Access News blog
• OMB Watch - Access to Government Information Post September 11th
• Open Geodata project
• Public Library of Science

Free Government Information writers have reported on Presidential Signing Statements before. In the past two months, two new statements have been issued and are available through the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents:

• Statement on Signing the Coastal Barrier Resources Reauthorization Act of 2005 from the May 29, 2006 compiliation.
• Statement on Signing the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Hurricane Recovery, 2006 from the June 19, 2006 compiliation.

Both of these measures contain language that the President intends to ignore certain passed statutes as unconstitutional. The Supplemental Bill signing statement contains provisions rejecting reporting requirements:

Section 1209 is:

SEC. 1209. None of the funds provided in this chapter may be used to finance programs or activities denied by Congress in fiscal year 2005 and 2006 appropriations to the department of Defense or to initiate a procurement or research, development, test and evaluation new start program without prior written notification to the congressional defense committees.

Section 2202 is:

None of the funds provided in this chapter may be used to finance programs or activities denied by Congress in fiscal year 2005 and 2006 appropriations to the Department of
Defense or to initiate a procurement or research, development, test and evaluation new start program without prior written notification to the congressional defense committees.

The signing statement also says:

That provision states:

For the ‘‘Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Fund’’, $1,958,089,000, to remain available until September 30, 2008: Provided, That such funds shall be available to the Secretary of Defense, notwithstanding any other provision of law, for the purpose of allowing the Director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization to investigate, develop and provide equipment,supplies, services, training, facilities, personnel and funds to assist United States forces in the defeat of improvised explosive devices: Provided further, That within 60 days of the enactment of this Act, a plan for the intended management and use of the Fund is provided to the congressional defense committees: Provided further, That the Secretary of Defense shall submit a report not later than 30 days after the end of each fiscal quarter to the congressional defense committees providing assessments of the evolving threats, individual service requirements to counter the threats, the current strategy for predeployment training of members of the Armed Forces on improvised explosive devices, and details on the execution of this Fund:

The full text of the supplemental bill is available on Thomas.

Google's Complete Plays Of Shakespeare Less Than Compleat by Phil Bradley, Search Engine Watch, Jun. 14, 2006.

The Google blog 'Inside Google Book Search' announced ... that it is now possible to explore Shakespeare with Google - The complete plays of Shakespeare now at your fingertips. Well no, not exactly....

I could read 13 of the plays Google listed, but was unable to do so for another 24.

Please take a moment and participate in our new FGI poll. This time around, we'd like to know what you think of our blog, on the topics we cover, and the issues we raise. We'd really appreciate your input!

Our older polls are also available to look through, although they are now closed.

40 years ago (July 4th, 1966), the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was enacted despite the opposition of President Johnson to the legislation. Documents from the LBJ Library show that Johnson refused to hold a formal ceremony for FOIA. The National Security Archive created a site called Freedom of Information at 40 and lists copies of the key legislative history documents for the FOIA. Also National Sercurity Archive site has a complete FOIA legislative History.

In a related story, according to a report published by OpenGovernment.org., many federal agencies are still lagging behind in their efforts to comply with FOIA. Center for Democracy and Technology and several other public interest groups contributed to the report. Below is a copy of the report.

Other links of interest:

• FOIA Updates 1979 - 2000
• Annual FOIA Reports (from the Department of Justice)
• Text of FOIA 5 U.S.C. § 552