An article in The Atlantic concludes that, "So maybe our greater emphasis shouldn't be on training users to work with bad search tools, but to improve the search tools."

• Google-Trained Minds Can't Deal with Terrible Research Database UI, By Alan Jacobs, The Atlantic, (Feb 27 2012).

Recently while walking to the shuttle on Stanford campus, I saw a sign with the Superhero Sprocket Man, a much loved government document comic book character (Y 3.C 76/3:2 SP 8/994) -- it's listed on FGI's Best Titles Ever! page -- at a table being jointly run by Stanford Parking and Transportation Safety (P&TS) and the Stanford Medical School out promoting bike safety as they do every friday afternoon.

As a government information librarian at Green library, I was chuffed because Sprocket Man -- or so I thought -- comes from a 1994 government document published by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). However, the friendly folks at the table told me that Sprocket Man was actually drawn by a Stanford pre-med student named Louis Saekow in 1975 as was reported in the Stanford Report in 2002.

So now I'm wondering how a 1975 comic book copyrighted by Stanford becomes a 1994 government document? Did Mr Saekow give the comic to the CPSC? Did CPSC simply appropriate the comic for their own use without giving Mr Saekow credit? I'm intrigued because I've often seen public domain government information repackaged and sold, but this is the first instance I've seen of copyrighted content becoming a government document.

Check out both editions of Sprocket Man and see for yourself:

• 1975 Stanford comic
• 1994 (supposedly public domain) government publication/comic

If anyone has further information, please leave a comment. Otherwise, I'm on the case and will report back when I get to the bottom of this mystery!

Scroogle, since 2003 my go-to search engine -- it queries Google search, but anonymizes search results, does not store cookies on users' computers, and strips out all the google ads on the search results page -- may have finally gone to the big search engine in the sky. Created by "privacy militant and self-appointed Wikipedia watchdog" Daniel Brandt, Scroogle had recently been enduring round-the-clock distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on its servers as well as throttling of its service by Google. For those that are interested, there are other options for privacy-protecting search engines.

There IS a connection to and a concern for libraries here. Anyone building digital archives needs to be concerned about this type of action. The best way to thwart DDoS attacks is to host digital content on many servers and have built-in redundancy of content and infrastructure. Collaboration is key!

[HT to /.]

Another in our series of roundups of news and new resources via INFOdocket.com. 15 items in all.

Federal Sources

1. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Releases Beta Versions of Several New Features

2. A Redesigned Regulations.gov Website Now Live With Many New Features

3. Smithsonian Launches New Website for Teaching African American Civil Rights Through American Art

4. Transportation: RITA Launches U.S. DOT Research Hub Searchable Database (Beta)

5. NLM Releases Mobile Interface to TOXNET Databases

6. A New Interactive Infographic From NASA Looks at The Future of American Human Space Flight

7. U.S. Census Releases Graphs on Historical Voting Trends

8. Archivist of the United States on the Competencies NARA Wants For Archives Specialists

Additional Items That Might Be of Interest

9. More Than 10 Million Digitized Newspaper Pages Coming to Europeana

10. Create Custom Neighborhood Maps (Quickly Search/Locate/Visualize Neighborhoods Located In Any Zip Code)

11. Online Database: NORMLEX (Information System on International Labour Standards) From ILO

12. Foreign Affairs Releases Complete Online Archive, All Articles Back to Vol. 1, No. 1 (1922) Available

13. U.Va. Library’s New Streaming Oral History Project Tells the Legal Story of the Civil Rights Struggle

14. New Interactive Site/Database Features Info About Wyoming’s Electrical Generation Facilities

15. Legal Reasons: National Library of Sweden Will Not Archive Personal Blogs or Online Video Games

This story is making it around the interwebs/twitterverse today. Brainpicker, a wonderful blog, posted a story today about digital preservation in the film industry -- "The future for digital storage is constant migration.". While focusing on independent filmmakers and nonprofit archives, it's worthwhile to do a find-and-replace "film" with "government documents" and "filmmakers" with "government information (nee documents) librarians." Digital preservation takes collaboration and long-term vision. period!

"Most of the filmmakers surveyed...were not aware of the perishable nature of digital content or how short its unmanaged lifespan is." After the Motion Picture Academy's release last month of "The Digital Dilemma 2," a warning aimed at independent filmmakers and nonprofit archives, cinematographer John Bailey talks with one of the report's authors about the perils of data migration ("It’s not unreasonable to say that the term "digital preservation" is an oxymoron") and the need to educate filmmakers who are so "enamored with the perceived benefits of digital image capture and workflow" that they fail to realize preservation concerns start to appear almost immediately after their work is completed. Film professor David Bordwell covers the report in a detailed post about preserving "born-digital" films, sixth in his "Pandora's Digital Box" series about the worldwide conversion to digital projection, with lots of good links at the bottom.

[HT to Brainpicker!]

The volunteers at the State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases remained busy this past week.

VOLUNTEERS AND ORPHANS

This week we officially welcome Susanne Caro to the ranks of our document specialist volunteers. She has taken on the Utah page and has begun fixing links.

With Susanne's arrival, we are left with these three states in need of adoption:

• Maryland
• Minnesota
• Rhode Island

If one of these states interests you, check out our Volunteer Guide. If you can meet the basic responsibilities, send me an e-mail at dnlcornwall AT Alaska DOT net.

WIKI ACTIVITY

For a full list of our last week's activity, visit http://tinyurl.com/statedbs. Below are highlights of the work we've done together:

DATABASES ADDED

ALASKA (Daniel Cornwall)

Alaska's Digital Sandbox (Public View) - Educator resource list of files, plans, websites and other items likely to be of value in an Alaskan K-12 classroom. Materials compiled by multiple school districts. Searchable by subject, grade level, type of resource and by keyword.

MICHIGAN (Michael McDonnell)

Data Explorer- Search this site for employment and income statistics, short and long term forecasts of employment in various professions, and population estimates.

NEW YORK (Michael Tatonetti)

Environmental Conservation Databases - Access to a variety of databases and maps. Contains the following specialized searches:

• Database of Environmental Remediation Sites and Spill Incidents
• Current Ambient Air Quality Forecasts and Data
• Oil and Gas Well Database
• Searchable On-line Mining Database
• DEC Permit Applications Search (DART)
• Water Well Contractor Search
• Docket Management System
• Certified Wastewater Facility Operators
• Issued Title V Air Permits
• Draft Title V Air Permits
• Issued State Facility Air Permits
• Draft State Facility Air Permits
• Breeding Bird Atlas Databases

On February 2, 2012 the House of Representatives Committee on House Administration, chaired by Dan Lungren, convened a full-day conference entitled Legislative Data and Transparency Conference. Check it out. looks like a great list of experts. It's great that the House is talking about public data, XML standards and easy public access to the legislative process. I haven't watched all the video, but I hope they also talk about *preservation* of the legislative process as well.

The Committee on House Administration held a Legislative Data and Transparency Conference on February 2, 2012, from 9AM to 6PM in Cannon Caucus Room, 345 Cannon HOB.

Conference Agenda

Remarks from Representative Daniel E. Lungren [Video]
Chairman, Committee on House Administration

Panel 1: Legislative Branch Initiatives [Video]
Legislative Branch Agencies that create information
Kirsten Gullickson, The Office of the Clerk
Panelists:
Bob Reeves, Office of the Clerk
Sandra Strokoff, House Office of Legislative Counsel
Hugh Halpern, House Rules Committee

Panel 2: Legislative Branch Initiatives [Video]
Legislative Branch Agencies that disseminate information
Panelists:
Ralph Seep, Law Revision Counsel
Robert Gee, Library of Congress
Ric Davis, Government Printing Office

Panel 3: What is data and what is available? [Video]
The impact and understandability of current data use
Moderator:
Jeff Griffith, Global Centre for ICT in Parliament
Panelists:
Josh Tauberer, GovTrack
Eric Mill, Sunlight Foundation
Derek Willis, New York Times

Panel 4: Extending XML and Metadata Standards [Video]
Moderator:
Anne Washington, George Mason University
Panelists:
Sandra Strokoff, House Office of Legislative Counsel
Ralph Seep, Law Revision Counsel
Tom Bruce, Cornell Legal Institute
Cindy Leach, Office of the Clerk

Panel 5: Integrating Video and Metadata [Video]
Moderator:
Robert Reeves, Deputy Clerk
Panelists:
Tab Butler, Major League Baseball Network
Javier Muniz, Granicus
Daniel Bennett, e-Citizen Foundation

Panel 6: Defining Transparency Success Measures [Video]
Knowing how far we’ve come...
Moderators:
Matt Lira, Office of the Majority Leader
Steve Dwyer, Office of the Minority Whip
Panelists:
Daniel Schuman, Sunlight Foundation
Maurice McTigue, Mercatus Center
Jim Harper, The Cato Institute

Time once again for a selection of news and new resources that we hope will be an interest to the FGI community. The following posts are from INFOdocket.com (@infofodocket) where we compile and post new items daily. The oldest item in this roundup was posted on January 26, 2012.

1. President Requests $231,953,777 for Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)

2. MEDLINE/PubMed: List of Serials Indexed for Online Users, 2012 Now Available in XML

3. South Dakota: State Archives Going Digital

4. Recently Launched iOS App: United Nations News Reader from the UN News Centre

5. Full Text of Prepared Testimony: Librarian of Congress, Public Printer, & Others Testify at House Appropriations Committee Hearing (re: FY 2013 Budget)

6. Montana: “New State Librarian Leads Digitization”

7. Government Information: A New Issue of the FDLP Connection Newsletter is Now Online (Vol. 2, Issue 2)

8. New Reference Resource: PACrimeStats.Info (Pennsylvania Crime Data)

9. EPA Releases New Interactive Tool with Information About Water Pollution Across the U.S.

10. FEMA Grant Helps Restore New Orleans’ Katrina-Damaged Archives

11. Listen Online: National Park Service Releases Historic Audio Recordings Made by Thomas Edison’s Recording Engineer

12. New Feature: The World Factbook Now Allows Users to Listen to the National Anthems of Most Countries

13. U.S. Congress: THOMAS Adds Direct Links to House Committee Hearings

14. New Document from NIH: Public Access Policy Implications

15. New Database: See Who’s Donating to Super PACs

16. LOCPix: New iOS App Provides Access to Digitized Photos from the Library of Congress

17. New Interactive Reference Resource: State Transportation Facts and Figures

18. U.S. Congress: Financial Contributions: MapLight Launches New Company Pages

19. Let’s Fly! FAA Launches Mobile Web App

20. New Search Tool from the IRS: Exempt Organizations Select Check

GPO Press Release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 13, 2012
No. 12-12

GPO MAKES AVAILABLE THE FEDERAL BUDGET FOR THE FIRST TIME AS AN APP

WASHINGTON-The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) releases a mobile Web application (app) for President Barack Obama's Budget for the U.S. Government, FY 2013. This is the first time the Budget is available as an app. GPO's mobile Budget app will provide users with access to the text and images of the FY 2013 Budget, including the Budget Message of the President, information on the President's priorities, and budget overviews organized by agency. The app provides links to GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys) where summary tables and additional books of the Budget, including the Analytical Perspectives, Appendix, and Historical Tables are available. The public can take advantage of this free mobile Web app on major mobile device platforms, including iOS 4.3 and above, Android 2.2 and above, and Blackberry OS version 6.0 and above.

The Budget is also available through GPO's retail and online bookstore and on FDsys.

Link to FY 2013 Budget app: http://m.gpo.gov/budget
Link to FDsys: www.fdsys.gov
Link to bookstore: http://bookstore.gpo.gov/collections/budget.jsp

"GPO is very excited to make President Obama's Budget for the U.S. Government available for the first time as a mobile Web app," said Acting Public Printer Davita Vance-Cooks. "Through GPO's role as the digital information platform for the Federal Government, we continue to explore different ways to make Government information available to the public and developing apps is just one way we are meeting that goal."

The FY 2013 Budget app is the second mobile Web app that GPO has developed. The first, the mobile Member Guide, was released in November 2011. GPO also supported the Library of Congress in developing an iPad app for the Congressional Record, released last month.

The volunteers at the State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases remained busy this past week.

VOLUNTEERS AND ORPHANS

Utah has been tentatively adopted. Assuming all goes well, this would leave us with the following states in need of adoption:

• Maryland
• Minnesota
• Rhode Island

If one of these states interests you, check out our Volunteer Guide. If you can meet the basic responsibilities, send me an e-mail at dnlcornwall AT Alaska DOT net.

WIKI ACTIVITY

For a full list of our last week's activity, visit http://tinyurl.com/statedbs. Below are highlights of the work we've done together:

DATABASES ADDED

OHIO (Audrey Hall)

Century Farms - There are more than 850 registered Century Farms (farms within the same family for at least 100 years) in Ohio. Get a list of all farms by county or use the drop down list to select a specific county.

NEW JERSEY (Qraig de Groot)

Search for Senior Centers - Search by county and program type, city and program type, or name of facility to find Senior Centers in New Jersey.

NEW YORK (Michael Tatonetti)

New York State Nursing Home Profile - Information about nursing homes and the quality of care they provide. Search by county, zip code, nursing home name or special services.

TEXAS (Ann Ellis)

Texas Agricultural Research Project Database - This database is maintained by Texas Tech University and is designed to enhance communication about agricultural research in Texas for other research institutions, private industries, and individuals. Users may search the database by title of research project, research institution, or research problem area. The database also provides a full-text search engine.

GPO AND OMB TO DISTRIBUTE PRESIDENT OBAMA’S BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2013

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) are releasing President Barack Obama’s Budget for the U.S. Government, FY 2013. Printed copies are available through GPO’s retail and online bookstore. The Budget is also available electronically on GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) www.fdsys.gov.

Monday, February 13, 2012 11:15 a.m. EST

Hard copies of the Budget may be purchased through GPO’s retail and online bookstore.

Budget of the U.S. Government $39
Budget Appendix $76
Analytical Perspectives $53
Historical Tables $50
CD-ROM $27

The authentic online version will be available through a direct link on GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) after 11:15 a.m. EST. www.fdsys.gov

NextGov reports on the challenges of turning raw government data into commercial products:

• Turning government data into private sector products is complicated business, By Joseph Marks, NextGov (02/09/2012).

  "The theory behind Data.gov was, let's move forward when it comes to sharing data," says Josh Green, chief executive officer of Panjiva, a company that crunches customs data for U.S. businesses that import some of their raw materials. "I think that's right in terms of what would be good for entrepreneurship, but realistically I don't think that has filtered down to the agency level." While Panjiva relies on some Census data, which it downloads directly from the Census Bureau, the company uses mostly Customs and Border Protection data on CD-ROMs that it pays to have delivered every day by FedEx.

  ...Data.gov is laudable, Rossmeissl says, but developers' biggest hurdle with government data isn't finding it, but getting it quickly and in a form they can use. "That wasn't the focus of Data.gov and, in general, it isn't the focus of agencies producing data," he says. "That's not because their intentions aren't great, but they have a history of producing data in a very specific way that goes back to the Federal Register and quarterly releases."

  ...The Data.gov team also meets regularly with about 400 agency "data stewards" to change the way government data is initially created so that it requires less translation and reformatting on the back end.

See also:

• The Federal Government Must Reimagine Its Role As An Information Provider.
• Private Sector Supports Public Data.

The Western Farm Press has a nice write-up about the historical Census of Agriculture web site, a collaboration between the Albert R. Mann Library at Cornell University and the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

• USDA releases historic census of agriculture reports, by Amanda Pomicter, NASS Archivist, Western Farm Press (Feb. 10, 2012).

  "The Census of Agriculture reports contain aggregate data, on the county-, state- and national-level, for almost every facet of American agriculture, including number of farms, acres of farmland, totals for agricultural production, value of farm production, demographics and much more. The census reports are popular resources used by researchers, historians, genealogists, law professionals and others who want to know more about American agriculture and how the industry has expanded and changed over time."

• USDA Census of Agriculture Historical Archive, Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University.

  "The site serves as a public archive of Census publications published prior to 1987. These publications are primarily scanned print material now available in PDF format.

  "This site is an ongoing work in progress as we digitize and structure the Census of Agriculture from 1987 back to 1840. We have met our goal of past census back to 1925 online by the end of 2011. Our next target is to complete the censuses back to 1840 and to refine our search results to include sorting by regions, states, and years."

Also see: Census of Agriculture, USDA - National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Daniel Schuman went to the hearing today on budgets for GPO, LoC, GAO, and CBO. On the Sunlight Foundation blog, he reports on the tiny room, the lack of space for the public, and he posts documents that were handed out:

• An almost live look at today's H. Leg Branch Approps hearing, by Daniel Schuman, Sunlight Foundation, (Feb. 7, 2012).

The new acting Public Printer, Davita Vance-Cooks, gives her opening remarks.

GPO Press Release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 7, 2012 No. 12-10

ACTING PUBLIC PRINTER PRESENTS APPROPRIATIONS REQUEST FOR FISCAL YEAR 2013

WASHINGTON-Acting Public Printer Davita Vance-Cooks presented the FY 2013 appropriations request for the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) today before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Legislative Branch Appropriations. GPO is requesting no increase over the level of funding the agency is receiving for FY 2012 due to savings garnered from cost-cutting activities last year as well as projected workload changes for FY 2013. GPO's budget request also includes a significant shift in funding away from conventional printing and distribution toward digital systems. The current level of $126.2 million is a 6.6% reduction from FY 2011 and about a 15% reduction from FY 2010. GPO's funding level for FY 2013 is provided through three separate accounts in the annual Legislative Branch Appropriations bill:

. The Congressional Printing and Binding Appropriation covers the cost of information products in digital and print formats that GPO produces for Congress. About 70% of this cost is for preparing the electronic files used for both digital access and printing. For FY 2013, GPO is requesting $83.6 million, a decrease of about $7 million.

. The Salaries and Expenses Appropriation of the Superintendent of Documents primarily covers the cost of the Federal Depository Library Program, which works in partnership with 1,220 libraries nationwide to provide public access to Federal Government information. For FY 2013, GPO is requesting $34.7 million, a decrease of about $300,000.

. The GPO Revolving Fund receives appropriated funds for specific technology investment and facility improvements. For FY 2013, GPO is requesting $7.8 million. The request includes funding for the continued development of GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys) to support increased online access to congressional and Federal agency information as well as other digital information technology improvements.

GPO achieved significant savings in FY 2011 by reducing unnecessary overhead expenses and conducting a buyout that helped reduce staffing by about 15%. As a result, GPO achieved positive net income of $5.6 million for the year. The agency, whose information production and dissemination operations have transitioned to digital technologies, is currently operating with its smallest workforce in more than a century.

"GPO is doing more with less in meeting the digital information needs of Congress, Federal agencies, and the public," said Acting Public Printer Davita Vance-Cooks. "GPO's plan of reducing costs while continuing to expand services to our customers is working and showing real and measurable benefits."

The hearing on Tuesday (Feb 7, 2012) on budgets for the Library of Congress, the Government Printing Office, the Government Accountability Office, and the Congressional Budget Office is not expected to be webcast by the committee.

• Video Blackout of Hearing on Budgets for Legislative Support Agencies, Daniel Schuman, Sunglight Foundation
  (Feb. 5, 2012).

  Only the House and Senate Legislative Appropriations Committees regularly hold annual public hearings on the workings of these agencies; the oversight committees (Committee on House Administration and Senate Rules) generally do not, and the Joint Committee on the Library and Joint Committee on Printing no longer holds substantive meetings in public.

  The new House rules require that all committees provide "audio and video coverage of each hearing or meeting" that "allows the public to easily listen ... and view the proceedings" "to the maximum extent practicable." All of the House committees have at least one hearing room that is equipped with a camera, and the House Recording Studio will provide a camera upon a committee's request. Unfortunately, this hearing is being held in a room without a camera, and I've been informed that the Committee has not requested one.

Schuman notes that things could still change for Tuesday's hearing -- it could change rooms and could be webcast. He plans to attend it, and says he will post an update on the Sunlight Foundation blog if he can make it into the tiny room where the meeting is currently scheduled.

The State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases is pleased to announce two new volunteeers:

• Michael Tatonetti, who is taking the New York page
• Jenn Zuccaro, who is taking the West Virginia page

Thanks to Michael and Jenn, we are down to these four orphan states with no one to care for them:

• Maryland
• Minnesota
• Rhode Island
• Utah

If one of these states interests you, check out our Volunteer Guide. If you can meet the basic responsibilities, send me an e-mail at dnlcornwall AT Alaska DOT net.

WIKI ACTIVITY

For a full list of our last week's activity, visit http://tinyurl.com/statedbs. Below are highlights of the work we've done together:

DATABASES ADDED

DELAWARE (John Stevenson)

The Flora of Delaware Online Database - As of January 29, 2012, the database contains 2,274 species, subspecies, and varieties (taxa), of native (1,577) and non-native (697) vascular plants known to occur in the state of Delaware.

OHIO (Audrey Hall)

County Soil Surveys and Supplements - Click the desired county on the map for a soil survey, interim soil survey or soil survey supplement. It is recommended to use only the text included in the soil surveys. Official up-to-date tables and soil maps should be viewed or downloaded at the Soil Data Mart or via the Web Soil Survey. At the Soil Data Mart select the "generate reports" button to then select the desired tables.

NEW YORK (Michael Tatonetti)

Laws of New York - Database listing of the Laws of New York State. Searchable by title or phrase.

House to live-stream committee proceedings, By Debbie Siegelbaum, The Hill (02/02/12).

The House is now offering live video streaming of committee proceedings online through the Library of Congress.

The Committee on House Administration announced on Thursday that the live webcasts would be available at http://thomas.loc.gov/video/house-committee.

The Library of Congress also will archive previous committee proceedings, which the panel said would create the first "one-stop shop for House committee video content."

There will be an all day conference on on public access to legislative information on Thursday, February 2, 2012, 9AM to 6PM EST, in Cannon Caucus Room, 345 Cannon HOB, Washington, D.C. It is hosted by the House Committee on House Administration.

• agenda and live webcast