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# Free Government Information (FGI)

Because Government information needs to be free

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://freegovinfo.info/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [DoE deletes energy conservation information as heatwave hits the US](https://freegovinfo.info/node/15044/) - From the Verve: "White House deletes thousands of web pages about energy conservation as heatwave slams US." The US Department of Energy reportedly deleted about 6,000 pages related to energy conservation as a historic heatwave tears across the country. This seems to have been a response to NYC Mayor Mamdani asking NYers to keep air
- [New bill would  remove the PACER paywall](https://freegovinfo.info/node/15030/) - The records of U.S. federal courts are available though the paywalled Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system, which has been called "costly, outdated and difficult to navigate." A new version of "The Open Courts Act" would instruct the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts to develop a new system to replace PACER. The
- ["Libraries and Public Access to Federal Data". Chris Marcum interviewed by Public Data Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/15026/) - (full disclosure: I am a board member on the Public Data Project) On May 7, 2026, Molly Hardy, Project Lead for the Public Data Project, sat down for an interview with Chris Marcum, Senior Fellow for Data Policy at the Data Foundation and former Senior Statistician at the White House Office of Management and Budget
- [White House Office of Legal Counsel says Presidential Records Act unconstitutional. CRS begs to differ](https://freegovinfo.info/node/15024/) - In another ongoing saga of this administration attacking and looking to destroy the "administrative state," the Justice Department's shady Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) -- the same office which justified torture among many spurious secret legal opinions which FGI agrees should be publicly accessible! -- released (on April 1 of all days!!) an opinion that
- [GPO doubles congressionally mandated reports on govinfo. A policy commentary](https://freegovinfo.info/node/15018/) - This morning, I received a press release from the Government Publishing Office (GPO) "GPO Doubles Congressionally Mandated Reports on GovInfo." This is great news indeed, and something that we've been advocating for and tracking on for over 10 years. These reports have long been largely "unreported" and difficult for the public to find and use
- [CRS report on availability of federal data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/15013/) - As soon as I hit "publish" on the ongoing destruction of federal agencies, someone sent this to me. Check out this recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on federal data availability. Availability of Federal Data: Policy Considerations for Disclosure, Preservation, and Governance. CRS Report R48889. March 31, 2026. Throughout 2025, media reports have suggested that
- [The ongoing destruction of executive branch agencies](https://freegovinfo.info/node/15010/) - We have been tracking the loss of government information here at FGI for a long time -- following in the footsteps of the monumental ALA publication "Less Access to Less Information by and about the US Government"! We're starting to see more reporting not about loss of specific government publications or datasets but about the
- ["Unreported documents" and the history of the printing and distribution of Congressional hearings](https://freegovinfo.info/node/15001/) - Those of you who know me know that I'm an "unreported documents" nerd and have LONG advocated that it is every government information librarian's duty to hunt for and send "unreported documents" to the Government Publishing Office (GPO) so that they can capture and catalog them for inclusion in the National Collection of U.S. Government
- ["Preserving government information" Book talk at Stanford Library](https://freegovinfo.info/node/15007/) - Have you ever wondered about how government information was/is preserved for long-term access? Or what are libraries to do with all that government information on the web? What does the future hold for public information? Well you're in luck! Jim Jacobs and I will be giving a book talk next week (thursday May 7 @
- [FGI's guide to "unreported" FDLP publications](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14191/) - Introduction Four easy steps to reporting "unreported" publications Strategies for finding "unreported" documents (more tips and tricks!) Historically "Unreported" materials of particular interest History of the problem Appendix: how to fill out the askGPO form Introduction "Unreported" publications (which were, until recently, called "fugitive" publications) are those that are within scope of the Federal Depository
- [Sign on today to the Preservation of Government Information call to action!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14997/) - Last month, the Internet Archive hosted the 2026 Information Stewardship Forum, which convened a diverse group of practitioners, including librarians, technologists, data consumers, and archivists, dedicated to preserving and expanding access to public and open U.S. government information and data. This cross-sector gathering fostered dialogue and shared understanding by clarifying preservation priorities, mapping existing efforts,
- [Watch Lynda Kellam's data rescue keynote at 2026 Research Libraries UK conference](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14993/) - Lynda Kellam, the Snyder-Granader Director of Research Data and Digital Scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries and a co-founder of the Data Rescue Project, gave the keynote address at last month's 2026 Research Libraries UK conference. She noted that "public data are a public good!" and engagingly showed why that's the case, and why
- [New CDT report highlighting the importance of data privacy for federally-held data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14991/) - The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) released a new report and series of resources today that highlight the importance of data privacy for federally-held data. The report shows, among other things, that an overwhelming majority of Americans are concerned about the privacy and security of their personal data that is held by the government.
- [Documenting The War Against Science, Research, Public Health, and the Rule of Law](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14988/) - Sabrina I. Pacifici is publishing an ongoing series of links and descriptions that document the continuing onslaught on science, healthcare and public health, and the rule of law. The Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research, Public Health, and the Rule of Law, By Sabrina I. Pacifici, LLRX (Law and Technology Resources for Legal Professionals)
- [A Disappearing Data Chronology](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14984/) - A new publication from George Washington University's National Security Archive: A Disappearing Data Chronology By Rachel Santarsiero, National Security Archive, George Washington University (Mar 30, 2026) Today, the National Security Archive published a Disappearing Data Chronology that tracks fundamental changes to the federal information landscape under the Trump administration, including major data losses and restorations,
- [FGI's comment on GPO's draft policy on preservation (SOD-PPS-4-2026)](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14980/) - GPO has asked for comments on its draft of a new version of its policy statement SOD-PPS-4-2026, “Permanent Public Access to U.S. Government Public Information through Preservation” which will supercede SOD-PPS-2016-4 (effective July 5, 2016). Unfortunately, the comment form had a 4000 character limit, so below is FGI's complete comment. This policy implies that there
- [The Trump administration is disappearing climate change data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14968/) - Our friend from the Environmental Data Governance Initiative (EDGI), Gretchen Gehrke, just wrote an extremely important op-ed for The Hill. It is a succinct but powerful statement about what the Trump administration is doing to destroy the accessibility of federal data and the long-standing trust of the federal statistical ecosystem. I hope all of our
- [Sunsetting of the CIA World Factbook](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14962/) - The CIA and its predecessors have published some version of the World Factbook since 1943! However, according to a statement last week from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the historic and world-renowned publication World Factbook has been terminated and all previous versions have been removed from the CIA site. The CIA did not provide any
- [Data.gov beta front end released](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14957/) - A few days ago, data.gov announced the soft launch (unfortunately on LinkedIn, NOT on their own site, nor as an official press release :-| ) of a new beta catalog frontend, and more significantly have a new in-house data aggregation process which exposes their harvesting process. The system provides visibility into how agency datasets are
- [Secrecy and Society call for Papers: "Subjugated Knowledges"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14953/) - The journal Secrecy and Society -- which is published by SJSU School of Information -- has a special issue CFP for the upcoming issue titled "Subjugated Knowledges." The issue is focused in the areas of history, policy, ethics, sociology, and politics and will explore the "disappearance of facts and data and their replacement by the
- [GPO and Library of Congress Digitize 10,000 Volumes of the United States Serial Set](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14950/) - Happy new year readers! Here's a bit of good news in the midst of all of the craziness (as an aside, has our federal government gone insane?!). I just received a press release from the Government Publishing Office (GPO) that GPO and the Library of Congress have digitized 10,000 Volumes of the United States Serial
- [Preserving Government Information podcast at New Books Network](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14937/) - James and I were interviewed by Adam Kriesberg on the New Books Network Library Science podcast in a discussion of our book, Preserving Government Information: Past, Present, and Future. Adam is an Associate Professor at the Simmons University School of Library and Information Science where his research and teaching interests lie in the intersecting domains
- [Law Libraries & the Ithaka Report: The Law is of "General Interest"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3457/) - As FGI readers know, Ithaka S + R’s final FDLP modeling report is available on the FDLP Desktop. GPO deemed the final report “unacceptable under the terms of the contract.” But since an entire day of the fall Federal Depository Library Conference will be devoted to the discussion, "Creating Our Shared Vision: Roles and Opportunities in the FDLP,” I thought I’d slog through the 245 page report, as best I could. I’m not far along in my reading, and can’t yet comment on the whole, but I’m already disagreeing in part. In particular, I was disappointed that a section, on which I commented in the draft stage, still mischaracterizes legal materials. On page 33, the report states: Law libraries and the court system have a significant but concentrated interest in federal government documents. Their overall collections are often heavily focused in three key categories: current and historical statutes and the US Code; current and historical versions of the Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations; and court decisions. Other materials – including contextual materials such as the Congressional Record, which supports the investigation of legislative histories – may also be of significant value to some users of these collections. Legal scholars and law students use these materials in a variety of ways, including for research projects, journal editing, and in the preparation of court submissions. For judicial purposes in particular, these materials are essential records of the operation of the federal government, in many ways more like archival documents than general-interest publications. Just in this one paragraph, I have several concerns. First, administrative decisions are left out. Academic law libraries’ government documents collections are focused on statutes, regulations, court decisions (judicial branch), and administrative decisions (executive branch). Administrative decisions are among the most challenging documents to collect and manage, but there is not a law school in the country that doesn’t care about them. Second, the public is left out. Self-represented litigants, historians, social science researchers, high school debaters, and citizen-advocates use legal materials. The focus on “legal scholars and law students” limits the mission of law libraries, when in fact, our mission – and patron base - is often quite broad. Third, the word “archival” was left in. I objected to the use of “archival” during the drafting process and I object to it now. The law – the law that governs all of us – is a general-interest publication. The law is a growing and changing body, which does make it hard to characterize. Patrons need “current” law, but sometimes the “current” law is five, ten, or fifty years old. To say “archival” misses the point, and actually minimizes the importance of a collection of legal materials. We don’t have every volume of the Code of Federal Regulations back to 1938 because the colors look lovely on the shelves. We keep them because patrons – all types of patrons – need and want a “snapshot in time.” For example, if you are suing a polluter, you would need to know if the polluter was actually in compliance with the environment regulations at the time it polluted. Or, if you were convicted of a crime in the past, and now are applying for a change in your immigration status, you would need to know if the crime was a felony at the time of the conviction. We exhort our patrons to update their research, to make sure they aren’t relying on a law that has been amended or overturned. At the same time, we assist patrons in finding the law as it existed when a particular action or crime occurred. Law libraries are special libraries, much like engineering or health sciences libraries. Legal research may require specialized collections, tools, and assistance, but the law itself isn’t special. It belongs to all of us. I can’t think of a better definition of a “general-interest publication” than that.
- [Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) goes dark, Judiciary Democrats create IG repository](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14928/) - The federal government shutdown is now into its 3rd week with no end in sight. One of the overlooked parts of this shutdown is that the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) has gone dark as the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has withheld funds from the Inspector General committee.
- [Federal government shutdown (10/1/2025)](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14911/) - The federal government has shut down as of 12:01 on October 1, 2025. This means that much of the federal government will not be operating and thousands of federal employees will be furloughed - check out Federal Harms Tracker for more. The Government Publishing Office (GPO) sent out this piece to the federal depository library
- [Department of Justice deletes study on politics of domestic terrorists](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14905/) - The Justice Department was caught deleting a study conducted by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and hosted on a DOJ website proving that right-wing violence poses a "far" greater threat than left-wing extremism. The report was available there at least until September 12, 2025, according to an archive of the page saved in the
- [FGI book talk now available as a podcast episode on Future Knowledge](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14901/) - If you happened to miss our book talk at the Internet Archive a couple of weeks ago, have no fear. The talk about Preserving Government Information was recorded and released as a podcast at Future Knowledge. Special thanks to Shari Laster for being our moderator/interlocutor and for the fine folks at the Internet Archive for
- [Rapid and Thorough Deletion of Environmental Information by Trump Administration](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14891/) - The Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI) has released a report which documents the rapid and thorough deletion of environmental information by the Trump administration. Press Release: Report Shows Rapid and Thorough Deletion of Environmental Information by Trump Administration FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (August 6, 2025). Most dramatically, information about environmental racism has been entirely excised
- [Once-cancelled hurricane-monitoring data to stay online (for now)](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14888/) - The world of government information continues to be in a state of topsy-turviness. Last month, on a Tuesday, NOAA suddenly announced that on the following Monday, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and Navy’s Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) would "discontinue ingest, processing and distribution of all DMSP data no later than June
- [Internet Archive designated an FDLP Library!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14884/) - This bit of good news just dropped! The Internet Archive has joined the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). The FDLP is a network of over 1000 libraries around the country who receive government publications from the Government Publishing Office (GPO) and offer public services to help those in their communities access the great wide world
- [Join JJ and JRJ for a book talk at Internet Archive aug 28 10am PST](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14881/) - Please join us for a virtual book talk August 28th at 10am PST hosted by the Internet Archive (FREE!) to talk about our new book "Preserving Government Information: Past, Present, and Future." Our PEGI Project pal Shari Laster will be grilling us ... er ... I mean ... guiding the conversation.
- [Vanishing data undermines public policy globally](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14875/) - The alteration and removal of data collected by the US Federal Government will have effects world wide. Researchers around the world rely on good, accurate, timely, and historical data provided, maintained, and preserved by the US government. A recent article describes this situation for Canada: Vanishing data in the U.S. undermines good public policy, with
- [Lancet investigation shows data manipulation in major U.S. health datasets](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14873/) - Well, this is disturbing and could have ripple effects through public health research that is sure to erode confidence in federal data. A new study in the medical journal The Lancet entitled "Data manipulation within the US Federal Government" reports that more than 100 United States government health datasets have been altered this spring without
- [Newest data tracking effort: dataindex.us](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14868/) - For those looking to keep abreast on all of the changes and deletions to federal government information and data, now there's dataindex.us. DataIndex is a new collaborative project dedicated to monitoring the federal data infrastructure including dataset availability, new releases, and both planned and unplanned changes to data collections. The platform is developing tools to
- [New: The Federal Data Forum](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14857/) - The Population Reference Bureau (PRB) has launched the Federal Data Forum -- an online community of hundreds of public data stakeholders (groups and individuals) interested in protecting the federal data infrastructure. PRB is a nonpartisan organization that advocates for the democratization of data. Members of the forum can share news, resources, and data advocacy strategies
- [James R. Jacobs](https://freegovinfo.info/node/972/) - James R. Jacobs -- not to be confused with Jim Jacobs, one of the other cofounders! -- is one of the cofounders of Free Government Information. At the time of FGI's founding in November, 2004, James was the local, state and international documents librarian at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). He has since moved from UCSD to the Bay Area and is currently the Government Documents Librarian at Stanford University Library where he is very involved with both traditional collection development as well as digital projects like LOCKSS-USDOCS. He received his MSLIS in 2002 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was a 2005 Library Journal Mover & Shaker (or CO-mover&shaker w Shinjoung Yeo!) and is a member of Beta Phi Mu.
- [Trump administration shut down more than 100 climate studies](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14851/) - Librarians and archivists are doing all that they can to collect and curate already-published web-based government information and data before it is taken offline. However, this administration's anti-science policies and executive orders will have long-lasting negative impacts in the United States and around the world going forward and for many years to come as scientific
- [FGI submits OMB A-130 comments. Help us raise OMB awareness of library issues](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10581/) - As FGI readers will know, OMB has asked the public for comments and suggestions to revise its Circular A-130 "Managing Information as a Strategic Resource." Interestingly, they have chosen to manage the commenting process on http://github.com, the collaborative software versioning and management site. We at FGI have submitted a comment (or “issue” in GitHub parlance)
- [Tracking govinfo project logging removed or modified federal publications and websites](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14844/) - There is a long tradition in the govinfo librarian world of assuring access and longevity of published government information. From 1981 until 1998, Anne Heanue and the fine folks at the Washington Office of the American Library Association (ALA) published an amazing series called Less Access to Less Information by and about the U.S. Government,
- [New from FreeGovInfo Press: "Preserving Government Information: Past, Present, and Future"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14835/) - Jim Jacobs and I are pleased to announce the publication of our book Preserving Government Information: Past, Present, and Future. It is available as a free PDF, a free ePub, and a print-book ($20) at https://freegovinfo.info/pgi. In this book, we examine how preservation practices of the past affect the preservation of digitally published federal government
- [Hot off the presses: “Bernadine’s Office Building: Working in the capitol and other dangerous places”](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14789/) - Have you ever wondered what it's like to work on Capitol Hill as a Congressional staffer? Well, wonder no more. Bernadine Abbott Hoduski, library star, mother of government documents in libraries, and tireless advocate for libraries, has just published her memoir “Bernadine’s Office Building: Working in the capitol and other dangerous places.” It's sure to
- [FGI public testimony before Congress advocates for GPO gift authority](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14785/) - Here's something fun I did this week. For their public witness day, I submitted testimony before the House appropriations subcommittee on the legislative branch for their FY2026 budget. :slightly_smiling_face: Many thanks to Daniel Schuman of the American Governance Institute and founder and an editor of the First Branch Forecast (you're all subscribed to FBF right?!).
- [Vicky Reich and David Rosenthal receive CNI Paul Evans Peters Award for LOCKSS](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14783/) - Congratulations to Vicky and David, founders of LOCKSS for receiving the Paul Evans Peters Award! this is a HUGE and justified honor for their lifetimes' impactful work in libraries and digital preservation. They join other luminaries who have received the Peters Award, among them Tim Berners Lee, Vint Serf, Brewster Kahle, Paul Ginsparg, Daniel Atkins,
- [NASA Deletes Comic Book About How Women Can Be Astronauts](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14779/) - Things have gotten really weird when comic books are verboten in this Orwellian present. NASA has deleted two comic books about women astronauts from all its websites, according to NASA Watch, the latest victim of the Trump's administration's purge of "DEI" content from federal agencies. This is apparently due to a directive sent out just
- [Some facts about the born-digital "National Collection"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14376/) - We want to contribute a couple of facts and context about the born-digital "National Collection" to help inform the discussions on the priorities of GPO and FDLP libraries at the upcoming spring 2022 Depository Library Conference as well as discussions surrounding the work of the all-digital FDLP task force. We believe these facts lead to
- [Federal information scrubbing has begun. Please support the End of Term Archive and Environmental Data Governance Initiative (EDGI)](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14744/) - It seems that the scrubbing of public information and communication from Federal government websites has begun. But along with erasing information that the new administration does not like (mostly centered on climate change and the environment, science, health, DEI, civil rights, immigration, and the like), they have also signed a raft of executive orders overturning
- [The government information crisis is bigger than you think it is](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14747/) - [This post is adapted from our forthcoming book, Preserving Government Information: Past, Present, and Future.] Today we want to clarify something important about preserving government information. There is a difference between the government changing a policy and the government erasing information, but the line between those two has blurred in the digital age. When a
- [Call to arms: What government information librarians can do to help save critical federal information from being lost](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14759/) - What is a government information librarian to do during these times when the very public information we base our daily work around is being redacted, cleansed, and deleted? First, make yourself aware of all the work that is already being done (and has been being done since 2008 and before). Our friend and PEGI colleague
- [PEGI Project Urges Preservation of Public Federal Data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14768/) - [Editor's note: This was originally posted on the PEGI Project blog, of which jrj is a member. In the interest of increasing the reach of PEGI's important message, we re-post here w permission from PEGI.] Rapid political events have led to an upheaval in access to data and other information resources produced by the U.S.
- [Pentagon Culls Social Science Research, deletes 91 funded projects](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14775/) - Today the Pentagon announced that "The Office of the Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) is scrapping its social science research portfolio as part of a broader effort to ensure fiscal responsibility and prioritize mission-critical activities." Pentagon Culls Social Science Research, Prioritizes Fiscal Responsibility and Technologies for Future Battlefield Examples of cancelled research
- [JCP and JCL house members](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14772/) - House Resolution 190, introduced on March 5, 2025, names Mike Carey (R, OH:15), Joseph Morelle (D, NY:25), and Julie Johnson (D, TX:32) to the the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library and Joseph Morelle (D, NY:25), Gregory Murphy (R, NC:3), Terri Sewell (D, AL:7), and Mary Miller (R, IL:15) to the Joint Committee on
- [Public letter re the firing of the Archivist of the United States](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14764/) - [Patrice McDermott sent the following to GOVDOC-L. In the interest of time, I'm pasting her message below with just a touch of editing of the email addresses.] As you may know, Trump has fired the Archivist of the United States, Colleen Shogan. Even though it is extremely unlikely Trump will reconsider firing Dr. Shogan, we
- [Maryellen Trautman](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14737/) - The great government documents librarian Maryellen Trautman died on November 17, 2024. She was a pioneer and a protector of government documents as a regional depository librarian in Oklahoma and as a government documents librarian at the National Archives and Records Administration. She was one of the founders of the American Library Association Government Documents
- [Senators Markey and Hirono and Representative Adams introduce Public Archives Resiliency Act](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14734/) - This is an interesting development. Senators Markey and Hirono and Representative Adams have introduced the Public Archives Resiliency Act -- S. 5531 and H.R. 10383. While this legislation will probably go nowhere under a GOP-majority House and Senate, it is significant that legislators are at least starting to think about the need to fund digital
- [Good Forbes piece on the End of Term crawl](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14725/) - Check out this recent piece in Forbes about the End of Term project (eotarchive.org). And if you're so moved to help out, you can nominate any federal government url through our handy nomination tool. There's still time to help us save democracy's information! Meet The Citizens Racing To Save Government Websites From Vanishing. Leslie Katz,
- [John Oliver on the federal judiciary and the importance of voting](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14720/) - I think John Oliver should run for Congress. He'd be a great public advocate and would do it in an extremely informative and funny way. Take this most recent segment regarding the federal court system and the right wing's decades-long systematic takeover of the judiciary. Watch on and be sure to vote in November!
- [Reposting from Information Observatory: "Academic libraries in class society"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14717/) - Over at Information Observatory, Shinjoung Yeo and Dan Schiller just co-wrote a thoughtful piece called "Academic libraries in class society." Since I consulted a bit on the piece, they graciously agreed that I could re-post it here on FGI. Please have a read and let us know in the comments what you think. A shocking
- [Digital Deposit, Good for All: Vision, Myths, Reality](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13361/) - As many of our readers know, Depository Library Council (DLC) recommended the creation of a working group to explore digital deposit and there was a session on digital deposit at the 2019 Spring Virtual Meeting of the DLC: Digital Deposit A Value Proposition, [transcript, slides, SOD 321 "Digital Dissemination of Access Content Packages for FDLP
- [EDGI's new public comments initiative](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14709/) - Every once in a while, I get a question from a researcher about finding public comments for some regulation administered by an executive agency. All public comments, whether submitted electronically or in paper form, are now made available for public viewing in the electronic public docket at Regulations.gov, but that was not always the case.
- [End of Term crawl 2024 is now underway!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14703/) - Well it’s that time again. The 2024 End of Term web crawl of the federal .gov/.mil web space (and other domains :-) ) has begun. We have just posted our first public announcement on the Internet Archive blog. As we have done since 2008 (NARA did the first comprehensive crawl in 2004), a group of
- [HHS launches Heat and Health Index to identify communities hit hardest by extreme heat](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14700/) - This is a very interesting new tool. According to Nextgov/FCW, The Department of Health and Human Services, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has launched a new tool called the "heat and health index" to identify communities hit hardest by extreme heat. The assessments are done by top code and include
- [Reference question and the saga of chasing down a Congressionally mandated report](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14697/) - I had a student come to me looking for a federal document called "Population representation in the military services.” She was doing research into the history of enlistment in the armed forces and was interested in finding statistics on the number of enlistments and applications to enlist per state from 1985 - 2000. The report
- [PEGI charts a FAIR direction for the US government information ecosystem](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14689/) - The PEGI Project has just published a new blog post "Charting a FAIR Direction for the US Government Information Ecosystem." This is meant to be added context for our presentation at next week's Research Data Access & Preservation (RDAP) Summit. We seek to expand the conversation about FAIR principles -- the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and
- [Supreme Court ethics with John Oliver](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14687/) - John Oliver discusses the Supreme Court, the ethically questionable gifts some of the justices receive, and an offer for Clarence Thomas that he definitely shouldn't refuse. Once again, Oliver gets to the heart of the issue of SCOTUS ethics or lack thereof.
- [Happy 16th Birthday to the LOCKSS-USDOCS network!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14682/) - Wow it's hard to believe that the LOCKSS-USDOCS network of over 30 libraries has been up and running for 16 years! We can finally get our driver's permit :-) LOCKSS-USDOCS harvests all of the content currently published on the Government Publishing Office (GPO)'s GOVINFO content management system and includes the most recently created collection of
- [National Archives to Host Sunshine Week Panel on Artificial Intelligence and Government Access](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14679/) - Sunshine Week (March 10-16, 2024) and Freedom of Information Day (March 16, 2024) are coming up fast. Sunshine Week is a nonpartisan collaboration among groups in the journalism, civic, education, government and private sectors that shines a light on the importance of public records and open government. Besides all of the regular events that are
- [Cool new dataset on American local government elections](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14672/) - Thanks very much to my friend and former Stanford colleague Kris Kasianovitz (as well as the awesome librarians at UC Berkeley!) for pointing to this Nature article "American local government elections database" (and it's Open Access to boot!!). Kudos to de Benedictis-Kessner, Lee, Velez, et al for the yeoman's work of collecting this massive amount
- [Today on "beautiful public data": Government Comic Books!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14658/) - Today's issue of "beautiful public data" takes a deep dive into Government Comic Books! The post explains the history of comic books since the 1950s. Today's post references an interesting book called “Government Issue: Comics for the People 1940s-2000s.” by Richard Graham. Graham, a professor of libraries at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln has been
- [Brennan Center public letter to lawmakers on Artificial Intelligence (AI) signed by 87 civil society groups](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14652/) - FYI, on the heals of the first US Senate artificial intelligence (AI) "Insight Forum" called together by Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) in september, 2023, today the Brennan Center for Justice, along with 87 civil society orgs (including FGI ;-) ) sent this letter regarding AI to lawmakers on the Hill. The letter warns of
- [John Oliver on food safety. Or: you never know where you'll find an unreported document](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14648/) - I'm so glad John Oliver is back! His latest expose on food safety is as always on point - at the same time being extremely funny! He explains the system under which food in the US is regulated (or not!), including the crazy fact that both the FDA and the USDA have some regulatory responsibilities
- [JustSecurity posts Trump Trials Clearinghouse](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14645/) - This is incredibly helpful! The Site JustSecurity, at the Reiss Center on Law and Security at New York University School of Law, has just created the Trump Trials Clearinghouse to track on the large number of criminal and civil cases in which the former president is a defendant. The site includes a calendar as well
- [DttP student article re SIGAR and the tenuous nature of born-digital preservation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14639/) - The Fall, 2023 issue of Documents to the People (DttP) just came out. This issue is always interesting because it includes a section of MLIS student submissions. This time around was no different. An article by Miguel Beltran, a grad student at University of IL at Urbana Champaign (which also happens to be my alma
- [NSF creates new Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science (CBIKS) connecting Indigenous wisdom with Western science](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14633/) - According to this new article in Nature, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has just launched the Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science (CBIKS) based at UMass Amherst with $30 million in funding over five years. The center joins more than a dozen active NSF Science and Technology Centers across the United States that focus
- [Beautiful video on the history of fire lookouts - and fire! - highlights lots of US govt publications and records](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14631/) - Ever since I read Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums so many moons ago, I've been fascinated with fire lookouts. So I was delighted to run across this beautiful video by Aidin Robbins "Life as the Last Fire Lookout." He does a great job explaining the history of fire lookouts through his interview with Russ Dalton, one
- [New US Treasury report confirms efficacy of unions. Submit your unreported documents NOW!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14628/) - On a recent browse of one of my favorite blogs, BoingBoing.net (daily reading along with Kottke!) there was a post about "New US Treasury report confirms that unions are good for everybody". Of course I submitted an "unreported document" to GPO right away so this new report should show up in FDLP library catalogs across
- [Public access to Congressionally mandated reports one step closer to reality!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14611/) - Congress passed the Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act (ACMRA) as part of the 2023 defense authorization bill -- and many including FGI cheered! This week, the collection of these important reports came one step closer to reality as the White House Office of Management and Budget released detailed guidance for agencies to implement the
- [GPO and NOAA Partner To Increase Permanent Public Access To NOAA Publications](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14608/) - GPO recently announced that it had entered into a partnership with NOAA to catalog 47,000+ NOAA documents to the Catalog of Government Publications (CGP) and add permanent URLs (PURLs) in those records to NOAA's digital repository. FGI wholeheartedly supports this effort especially given that executive branch documents are woefully lacking in the National Collection of
- [Down a few rabbit holes in search for a historic pamphlet on Fascism](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14588/) - I went down a little rabbit hole today and thought I'd share since it's a good representation of some of the issues we face in the library government information world. It all started innocently enough with my daily substack missive from Heather Cox Richardson's "Letters from an American" (May 29, 2023) -- if you haven't
- [Historians Highlight Humor](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2953/) - We have mentioned the Government Comics Collection at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Library before, including its selection as a Digital Library of the Week by the ALA. This week, the American Historical Association highlights the collection and selects some of their favorites: Government Comics Collection of UNL, By Elisabeth Grant, AHA Today (March 30, 2010).
- [Law Library of Congress deposits their legal reports in HeinOnline](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14574/) - According to a new post on the Law Library of Congress In Custodia Legis blog, the Law Library of Congress Legal Reports are now being made available on the subscription legal database HeinOnline. They state that they will continue to publish these important historical legal reports on their law.gov site. There are currently 4072 reports
- [Critical GPO systems and the FDLP cloud](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2704/) - [Update: 10/13/09: I've revised my thinking on the cloud as the term is loaded and doesn't really mean what I'm describing. A friend from the San Diego Supercomputer Center said, "some greybeards are going back to the original metaphor: the grid" and suggested the term "shared digital libraries" which is good. But what I'm describing is more like a biological ecosystem, the FDLP ecosystem. jrj] Last week's GPO purl server crash should be disconcerting to both the documents community and the public at large (in fact, although the hardware's been restored, resolution is ongoing as I write). I know GPO staff are just as worried about this and are doing everything they can to fix the purl server. "The PURL Server is currently inaccessible. GPO is working with IT staff to restore service as soon as possible. We regret any inconvenience caused by the server problems. An updated listserv will be sent once service is restored." But in the meantime, there are 1250+ library catalogs and innumerable links to government documents that are not working. The crash of a critical piece of GPO's infrastructure brings a couple of things to mind: 1) What worries me about this is that FDsys and it's supposed upgrade in hardware/software/systems design is for all intents and purposes the same as GPOaccess. That is, FDsys is a monolith where the failure of one piece can cause the whole system to ground to a halt. As our readers know, we've been advocating for a long time for a distributed digital FDLP (a *true* "digital depository" system!). We're heartened by what we see of FDsys so far, but we need to be building a system with built-in redundancies. I envision a collaborative and distributed system of digital content, collaborative cataloging/metadata creation, as well as technical infrastructure. With this kind of system in place, a failed purl server will only cause a momentary blip in service as a backup purl server kicks on instead of a several week+ outage. How many system degradations (WAIS) and failures (purl server) until we shift our thinking from "[w:client-server]" (with libraries decidedly on the "client" side of the equation) to "[w:Peer-to-peer]" concepts and build systems with built-in redundancies that mirror what the FDLP has been for the last 150 years? How long before we build an FDLP cloud? FDLP Cloud (**made with IHMC Cmap tools**) 2) There was an interesting discussion of purl server outage on the code4lib list including a good workaround from a technological standpoint (pasted email below). It points to the fact/reminder that what we do within the FDLP has an affect on others in the wider library community (not to mention the public at large!) and that "our" content and the systems built to serve that content is critical for the work of others whether we know it or not. It also points to the need for us to reach out to those communities in order to build systems of use to both end-users as well as those building other systems, mashups, repositories etc. So I would highly recommend that we be *more* proactive in connecting with other communities within the library community (LITA, CODE4LIB, WEB4LIB, ACRL, state associations etc) as well as outside the FDLP (govt transparency community, historians and other academic communities, journalists etc). ------------------ CODE4LIB POST (with added info by James re MARC view) -------------------------------- Thanks to everyone who helped me confirm that the GPO PURL server is down. An official announcement on the GPO Listserv said: "The PURL Server is currently inaccessible. GPO is working with IT staff to restore service as soon as possible. We regret any inconvenience caused by the server problems. An updated listserv will be sent once service is restored." While the server is down, here is one workaround (thanks to Patricia Duplantis): Copy the purl link listed in your library catalog Go to http://catalog.gpo.gov/ Click "Advanced Search" Search for word in "URL/PURL", enter the PURL Click "Go" In MARC view, the original URL at the time of cataloging should appear in a 53x note. This incident, however, illuminates a weakness in PURL systems: access is broken when the PURL server breaks, even though the documents are still online at their original URLs. Maybe someone more familiar with PURL systems can tell me... is there any way to harvest data from a PURL server, so that a backup/mirror can be available? Keith --that is all.
- [Impact of the 2022 OSTP memo: A bibliometric analysis of US federally funded publications, 2017–2021](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14570/) - On August 25, 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released a memo ("Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research" or the "Nelson Memo" after OSTP director Alondra Nelson *) regarding public access to scientific research. This updated guidance eliminated the 12-month embargo period on publications arising from
- [ProPublica report shows long-standing ethics violations of Justice Thomas](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14568/) - A new bombshell report by ProPublica entitled "Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire" claims that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has long accepted but not reported lavish gifts of travel and lodging from a Republican megadonor named Harlan Crow. According to this 2022 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report entitled "A Code of Conduct for the Supreme
- [Lunchtime listen: Rummaging in the government's attic (2010 next HOPE conference talk)](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3172/) - [w:Phil Lapsley] and Michael Ravnitzky gave an intriguing talk on [w:Freedom of Information Act (United States)] or FOIA at the Next HOPE Conference, New York City, July 2010. The talk was entitled "Rummaging in the Government's Attic: Lessons Learned from More Than 1,000 Freedom of Information Act Requests." You can access both the audio file (23 MB mp3 file) and the slides (2.7 MB pdf file). And don't forget to surf on over to the Government Attic for access to all of the FOIA'd documents. Thanks Phil and Michael for the informative talk and for and for your studies of FOIA! [originally posted on Govdoc-l listserv]
- [Happy 2023! The state of government information in 2023](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14541/) - Happy new year 2023! We hope all our readers had a relaxing holiday break and are ready to get back to the important work of preserving government information and assuring its long-term access! In the latest First Branch Forecast -- you really should subscribe to this important newsletter if you haven't already! -- a side
- [Analysis of GPO's proposed Title 44 changes to FDLP and FGI's suggestions](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14116/) - As we noted last week, there is another effort underway to update Title 44 and "modernize" the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). The Government Publishing Office (GPO) has put together a proposal for Legislative Revisions to Title 44 U.S.C., Chapter 19 and have asked for comments by MARCH 5, 2021. As always, we approach changes
- [New CRS report: The Impeachment and Trial of a Former President](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14067/) - Thanks to the First Branch Forecast for pointing out this newly published legal sidebar "The Impeachment and Trial of a Former President." We are in uncharted waters as President Trump has been impeached for the second time for "incitement of insurrection", but the articles of impeachment have not yet been delivered to the Senate. This
- [Government information in the news for 2022](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14532/) - The American Library Association's Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) (of which I'm a member) has just published a solid list of government publications that made the news in 2022. Many thanks to Susanne Caro for putting together this guide, with submissions by Ben Amata, David Durant, Patrice McDermott, Albert Chapman, Vicki Tate, Ronnie Joiner, and
- [Yay! Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act included in 2023 NDAA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14528/) - This week the Senate passed the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which President Biden is expected to sign. This year’s $858 BILLION bill is truly an omnibus bill as it provides a 4.6 percent pay increase for service members, increases the maximum allowable income to receive the Basic Needs Allowance, and adds funding to Basic
- [Congressional Research Service (CRS) releases report on Congressionally Mandated Reports](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13729/) - Wow, the FirstBranchForecast was on fire this week (as it is most weeks!), announcing a new bill to protect Inspectors General, talking about the just-released FOIA Advisory Committee's draft report available for public comment (submit yours via email to foia-advisory-committee@nara.gov through June 2), and also highlighting a new CRS report Congressionally Mandated Reports: Overview and
- [Reps Quigley and Comer re-introduce Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act (ACMRA)](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14189/) - Representatives Mike Quigley (IL-05) and James Comer (KY-01) re-introduced the Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act (ACMRA) to create a single website on which Congress and the public can easily search, sort, and download all executive agency congressional reports. Quigley has introduced this bill every Congressional session since 2011. In the last session of Congress,
- [FGI's comments and recommendations for the GPO draft report of the task force on an "all-digital" FDLP](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14501/) - [editor's note 10/28/2022: we updated the text below about 100% of govinfo being published digitally in order to clarify where we got that number and why we use the 100% number rather than the 97% born-digital that is most frequently cited.] We want to thank GPO Director Halpern for calling a "Task Force on a
- [Sunsetting FGI Lostdocs project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14504/) - File this under "all good things must come to an end." Since 2009, we here at FGI have been posting "fugitive" federal government publications (now called "unreported" documents or those documents that should be part of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) but have slipped through the cracks and remain uncatalogued and unpreserved) and advocating
- [Shinjoung Yeo](https://freegovinfo.info/node/979/) - ShinJoung Yeo is a PhD student and Fellow in the Information in Society program at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Prior to returning to school, she was Coordinator for Reference and Outreach Services in the Stanford University Library, and also serves as Bibliographer for Communication in the Social Sciences Resource Group. Shinjoung is a founding member of Radical Reference, a collective of volunteer library workers who use their professional skills to answer information needs from the general public, independent journalists, and activists. She was named 2005 Library Journal Mover & Shaker with her husband James R. Jacobs. She holds both a bachelors (1999) and masters (2002) degree in Journalism and Communications from the University of Oregon. She previously worked as a reference librarian at the University of California at San Diego and the San Diego Community College District Libraries, and as a news reporter for Korean-American Television in Los Angeles. In September of 2007 she and James took the Internet Archive's Bookmobile on a tour of Northern California, bringing a demonstration of print-on-demand and online library services to communities that do not have easy access to a wide variety of printed materials.
- [US government to make all federally funded research open access on publication](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14480/) - This is certainly good news! The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) yesterday released guidance for federal agencies to "ensure free, immediate, and equitable access to federally funded research." This builds on the 2013 Obama administration's Memorandum on Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research which directed all federal departments and agencies
- [John Oliver again nails it re environmental racism. Oh and EPA is sunsetting its online archive](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14440/) - John Oliver is a national hero, always talking about issues of importance in clear and exasperatingly funny ways. Take last night's show in which he highlighted "environmental racism" - a term used to describe environmental injustice that "occurs within a racialized context both in practice and policy" (thanks wikipedia!). He clearly shows the connection with
- [GPO’s Collection Development Plan falls short of the "National Collection"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13917/) - The Government Publishing Office (GPO) recently released its updated document entitled GPO’s System of Online Access: Collection Development Plan (here are the 2016 and 2018 Plans for comparison) which is “revised annually to reflect content added to govinfo in the preceding fiscal year, in-process titles, and current priorities.” The Plan explains GPO’s designated communities for
- [FGI's recommendations for creating the "all-digital FDLP"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14406/) - As a follow-up to our recent post, “Some facts about the born-digital “National Collection,” we want to suggest some specific actions that GPO and FDLP libraries can take to do a better job of collecting and preserving born-digital content for the "National Collection". For context, our starting assumption is that GPO and FDLP have two
- [New Dataset on FY2022 Congressionally Directed Spending](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14367/) - Here's an interesting dataset to bookmark. After a 10-year moratorium on earmarks, the House Appropriations Committee recently released PDF tables of fiscal year 2022 congressionally directed spending projects. But those PDFs aren't actually usable for any sort of deeper data analysis. So the Congress Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center has just released the Congressionally
- [GAO finds NTIS' fee-based model no longer viable or appropriate. FGI has suggestions. #FDLP](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3817/) - The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has just published a report analyzing the National Technical Information Service (NTIS): Information Management: National Technical Information Service's Dissemination of Technical Reports Needs Congressional Attention. GAO-13-99, November 19, 2012. (PDF copy of the report). This report is an update of a 2001 GAO report on the dissemination of technical reports. It offers quite a bit of information as to the scope of work done by the NTIS and the costs associated with that work. Don't forget to read Appendix II: Comments from the Department of Commerce for additional context from NTIS/Department of Commerce. GAO's conclusion states: ...Charging for information that is freely available elsewhere is a disservice to the public and may also be wasteful insofar as some of NTIS’s customers are other federal agencies. Taken together, these considerations suggest that the fee-based model under which NTIS currently operates for disseminating technical information may no longer be viable or appropriate. In light of the agency’s declining revenue associated with its basic statutory function and the charging for information that is often freely available elsewhere, Congress should consider examining the appropriateness and viability of the fee-based model under which NTIS currently operates for disseminating technical information to determine whether the use of this model should be continued. (P. 29) Given that GAO's conclusions -- along with NTIS comments about the conclusions -- are that 1) NTIS offers a valuable service of access to the federal scientific literature but 2) their current fee-based cost-recovery model is not sustainable, I have some suggestions for NTIS moving forward. These suggestions speak to the need for greater access AND preservation of NTIS technical reports and a better long-term funding model: 1) Technical reports would be the perfect space for an [w:OpenAccess] model in which the costs would be borne by the organizations creating the reports. Offering technical reports online for free would also fit well with the open data goals and initiatives as laid out by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The statute under which NTIS operates states that it must be "financially self-sustaining, to the fullest extent feasible, by charging fees for its products and services." But the statute doesn't state who must pay those fees. Maintaining the NTIS database of technical reports should be borne by the organizations which created the information in the first place. 2) NTIS should institute a digital preservation plan that includes long-term storage in the LOCKSS-USDOCS program. I've had good discussions about this in the past with NTIS staff. With the future of NTIS in doubt, now is the time to assure that their valuable work to this point is not wasted or lost to the digital sands of time. 3) Distribute metadata for bulk download in the same fashion as the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) does for its reports. This allows libraries to add MARC records to their library catalogs for increased access. 4) Expand the reach of the Federal Science Repository Service by partnering with academic libraries. Many academic institutions are building digital repositories (ie., Stanford Digital Repository (SDR)) and would be interested in hosting and giving access to this information. What GAO Found As a component of the Department of Commerce, the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) is organized into five primary offices that offer the public and federal agencies a variety of products and services. As of late October 2012, NTIS was supported by 181 staff, all except 6 of which held full-time positions. NTIS reports its progress toward agency goals to the Deputy Secretary of Commerce, and the Director of NTIS reports to the Director of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology. In addition, NTIS receives oversight of its functions and strategic direction from an advisory board with members appointed by the Secretary of Commerce. NTIS's product and service offerings include, among other things, subscription access to reports contained in its repository in both print and electronic formats, distribution of print-based informational materials to federal agencies' constituents, and digitization and scanning services. NTIS revenues are generated exclusively from direct sales or subscriptions for its products and services. NTIS reported that net revenues from all its functions (products and services) totaled about $1.5 million in fiscal year 2011. However, over most of the last 11 years, its costs have exceeded revenues by an average of about $1.3 million for its products. While NTIS has not recovered all of its costs for products through subscriptions and other fees, it has been able to remain financially self-sustaining because of revenues generated from its services such as distribution and order fulfillment, web hosting, and e-training. The NTIS strategic plan states that the electronic dissemination of government technical information by other federal agencies has contributed to reduced demand for NTIS's products. As a result, the agency is taking steps to reduce its net costs, such as improving business processes and increasing the breadth and depth of its collection. NTIS's repository has been growing with mostly older reports, but the demand for more recent reports is greater. Specifically, NTIS added approximately 841,500 reports to its repository during fiscal years 1990 through 2011, and approximately 62 percent of these had publication dates of 2000 or earlier. However, the agency was more likely to distribute (by direct sale or through a subscription) reports published more recently. For example, GAO estimated that 100 percent of the reports published from 2009 through 2011 had been distributed at least once, while only about 21 percent of reports published more than 20 years ago had been. Of the reports added to NTIS's repository during fiscal years 1990 through 2011, GAO estimates that approximately 74 percent were readily available from other public sources. These reports were often available either from the issuing organization's website, the federal Internet portal (http://www.USA.gov), or from another source located through a web search. Reports published from 1990 to 2011 were more likely to be readily available elsewhere than those published in 1989 or earlier. Further, GAO estimated that 95 percent of the reports available from sources other than NTIS were available free of charge. NTIS's declining revenue associated with its basic statutory function and the charging for information that is often freely available elsewhere suggests that the fee-based model under which NTIS currently operates for disseminating technical information may no longer be viable and appropriate. Why GAO Did This Study NTIS was established by statute in 1950 to collect scientific and technical research reports, maintain a bibliographic record and repository of these reports, and disseminate them to the public. NTIS charges fees for its products and services and is required by law to be financially self-sustaining to the fullest extent possible. GAO was mandated by Congress to update its 2001 report on aspects of NTIS's operations and the reports in its collection. Specifically, GAO's objectives were to determine (1) how NTIS is currently organized and operates, including its functions, current staffing level, reported cost of operations, and revenue sources; (2) the age of and demand trends for reports added to NTIS's repository; and (3) the extent to which these reports are readily available from other public sources. To do this, GAO reviewed agency documentation, analyzed a sample of reports added to NTIS's collection from fiscal years 1990 through 2011 (reports from the period since GAO's last study and other older reports), and interviewed relevant agency officials. What GAO Recommends GAO is suggesting that Congress reassess the appropriateness and viability of the fee-based model under which NTIS currently operates for disseminating technical information to determine whether the use of this model should be continued. In comments on a draft of this report, the Department of Commerce stated that NTIS believes GAO's conclusions do not fully reflect the value that the agency provides. However, GAO maintains that its conclusions and suggestion to Congress are warranted. For more information, contact Valerie C. Melvin at (202) 512-6304 or melvinv@gao.gov
- [Data is plural newsletter posts 2 amazing govinfo datasets: House Comm witnesses and 1900 census immigrant populations](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14352/) - I love my Data Is Plural newsletter, Jeremy Singer-Vine's weekly newsletter of useful/curious datasets! You can check out his archive from 2015(!) to present and also explore the archive as a google spreadsheet or as Markdown files (a dataset of interesting datasets :-)). Today's edition was especially good on the govinfo front: 2 really awesome
- [GPO Director Halpern appoints task force to study an all-digital FDLP](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14339/) - GPO Director Hugh Halpern has just named a task force to study the feasibility of moving to an all-digital Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). There are 23 people named to the task force including from Depository Library Council, depository librarians, library associations, and federal agencies. I'll withold comment on the feasibility of this task force
- [Aftergood discontinues SecrecyNews. Thanks for the decades of work toward government transparency!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14324/) - Happy 2022! We were on a brief hiatus here at FGI but are back in the saddle and looking to return to active blogger status in 2022. We're always looking for others to help us track on government information and libraries, so contact me if you'd like to try your hand at posting (freegovinfo AT
- [NAPA releases report on GPO](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3862/) - The National Academy Of Public Administration has released its report on the Government Printing Office. Rebooting The Government Printing Office: Keeping America Informed in the Digital Age, A Report by a Panel of the National Academy Of Public Administration for the U.S. Congress, Congressional Research Service, and the Government Printing Office. National Academy Of Public Administration, Washington, DC (January 2013). Congress mandated that the National Academy of Public Administration (the Academy) conduct a broad operational review of GPO. The Academy formed a five-member Panel of Fellows to conduct a ten-month study of the agency’s current role, its operations, and its future direction. The report contains 27 finding and 15 recommendations. Depository libraries will be particularly interested in three findings: III-3: Preservation of the Legacy (Tangible) Government Collection III-4: Preservation of the Digital Government Collection III-5: Government Information Dissemination and Access The report repeats many of the tropes about the digital government information that have become familiar over the years. Some of these bear repeating and others are more questionable. Perhaps the most troubling suggestion in the report is GPO should consider "cost recovery" for access to FDsys: Now may be the time for GPO to revisit charging the public for access to FDsys content. The Academy convened a forum of experts on printing and publishing where this topic was discussed extensively. Participants noted that technologies for online payments have progressed to the point that they cost very little to administer. Also, the public is becoming accustomed to paying fees for government services that used to be free (such as admittance to National Parks). Rather than charge a publication price, GPO could explore charging a small user fee to recoup the cost of providing access to government information on FDsys, or allowing users to view documents for free, and charging for document downloads. Forum participants also discussed the possibility of GPO exploring opportunities for repackaging files and content in different ways and making them available for sale to the public. This model (as the report notes) was tried before with GPO Access and failed. We would argue that it failed not because the "technologies of online payments" were inadequate at the time, but because attempting to charge fees for information that was also available without fees was a fundamentally flawed approach. (We have written about this issue many times. See for example: Government Information in the Digital Age: The Once and Future Federal Depository Library Program and Privatization of GPO, Defunding of FDsys, and the Future of the FDLP.) There is much more in the report and it deserves careful scrutiny.
- [Who is Sprocket Man? the growing mystery surrounding a prominent public domain cultural icon](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3635/) - 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!
- [RIP Russ Kick, "rogue transparency activist"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14289/) - It is with much shock and sadness that I learned a few days ago that Russ Kick (1969 - 2021) had passed away. Russ was a FOIA champion and government transparency activist among his many other talents. While I didn't know him personally, I had on occasion emailed with him and worked with groups working
- [Government recommendations to preserve government information not preserved by government](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14266/) - James and I are writing a book on preserving government information. In the course of researching the book, we find ourselves hunting down government publications that we need but that are not available from the government or from any FDLP library. Each of these documents has its own explanation for why it is missing and
- [Integrated 2020 Redistricting Data (PL94-171) from CISER](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14257/) - Thanks to the Cornell Center for Social Sciences (nee CISER) for posting the Census bureau’s Integrated 2020 Redistricting Data (PL94-171). "On August 12, 2021, the Census Bureau released the Public Law 94-171 data, also known as Redistricting Data, in four (4) parts per state. Users who want to have the complete redistricting dataset for a
- [Article from Legislative Studies Quarterly analyzes CRS reports to delve into expert consultation in Congress](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14252/) - Thanks FirstBranchForecast for posting about this recent research and analysis about how often legislators in Congress consult expert witnesses and information. Fagan and McGee analyzed every Congressional Research Service (CRS) report at EveryCRSReport.com from 1997-2017 in order to come up with their findings. The researchers note "Consultation between elected policymakers and experts is important to
- [FGI comment on GPO RFC re Regional Online Selections Draft Policy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14211/) - Last fall, GPO announced a new Superintendent of Documents (SOD) draft policy statement "Regional Depository Libraries Online Selections." GPO surveyed regional depository libraries and released the results of that survey in February, 2021. They're also asking the wider library community and interested parties for comment DUE MAY 16, 2021. FGI has submitted a comment regarding
- [Great news! GPO announces "fugitive documents" will now be called "unreported publications"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14173/) - This is a good week for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). The Government Publishing Office (GPO) has just announced that it has acted on community feedback regarding the terminology used to describe federal government publications that are within scope of the FDLP but not included in the Catalog of Government Publications (CGP) -- see
- [Help us celebrate Sunshine Week!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14171/) - This week is Sunshine Week hosted by the News Leaders Association! Begun in 2005 to highlight and promote open government, FOIA and access to government information (well that's how we here at FGI celebrate it ;-) ), you can track on what's happening this week on the Sunshine Week twitter account, share your own Sunshine
- [DCinbox: amazing collection of Congressional e-newsletters](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14168/) - As many of our readers know, government information includes critical but often "grey" or ephemeral information including communications between our elected officials and their constituents. Here's a very cool project called DCinbox, a database of Congressional e-newsletters. Lindsey Cormack, professor of politic at Stevens Institute of Technology, has been collecting Congressional e-newsletters since 2009. There
- [Legislative Revisions to Title 44 U.S.C., Chapter 19 re the FDLP](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14114/) - A new Congress has begun, and that means another shot at "modernizing" the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), which hasn't seen any new and substantive legislative change since the 1993 GPO Access Act. Here at FGI, we're busy pouring over GPO's proposed legislative revisions for Title 44 along with Depository Library Council's feedback to GPO.
- [Lawsuit Saves Trump White House Records](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14110/) - In a clear win for government transparency, National Security Archive et. al. v. Donald J. Trump et. al. lawsuit prevented the Trump administration from what was feared to be a wholesale destruction and loss of presidential records including the failure to preserve records -- including President Trump’s reported ripping up of documents in the Oval
- [EDGI Releases Dataset of Federal Environmental Website Changes Under Trump](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14108/) - Thanks to the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI) for releasing the Federal Environmental Web Tracker. This tool is a public dataset of searchable records of approximately 1,500 significant changes to federal agency environmental webpages under the Trump administration, these changes were almost always precursors or responses to policy changes. These changes came from a
- [Anita Schiller (1926 - 2021)](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14074/) - Our dear friend, library doyenne, WWII parachutist(!), mentor, and great supporter of FGI Anita Schiller passed away on the night of January 23, 2021. Anita had an outsized impact on libraries and many people's lives. Long-time American Library Association (ALA) members will no doubt know Anita and her long history as a powerhouse within the
- [Total Information Awareness just changed its name](https://freegovinfo.info/node/419/) - TIA Lives On, By Shane Harris, National Journal, Feb. 23, 2006. A controversial counter-terrorism program, which lawmakers halted more than two years ago amid outcries from privacy advocates, was stopped in name only and has quietly continued within the intelligence agency now fending off charges that it has violated the privacy of U.S. citizens. See also: Tinker, Tailor, Miner, Spy: Why the NSA's snooping is unprecedented in scale and scope, By Shane Harris and Tim Naftali, Slate, Jan. 3, 2006. Democrats and Bush Aides Spar in Senate Over U.S. Spying, By Scott Shane, New York Times, February 2, 2006.
- [About Us](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10/) - The future of government information is in peril from many economic and political forces. Free Government Information was initiated by Jim A. Jacobs, James R. Jacobs, Shinjoung Yeo, three librarians at University of California San Diego, along with Daniel Cornwall, librarian at the Alaska State Library, and James Staub, librarian at the Tennessee State Library, in order to raise public awareness of the importance of government information and create a community with various stakeholders to facilitate an open and critical dialogue. James R. Jacobs and Shinjoung Yeo moved to Stanford University Library in December, 2005 as International Documents Librarian and Communications Bibliographer/Reference Coordinator respectively. Shinjoung is currently (as of September, 2008) a PhD student in the Information in Society program at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. In October, 2008, we expanded the number of FGI volunteers with the inclusion of Rebecca Troy-Horton. Rebecca was the head of the Government Information Department at the McNeese State University Library in Lake Charles, Louisiana until 2011. She is currently a Reference Librarian at the New Hampshire State Library.
- [Library of Congress Completes Digitization of 23 Early Presidential Collections](https://freegovinfo.info/node/14069/) - This is awesome! The Library of Congress has just finished a 20 year(!) project to digitize the papers of the Presidents from George Washington to Calvin Coolidge. I hope GPO is going to catalog these collections so that the records get into library catalogs! The Library of Congress has completed a more than two decade-long
- [NARA seeking public comment on a proposed rule concerning the digitization of public records](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13958/) - The first 2 weeks of 2021 have been a whirlwind and have included a failed insurrection at the nation's capitol and the SECOND(!) impeachment of President Trump for inciting that insurrection! However crazy things may be at the moment, I wanted to call our readers' attention to an extremely important announcement in the Federal Register
- [Reclaim the Records “mother-of-all-FOIA requests" and NARA's new digitization partnership site](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13929/) - An activist group called Reclaim the Records recently submitted the “mother-of-all-FOIA requests" asking for billions of pages scanned through NARA’s public-private digitization partnership program. Here’s the twitter thread describing it: Hey! @USNatArchives just did something new, and really good for transparency!And we think it maybe *might* be because of that "mother-of-all-FOIA requests" we just filed
- [Trump Administration Buries Dozens Of Clean Energy Studies](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13920/) - "Documents obtained by InvestigateWest identify at least 46 reports from almost every program within the U.S. Energy Department's energy efficiency and renewables office and seven national labs that have been stalled, downgraded or spiked." https://www.invw.org/2020/10/26/trump-administration-buries-dozens-of-clean-energy-studies/
- [NARA digitizes 374 treaties between indigenous peoples and the US](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13913/) - Thanks to an anonymous donation, the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has "conserved and digitized the Ratified Indian treaties in its holdings," 374 treaties between indigenous peoples and the United States (and its predecessor colonies). The IDA Treaties Explorer lets one also explore maps and see which tribes are associated with which treaties.
- [Inside the Fall of the CDC](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13911/) - Following on the heals of yesterday's Politico piece documenting Political Interference in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), today ProPublica released a story "Inside the Fall of the CDC" which tells the more complete tale of how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, long the gold standard in the world on public health,
- [Political Interference in CDC's MMWR Report](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13894/) - Politico obtained government emails that a Trump political appointee instructed the CDC to alter a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) pertaining to schools holding in-person classes. The report in question was “SARS-CoV-2–Associated Deaths Among Persons Aged
- [House Staff Report on Political Interference with Coronavirus Response](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13874/) - The staff of the House Select Subcommittee On The Coronavirus Crisis has issued a 15 page report that documents 47 separate instances of political interference with the federal response to the coronavirus crisis. press release: Select Subcommittee Analysis Shows Pattern of Political Interference by the Trump Administration in Coronavirus Response Press Release (Oct 2, 2020).
- [Comments to NARA re Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) Document Destruction Proposal](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13869/) - Earlier this week, we posted to let readers know about the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) draft records schedule submitted to NARA that would destroy important civil rights records. CBP was asking for NARA’s approval to destroy after four years “records developed to track and monitor complaints that are or will be investigated by DHS
- [Please send comments to NARA re CBP's draft records schedule seeking to destroy important civil rights records](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13857/) - [UPDATED 9/28/2020 5:30pm PST: I've taken down the link to the Google form. Please submit comments via REGULATIONS.GOV. Thanks! JRJ] [UPDATED 9/29/2020: I deleted the link to the letter since it was a draft. When the final letter is published, I'll be sure to post. JRJ] **** DEADLINE for INDIVIDUAL PUBLIC COMMENTS is WEDNESDAY 30
- [Warning: astroturf groups pushing voting disinformation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13848/) - Every election cycle, there's disinformation put out to suppress the vote or turn a percentage point or two against a certain candidate. These efforts are usually done by shady political operatives or outfits so that politicians can have plausible deniability. But this year is different. This presidential election, the disinformation is coming from within the
- [Longtime Climate Science Denier Hired At NOAA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13846/) - Here's another example of the Trump administration naming people to political posts in federal agencies in order to damage and destroy public trust in those agencies. This time it's the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which, among other responsibilities, runs the National Weather Service and produces all sorts of information and data on climate
- [EPA Destroys Water Quality Records, Deceives Archivist of the US](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13844/) - Our friends at CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) broke this story on August 7, 2020 about the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) illegally destroying records and lying about it. Oddly enough, EPA didn't destroy records because they were damaging to the agency's reputation or were evidence of agency misdeeds. The records were originally
- [Announcing a Congress.gov Virtual Public Forum on September 10th!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13828/) - Here's a great chance to offer feedback and learn more about Congress.gov from the Law Library of Congress. Register now for the Congress.gov Virtual Public Forum scheduled for September 10, 2020, from 10:00 a.m. – noon EDT. They'll be talking specifically about data modernization at the library, and who better to talk to LoC about
- [Nominations sought for the U.S. Federal Government Domain End of Term 2020 Web Archive](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13820/) - It's that time again folks. The End of Term Archive is once again gearing up to harvest the .gov/.mil Web domain. For the End of Term 2020, The Library of Congress, University of North Texas Libraries, Internet Archive, Stanford University Libraries, and the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) are joining efforts again, this time with
- [3 August, 2020 13:30](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13812/) - Last week, FMC released its report based on the dysfunction of Congress based on interviews with former Congress members. https://www.usafmc.org/congressxroads “FMC, the Association of Former Members of Congress is a bipartisan, nonprofit, voluntary alliance of former United States Senators and Representatives, standing for America’s Constitutional system. FMC works to strengthen the Congress in the conduct
- [This sculpture at CIA headquarters is unsolved after 30 years](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13805/) - Here's a fun story for a saturday. Sculptor Jim Sanborn was commissioned in 1990 to create a sculpture at CIA headquarters. The sculpture, Kryptos, has 4 cryptographic challenge puzzles embedded in it. While 3 of them have been solved, the 4th has yet to be figured out. Check out more information on Elonka Dunin's Kryptos
- [Cloud-to-cloud record preservation at the National Archives](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13801/) - Here's a very interesting interview with Leslie Johnston, the director of digital preservation at NARA, in which she describes "cloud-to-cloud" data transfers as a key process to MARA's digital preservation efforts. This is another form of "digital deposit" that we've been discussing in our GPO digital deposit working group and I hope that we in
- [Final report of 2018-20 FOIA advisory committee now available](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13784/) - I had the honor of serving on the National Archives and Records Administration's (NARA) FOIA advisory Committee for the 2018-2020 term. Administered by the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), which serves as the chair of the Committee, the FOIA advisory committee brings together 9 members from within the Federal government and 11 non-governmental members
- [GAO *did* sell exclusive access to legislative history to Thomson West](https://freegovinfo.info/node/1798/) - A few weeks ago, Daniel had a great post, "GAO/Thomson-West Contract Raises Questions" in which he expanded on a Boing Boing post "Did the US gov't sell exclusive access to its legislative history to Thomson West?" and analyzed the Thompson-West contract with the GAO for digitizing 20,597 legislative histories of most public laws from 1915-1995. Today, Carl Malamud got an answer to his FOIA request to the GAO seeking access to the digitized images of those legislative histories. I'll let Carl tell it in his own words: Well, the answer is now a definitive yes, that data has been sold down the river and is out to sea. Public.Resource.Org sent in a FOIA request to GAO on this topic seeking access to the scanned data. Today's letter answering our FOIA request spells out the bad news. Turns out the GAO doesn't even get the data, they simply are given an account on Thomson's service. The rest of the government doesn't get access to this data, and the public is invited to stop by the GAO headquarters and pay 20 cents per page to copy paper. This is one of those deals where the public domain got sold off ... GAO gets a bit of convenience by having their stuff scanned for them, but they gave up way more than they got in the deal, and the public (including government workers and public interest groups who need to consult this data) lost big-time. Carl has put up his paper trail explaining the story. Here's the link to the Scribd group with the full paper trail on this issue, and here's the link to last week's response from the GAO. This perfectly exemplifies the problems we see with government agencies entering into contracts with private companies to digitize public domain materials (see for example "NARA/TGN contract as a bad precedent"). We have no problem with government agencies contracting with private companies to digitize government information. The problem as we see it is that so many agencies seem ignorant of the fact that privatizing access to said digitized public domain information actually limits access in the long run.
- [Justice Dept annual FOIA summary report miscalculates FOIA release rate](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13769/) - Unredacted, the National Security Archive's blog, analyzed the latest annual agency FOIA report from the Department of Justice's Office of Information Policy (OIP), and found that the report over calculated and misrepresented the government's release rate of FOIA requests. The FY2019 summary report said that agencies had achieved a government-wide release rate of 94.4% (up
- [HIGH-INCOME NONFILERS OWING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS...](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13767/) - The Treasury Inspector General recently released an audit that the IRS isn't doing an adequate job of making sure that the highest earners are paying their fair share. Surveys consistently report that most citizens believe that everyone should pay their fair share of taxes. Party affiliation doesn't affect their opinion. "Only 6% of Americans think
- [Threshold Concepts for Government Information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13735/) - There's an interesting thread on the govdoc-l listserv regarding "threshold concepts" for government information -- core concepts which, once understood, "transform perception of a given subject, phenomenon, or experience" or as someone on govdoc-l stated "concepts that are so foundational that people immersed in a discipline take them for granted." We think some of the
- [CDC Activities and Initiatives Supporting the COVID-19 Response and the President’s Plan for Opening America U p Again](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13733/) - Journalists reported in May that CDC had created a 60 page + document on reopening for public distribution but that some administration appointees had blocked its release and issued instead a 17 page document of information they already published. A librarian searched CDC’s website and couldn’t find and therefore initiated a FOIA request. The 17
- [Freedom of information case list](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13732/) - The Government Printing Office (GPO) cataloged the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Freedom of Information Case list. https://www.justice.gov/oip/court-decisions-overview One can find additional DOJ FOIA information on the website.
- [small business pulse survey (Census)](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13731/) - "The experimental Small Business Pulse Survey (Business Pulse) measures the changes in business conditions on our nation's small businesses during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic." https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/small-business-pulse-survey.html GPO will catalog/archive. co-published on govdoc-l and freegovinfo.info.
- [With Inspectors General firings in the news, Congress introduces bill to protect them](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13725/) - Inspectors General are a little known unit within many federal agencies. They were set up in the 1970s to "identify waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government." Their reports can be found on Oversight.gov as well as the non-governmental website Oversight.garden (there is some duplication between the sites, but the garden also posts some
- [Origins of the COVID19 Virus](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13709/) - Lately the President and Secretary Pompeo are arguing in the media that China purposely created the COVID19 as a weapon. There are no formal statements at the Whitehouse or State Department websites. The DNI has issued a statement at its website, and GPO has agreed to catalog the news release for its historical value. Times'
- [OSC announcement : dr Bright](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13719/) - A librarian contacted the Office of Special Counsel to ask if they would be making public its determination on their website or in some form of a publication that Dr. Bright's superiors inappropriately removed him from his position as reported in the news. Their response was that they could neither confirm nor deny since it
- [Trump to replace Health Inspector General](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13705/) - Trump to replace Health Inspector General who criticized coronavirus response, BY GRACE SEGERS, MAY 2, 2020 / 4:47 PM / CBS NEWS 'President Trump announced his intent to nominate a new inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), weeks after acting inspector general Christi Grimm released a report detailing shortages of
- [Trump removes inspector general who was to oversee $2 trillion stimulus spending](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13704/) - Trump removes inspector general who was to oversee $2 trillion stimulus spending. April 7, 2020, Washington Post. Ellen Nakashima "The ouster of Glenn Fine as acting inspector general at the Pentagon follows Trump's firing of the intelligence community IG. President Trump has removed the chairman of the federal panel Congress created to oversee his administration's
- [EPA Rolls Back Environmental Regulations](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13703/) - We can't let Trump roll back 50 years of environmental progress. "On the first Earth Day in 1970, millions of Americans took to the streets to demand clean air, water and land, and advocate for a healthier and more sustainable environment. By the end of the year, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was founded...Over
- [Dr fauci](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13706/) - Center for the Digital Future 'Public officials as sources of information - Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was cited most often as the public official relied on for information about the pandemic (45%), followed by "my own state's governor" (35%), government online resources (30%), other experts (29%),
- [National plan for COVID-19](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13678/) - The government lacks a national plan for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Anthony Fauci says 'rolling reentry' of economy possible in May, but 'can't guarantee' election safety in November By MARK SHERMAN and DARLENE SUPERVILLE, ASSOCIATED PRESS | APR 12, 2020 | 4:30 PM | WASHINGTON 'The United States' top infectious disease expert said
- [The President doth protest too much, methinks](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13680/) - Trump says he didn't know of, still hasn't seen Navarro memos on possible pandemic. By CAITLIN OPRYSKO, 04/07/2020 "President Donald Trump on Monday denied that he'd ever seen a handful of memos, written and circulated through the White House by his top trade adviser beginning in January, that warned the coronavirus could cost the country
- [President Donald J. Trump Is Demanding Accountability From the World Health Organization](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13681/) - President Donald J. Trump Is Demanding Accountability From the World Health Organization. April 15, 2020. Whitehouse Factsheet "I will never hesitate to take any necessary steps to protect the lives, health, and safety of the American people. I will always put the well-being of America first. President Donald J. Trump." https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-demanding-accountability-world-health-organization/ Trump Administration Officials Warned
- [Tax Change in Coronavirus Package Overwhelmingly Benefits Millionaires...](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13682/) - Tax Change in Coronavirus Package Overwhelmingly Benefits Millionaires, Congressional Body Finds. By Jeff Stein, The Washington Post, 16 April 20 "More than 80 percent of the benefits of a tax change tucked into the Corona virus relief package passed last month will go to those who earn more than $1 million annually, according to a
- [Dr. Bright](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13684/) - On Politics: 'Politics and Cronyism Ahead of Science'. New York: New York Times Company. Apr 23, 2020. "Is President Trump putting "politics and cronyism ahead of science"? Those were the words chosen by Rick Bright, the doctor who had been leading the federal effort to develop a coronavirus vaccine. This week he was removed from
- [Flynn Documents Released](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13692/) - Trump blasts 'scam' Michael Flynn investigation after new FBI documents released By https://www.politico.com/staff/quint-forgey 04/30/2020 07:50 AM EDT, Updated: 04/30/2020 08:59 AM EDT https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/30/trump-blasts-scam-michael-flynn-investigation-after-new-fbi-documents-released-225509 "President Donald Trump vented outrage Thursday over the FBI's treatment of Michael Flynn following the release of government records and recent media reports regarding the bureau's 2017 investigation into his former national
- [Win for public domain information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13693/) - Title 17, section 105 of the US code forbids the federal government from claiming copyright over its own publications. No such restriction exists for state governments, however, and many states have asserted copyright over things that one would think couldn’t possibly be treated as private property: legal codes, case law, the very stuff that government
- [Mapping the Trump administration's corruption across the executive branch](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13689/) - One of the things that most scares me about the current administration is the terrible -- and possibly long-term -- erosive effect it is having on the entire executive branch. One of the best books to document this systemic tragedy is Michael Lewis' Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy (many libraries have access to it via Overdrive
- [The Evolution of the Decennial Census](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13686/) - The classic publication to learn about the history of the US Census and trace the questions asked through time is Measuring America: The Decennial Censuses From 1790 to 2000. I refer to this frequently when teaching students about the census. But check out this incredibly handy visual look at the history of the US census
- [FGI Webinar "Disappearing govt information" to GPLNE tomorrow 10/24 @ 2pm EST](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12422/) - UPDATE 4/7/2020: GPO has taken down the audio recording. It's been uploaded and made available at the Internet Archive. Thanks again Andrew! UPDATE 10/25/17: Our slides and notes are now up. You can view them in Google slides (go into the settings to view both the slides and speaker notes) or if you prefer, you
- [Trump takes immediate step to try to curb new inspector general’s autonomy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13664/) - Trump takes immediate step to try to curb new inspector general’s autonomy, as battle over coronavirus oversight begins. by Jeff Stein, The Washington Post, Updated: March 28, 2020- 12:57 PM "President Donald Trump on Friday took a step to immediately try to curb oversight provisions in Congress' $2 trillion coronavirus spending package, seeking to assert
- [Internal Emails Show How Chaos at the CDC Slowed the Early Response to Coronavirus](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13665/) - 'The CDC fumbled its communication with public health officials and underestimated the threat of the coronavirus even as it gained a foothold in the United States, according to hundreds of pages of documents ProPublica obtained. The agency was struggling with one of its most important duties: keeping track of Americans suspected of having the novel
- [BLM Move Out West GAO Report](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13666/) - The BLM Promised Its Move Out West Was The Best Possible Option. A Watchdog Report Says Otherwise. By Caitlyn Kim March 6, 2020. "If the goal behind the Bureau of Land Management's move out west is about reform, a Congressional watchdog agency says the Department of the Interior has not used best practices to make
- [Reporting white collar prosecutions](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13667/) - According to DOJ, in 2018 it increased its number of white collar prosecutions. "Also in FY 2018, the Justice Department increased white-collar prosecutions by more than three percent, charging more than 6,500 defendants." However TRAC reports a declining trend in corporate prosecutions. TRAC "Your source for comprehensive, independent and nonpartisan information about federal enforcement, staffing
- [Second Circuit Won’t Rehear Finding Trump Can’t Block Twitter Critics](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13660/) - by ADAM KLASFELD, March 23, 2020. MANHATTAN (CN) — "The Second Circuit refused to convene the full court on Monday to reconsider what the majority overwhelmingly called a straightforward application of First Amendment law: a ruling forbidding President Donald Trump from blocking his critics on Twitter. Only two members of the court argued for another
- [national geospatial intelligence agency](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13661/) - Spy Agency's Challenge: How To Sort A Million Photos A Day. March 12, 2020, 11:00 AM ET, Heard on All Things Considered "When the U.S. government took its first satellite photos in 1960, it wasn't easy getting those pictures back to Earth. After the satellite took the pictures, the film was dropped from space in
- [FGI Doc of the day: NSC’s pandemic playbook plus 4 other pandemic preparedness documents](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13658/) - Today's document of the day is actually a super trifecta of documents all having to do with COVID-19 and the US government's preparedness (or lack thereof). It started out with a document cited in this Politico news story: Trump team failed to follow NSC’s pandemic playbook. Politico cited and included a copy of the National
- [FGI Document of the day: CRS report on legal considerations for postponing federal elections](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13654/) - The Congressional Research Service (CRS) at the Library of Congress is "Congress' think tank." Their reports are great resources on a wide variety of issues -- don't forget to look at the footnotes for more context and legislative histories! Some Congressperson must have been thinking about the ramifications of postponing the November elections due to
- [Check out these .gov webinars, training opportunities and crowdsourcing projects while you're telecommuting during COVID-19](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13639/) - This surely is a surreal time as counties around the San Francisco Bay area are issuing "shelter in place" orders until at least April 7, 2020 and other cities around the country have already or will soon be following suit in order to try and curb the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). As we scramble
- [Appeals court rules DOJ must give sealed Mueller materials to Congress](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13632/) - Appeals court rules DOJ must give sealed Mueller materials to Congress By Harper Neidig - 03/10/20 12:27 PM EDT "A federal appeals court in Washington ruled on Tuesday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) must hand over grand jury materials from former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation to Congress." "A three-judge panel on the D.C.
- [HHS IG report on family separation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13631/) - Inspector general report on US health officials and child separation, 10:55 AM ET, 07 March 20 By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN. "Senior Department of Health and Human Services officials failed to act on repeated warnings from staff about family separations at the US-Mexico border, and staff members were advised not to put controversial information in writing,
- [Are Frequent Flier Miles Killing the Planet?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13627/) - Are Frequent Flier Miles Killing the Planet? By Seth Kugel. March 5, 2020 "In October, a two-line recommendation buried on Page 35 of a report commissioned by the United Kingdom's Committee on Climate Change garnered disproportionate attention in the world of frequent fliers." https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/travel/loyalty-programs-climate-change.html The report, "Behaviour change, public engagement and Net Zero" (Imperial College
- [Federal judge questions Barr's credibility and orders review of Mueller report redactions](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13626/) - Federal judge questions Barr's credibility and orders review of Mueller report redactions. By Amanda Robert, Legal Affairs Writer. MARCH 6, 2020, 10:30 AM CST https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/federal-judge-questions-barrs-credibility-and-orders-review-of-full-mueller-report 'A federal judge said on Thursday he had "grave concerns about the objectivity" of Attorney General William Barr and his handling of the Muller report's release last year. In his
- [to make available or not to make available that is the question](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13622/) - Over a year's time I have contacted the Department of Justice webmaster four times about making two letters and two memos available officially. The first inquiry pertained to the agency making Attorney General Barr's letter available where he interpreted Special Counsel Mueller's report as exonerating the President. They responded within 72 hours that they would.
- [DPLA releases The Impeachment Papers as a free ebook](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13621/) - DPLA releases The Impeachment Papers as a free ebook. By Kathleen Williams, January 21, 2020. "The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is pleased to announce the release of a new ebook, The Impeachment Papers, a compendium of 38 documents related to the impeachment of Donald J. Trump. The ebook consists of witness testimony, subpoenas
- [Climate Denial in Scientific Research](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13618/) - Trump Insider Embeds Climate Denial in Scientific Research. Tabuchi, Hiroko. New York Times. Mar 2, 2020. "An official at the Interior Department embarked on a campaign that has inserted misleading language about climate change - including debunked claims that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is beneficial - into the agency's scientific reports, according to
- [Ukraine-Related Documents Obtained by American Oversight](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13597/) - "We obtained the first set of documents in response to our lawsuit against the State Department for records of communications with or about Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, as well as for records related to the recall of U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. Included in
- [Report on the USA Freedom Act Telephone Call Records Program](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13598/) - A disputed program that allowed the National Security Agency to gain access to logs of Americans' domestic calls and texts yielded only one significant investigation, according to a newly declassified study. The United States. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (Y 3.2:P 93/3/) issued the report "Report on the USA Freedom Act Telephone Call Records
- [government staffing & turnover](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13599/) - Senior Fellow Tenpas at the Brookings Institution conducted a study on the administration's senior government turnover, "Tracking turnover in the Trump administration." The Office of Personnel Management issues reports. "Sizing Up the Executive Branch." (FY 2017) GPO cataloged FY 2012, SuDoc Number: PM 1.2:W 89/6/ 0295 (online). "Senior Executive Service Report." (FY 2017) SuDoc Number:
- [FINCEN & secrecy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13606/) - According to Reveal, 'America's cities are being bought up, bit by bit, by anonymous shell companies using piles of cash...All-cash transactions have come to account for a quarter of all residential real estate purchases, "totaling hundreds of billions of dollars nationwide," the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network - the financial crimes unit of the federal Treasury
- [Hot off the presses: "Science, Technology, & Democracy: Building a Modern Congressional Technology Assessment Office"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13586/) - This new report entitled “Science, Technology, & Democracy: Building a Modern Congressional Technology Assessment Office” just dropped from Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. We think this is extremely timely and important given the state of the world and the great need for far-reaching US public policy on science and technology
- [New year's resolutions for 2020: setting a new agenda for a new FDLP](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13507/) - Happy 2020! Now that we're starting a new decade(!) -- and GPO has set up a working group to study and consider digital deposit and Depository Library Council (DLC) will soon announce its PURL working group! -- it is time for FGI to make its new year's resolutions and envision a new agenda for a
- [Sunlight's Web Integrity Project shutting down. A sad day for govt oversight and transparency](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13574/) - This is bad news for government transparency advocates. The Sunlight Foundation shut down its Web Integrity Project (WIP) yesterday. WIP was created almost two years ago and was tracking "tens of thousands of federal government webpages each week, has reported on and sourced hundreds of stories about federal websites, has provided materials for congressional oversight,
- [FOIA Advisory Committee 2018-2020 term recommendations coming into focus](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13503/) - The most recent quarterly meeting of NARA's FOIA Advisory Committee (of which I'm a member) occurred last friday (12/6/19). You can watch the entire meeting as it was live-streamed on NARA's YouTube channel (below). I consider myself fortunate to be able to work with this committee -- 1/2 of its members are FOIA officers at
- [GAO report on improving public access to research results](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13500/) - The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report looking at how well various government agencies are doing on their mandate to provide public access to publicly funded research -- as called for in a 2013 Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memorandum -- along with recommendations on how they can improve this.
- [Toward a Shared Agenda: Report on PEGI Project Activities for 2017-2019](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13495/) - The Preservation of Electronic Government Information (PEGI) Project has now finished its 2-year IMLS grant work and have just published its final report Toward a Shared Agenda: Report on PEGI Project Activities for 2017-2019. Please have a read and send any feedback on the report and our next steps to info@pegiproject.org or via Twitter @PEGIProject.
- [Advocates Call on Congress to pass legislation to make PACER free](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13491/) - Open government advocates are quickly losing patience with the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts (AO). After the AO doubled the quarterly fee waiver from $15 to $30 in January, Advocates from argue FixTheCourt called it “Wholly Inadequate” and have called for the US Courts to change antiquated business model of the Public Access to Court
- [Do Not Assume PDF files are all permanent](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13486/) - Government information relies heavily on the PDF format. Indeed, PDF files are used so widely that it is tempting for us to assume that PDF files are, by definition, a safe way of preserving information for the long term. Would it surprise you to learn that the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) lists PDF files as
- [CA state agencies misapply ADA law, documents vanish from CA websites](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13482/) - File this under the law of unintended consequences. A California law passed in 2017 designed to make sure CA government agency websites were accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has had an unintended negative effect on CA agency Websites. The law simply states: 11546.7. (a) Before July 1, 2019, and before July 1
- [National Weather Service under risk of privatization. John Oliver has more](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13479/) - Talking about the weather is supposed to be the one safe topic that people from all stripes can talk about. But John Oliver ruins that -- in an extremely funny and informative way of course! He explains the importance of the National Weather Service (NWS), which is a sub-agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
- [One giant leap for docs-kind: OSTI adds search for extracted figures and tables.](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13471/) - I've always appreciated the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) for the way they manage and give access to .gov scientific information - and for the fact that they've long shared their metadata freely and allowed libraries to download their MARC records in bulk. Now they've added *another* feature to their search for which
- [NARA releases Digital Preservation Framework for public comment](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13464/) - The Archivist of the US (AOTUS) released NARA's plan for a Digital Preservation Framework consisting of a "Risk and Prioritization Matrix" and 15 File Format Preservation Action Plans. NARA is asking that the public submit comments on NARA's GitHub site through November 1, 2019. In particular, we are hoping to get feedback on the following
- [EPA argues its blog isn't public information, won't change post](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13461/) - Possibly lost in the jaw-dropping WTF! statement where the EPA argued its blog isn't public information is the fact that the EPA, in a PUBLIC BLOG POST ON THE INTERNET WITHIN THE EPA.GOV DOMAIN(!), had the gall to celebrate National Pollinators Week after it expanded the use of the pesticide sulfoxaflor that is considered "highly
- [Document(s) of the day: FDA judgements 1908 - 1966. Thanks Natl Library of Medicine!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13457/) - Today's document(s) of the day is via the always interesting Scout Report. It's a digitized collection of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) judgments from NIH/NLM (National Institutes of Health/National Library of Medicine) from 1980 - 1966. A finding aid to the collection is available. "The evidence files are controlled by the various Sample, S., or
- [FEC vice chair resigns. FEC effectively shut down](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13455/) - Federal Election Commission (FEC) Vice Chairman Matthew Petersen announced his resignation today. Chalk up another federal agency unable to do its work. This is happening across the federal government. Many agency political appointments simply haven't been nominated, while some, like Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)'s science division simply shut down because no staff
- [Cronyism and 'wasteful' spending accusations at GPO. Hearing on Wednesday](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13442/) - [Editor's note 8/6/19: Andy Sherman, who was accused in this story, but who served admirably for 38 years at GPO in several administrative positions, sent me this Letter to Chairman Blunt that he sent in January, 2019. Andy explains that there was no misconduct, and gratefully allowed me to post the letter to FGI in
- [Senate introduces legislation to clarify presumption of disclosure in FOIA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13445/) - This just in from our friends at MuckRock: Senate introduces legislation to clarify presumption of disclosure in FOIA. This new bill will will protect public access to information from private entities that do business with the government following the *terrible* Supreme Court decision in Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader, which overturned more than 40
- [Mapping immigrant impact on local communities. Using data to tell impactful stories](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13439/) - Here’s an interesting project called “Map the impact" from New American Economy, a "bipartisan research and advocacy organization fighting for smart federal, state, and local immigration policies." It connects govt data with stories to frame immigration in a more positive light. While the site doesn’t allow direct download of data, they do have a methodology
- [New Stanford Cyber Policy Center report details security concerns with 2020 election](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13437/) - Stanford University's Cyber Policy Center, in conjunction with the #StanfordCyberPolicy event held last month, has published a new white paper on the security of US elections entitled "Securing American Elections: Prescriptions for Enhancing the Integrity and Independence of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Elections and Beyond." Summary: it's not good. [HT to Bruce Schneier and his
- [PEGI submits comments for phase III of the draft Federal Data Strategy, says preservation is key](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13423/) - Last year, the Preservation of Electronic Government Information (PEGI) Project -- a collaborative effort of which I'm a part -- commented on phase I of the draft Federal Data Strategy. This time around, there was a request for comments on phase III, the draft action plan for the Federal Data Strategy and again PEGI submitted
- [USDA climate science research quashed US science leadership destroyed](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13410/) - Last night, Rachel Maddow did her opening piece on the history of scientific excellence and global leadership by the USDA its decimation at the hands of the Trump administration and USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue - and in particular the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the principal in-house research agency of the USDA. She highlighted this Politico
- [Judiciary Creates Public User Group for PACER](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13404/) - Judiciary Creates Public User Group for PACER, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (June 26, 2019). The federal Judiciary has created and is seeking members for a public user group to provide advice and feedback on ways to improve its electronic public access services. The Electronic Public Access (EPA) Public User Group membership will be
- ["New Congress New Legislation." Hoduski outlines next steps for FDLP legislation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13399/) - Our pal Bernadine Abbott Hoduski, long-time FDLP advocate extraordinaire, writes a regular column covering lobbying and government information in the U*n*a*b*a*s*h*e*d Librarian newsletter. Her latest, titled "New Congress New Legislation," describes the undoing of the “FDLP Modernization Act of 2018" (H. R. 5305) in the 115th Congress and proposes a new, very targeted bill for
- [What’s the state of state public records law?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13397/) - Our pals over at MuckRock have been working not only on FOIA at the federal level (MuckRock co-founder Michael Morisy is a colleague of mine on NARA's FOIA Advisory Committee and was highlighted last month on the FOIA Ombudsman's blog!). They've also been working on FOIA/open records at the state and local levels. Check out
- [EDGI releases 2019 annual report](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13379/) - The Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI) has just released its 2019 annual report. Check out what they've been doing over the past year in terms of archiving data, environmental data justice, interviewing and policy project, and website monitoring. props to EDGI for a year well-worked! From the report... EDGI’s Archiving Working Group continues to
- [Libraries' guide to the 2020 census](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13375/) - The American Library Association (ALA) has teamed up with the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality to develop the Libraries' guide to the 2020 census to prepare libraries for the decennial count of every person living in the United States. The Guide contains practical information to assist library staff in addressing potential patron and community
- [Congressional Budget Justifications (CBJs) are hard to find and here's why](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13357/) - I've been very impressed with the research and thought that goes into the First Branch Forecast, the weekly newsletter focusing on transparency and governance issues being considered by Congress. There's always something of interest in the newsletter, so I highly recommend that everyone subscribe. One item of interest in a recent Forecast was about Congressional
- [A Long-Term Goal For Creating A Digital Government-Information Library Infrastructure](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11813/) - (Editor's note: this post was a guest editorial on Libraries Network, a nascent collaborative effort of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) spurred by the work of the DataRefuge project, End of Term crawl, and other volunteer efforts to preserve data and content from the .gov/.mil domain. This is the first of 2 posts for
- [A rare opportunity to make a long-term difference](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11815/) - (Editor’s note: this post is the second of two guest editorials on Libraries Network, a nascent collaborative effort of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) spurred by the work of the DataRefuge project, End of Term crawl, and other volunteer efforts to preserve data and content from the .gov/.mil domain. The first post was pointed
- [Celebrate Sunshine Week with new CRS content now online](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13351/) - Happy Sunshine Week, the week where we celebrate government transparency, FOIA and all things open government information! There's lots happening this week including the upcoming 1/2 day live and streaming celebration at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). But there's also work to be done. Evidently, appropriators are holding up the smart, pro-transparency "HR
- [25-Year-Old FOIA Request Confirms FOIA Delays Continue Unabated](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13348/) - Happy Sunshine week (well, technically it's next week, March 10-16, 2019)! The National Security Archive did a massive FOIA audit which showed that FOIA delays and backlogs continue across federal agencies. the most interesting/disturbing to me were the requests that fell into a FOIA "referral black hole" where agencies refer to or consult with other
- [Reject GPO's proposal to drop metadata from CGP](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13330/) - The Government Publishing Office has a brief proposal to omit some metadata in the Catalog of Government Publications (CGP). As written in the announcement, the proposed change in policy seems simple and obvious. GPO says that, for publications in govinfo, "historic URLs" (the original, source URL) and PURLs (the Persistent Uniform Resource Locators) are "identical."
- [The federal government's responsibilities to provide online content in non-English languages](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13316/) - The Sunlight Foundation's Web Integrity Project (WIP) has released a new report with an informal review of how federal agencies meet the needs of website users who lack English fluency. Explained: The federal government’s responsibilities to provide online content in non-English languages by Jon Campbell and Sarah John (Feb 14, 2019). The report reviews and
- [Terabytes of Enron data have quietly gone missing from the Department of Energy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13310/) - This is yet another disturbing example of data loss documented by our friends at MuckRock. Evidently, a large amount of data from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) having to do with the infamous Enron Corporation has gone missing and even FERC staff do not know where it went. How many examples will we need
- [GAO to do some OTA work](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13298/) - On Jan 29, The Government Accountability Office (GAO) announced the launch of a new Science, Technology Assessment and Analytics (STAA) team to provide Congress with "thorough and balanced analysis of technological and scientific developments that affect our society, environment, and economy." GAO had announced its intention to set up this new STAA team back in
- [Breaking down the Department of the Interior's proposed changes to FOIA. COMMENTS DUE 1/28/2019](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13294/) - Russ Kick of AltGov2 is again on the FOIA case. This time he's analyzed the Department of Interior's proposed changes to their FOIA regulations (and helpfully cobbled together the current regulations with DoI's proposed changes). Comments on the proposed changes can be submitted electronically by JANUARY 28, 2019. Here's the current regulations and the proposed
- [How the shutdown is affecting flow of government information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13292/) - Two things to note this morning as the government shutdown continues. A lot of government information is being affected. Examples: Hampering Climate Efforts weather reports Science and Research data Economic data Consumer protection Climate Data NOAA GDP even Statistics Canada! But, a lot of information was in the pipeline and is still being released. Gary
- [GPO Gets OAIS Certification!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13274/) - Congratulation to GPO for getting govinfo.gov certified as a Trusted Digital Repository! This is an important step for ensuring long term preservation and access to the contents of the GPO digital repository. The Government Publishing Office (GPO) announced today that it has received this certification. (For those unfamiliar with certification, check out the "core criteria
- [Government shutdown causing information access problems](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13252/) - Twitter and newspapers are buzzing with complaints about widespread problems with access to government information and data (see for example, Wall Street Journal (paywall :-| ), ZDNet News, Pew Center, Washington Post, Scientific American, TheVerge, and FedScoop to name but a few). Maybe when/if the government opens again, we should scrape the NIST and CSRC
- [Justice Dept. admits error but won’t correct report falsely linking terrorism to immigration](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13243/) - [UPDATE 1/8/2019]: Here's more context about the DoJ's disinformation report on immigrants: Case Closed: The Justice Department Won’t Stand Behind Its Report on Immigrants and Terrorism"". By Benjamin Wittes Monday, January 7, 2019. Don’t look now, but the United States Department of Justice just came perilously close to admitting that it engaged in disinformation about
- [Could DoD IG Reports be made “private” due to Trump's off-hand remark?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13246/) - Steven Aftergood over at Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy News project writes today that President Trump recently commented off-handedly that reports from the Department of Defense' Inspector General should be private and not publicly accessible. It's unclear if this off-the-cuff comment will lead to less public access to these important reports, but Aftergood notes that
- [Accusations of cronyism and 'wasteful' spending at GPO](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13237/) - 2019 is not starting off on a good foot for the Government Publishing Office (GPO). NPR reports that in June 2018, GPO's Office of Inspector General sent an interim report to the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP), the congressional committee that oversees the agency finding mismanagement, misuse of position, and disregard" for hiring and contracting
- [Agenda for 2019: Exploring Digital Deposit](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13184/) - As 2018 ends, it is time to start setting the agenda for the FDLP for 2019. This year has a lot of potential despite (or because of) the failure of Title 44 reform, the shutdown of the government, and the general political gridlock of Congress. 2018: The Year of "Modernizing" The biggest FDLP news in
- [Recommendations from the DLC to GPO - including Digital Deposit!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13179/) - Happy holidays from FGI! Seeing as many are not at work or checking their email, you might have missed that Depository Library Council recently released their recommendations to GPO. Under the tree this year is a recommendation to create a digital deposit working group! We've been talking for over a decade about the need for
- [Check out Episode 01 of Data Remediations from the Data Refuge](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13168/) - Check out the great new podcast initiative called Data Remediations from our friends at the Data Refuge. If the first episode shows anything, it's that this podcast will be a must to listen to going forward as it'll be chock full of interviews with interesting people working on various aspects of data use and preservation
- [PEGI Project publishes Environmental Scan of Government Information and Data Preservation Efforts and Challenges](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13164/) - I'm happy to announce that today the PEGI Project released their Environmental Scan of Government Information and Data Preservation Efforts and Challenges. PEGI commissioned the most capable Sarah Lippincott as consultant to write this report, a multimodal environmental scan of at-risk federal digital content. This free, open publication describes the landscape of initiatives within and
- [Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) submits comment to NARA re Dept of Interior records schedule request](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13159/) - The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) just sent me a PDF copy of the comment that they submitted to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) regarding the Department of Interior records schedule request. This letter, combined with the others from DLF, transparency organizations, and Stanford Libraries offers a finely grained analysis of the overall
- [Digital Library Federation and government transparency community submit comments to NARA re DoI records schedule](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13152/) - [UPDATE: 11/27/2018: Attached are PDF copies of the letters from Openness and Accountability Community and Digital Library Federation (DLF).] Today was the last day to comment on the draft Department of Interior records scheduling request (originally posted here on FGI "Holes in History: The Dept of Interior request to destroy records."). I'm aware that 2
- [Preserving What's Gone -- The Healthcare Guidelines Case](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12925/) - In a recent post on the blog of the Web Science and Digital Libraries Research Group, Shawn Jones reports on research that is vital to all those interested in long term access to government information. How well are the National Guideline Clearinghouse and the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse Archived? Shawn M. Jones, Web Science and
- [NBII goes dark. Libraries do what they do: harvest and preserve it for future access #opendata](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3613/) - Many of us in the government documents world woke up to 2012 with the following message posted on the Web site of the [w:National Biological Information Infrastructure] (NBII) and distributed around to various library listservs: In the 2012 President's Budget Request, the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) is terminated. As a result, all resources, databases, tools, and applications within this web site will be removed on January 15, 2012. NBII has been a critical program since 1994 (See Bill Clinton's Executive Order 12906 which created the "National Spatial Data Infrastructure" ("NSDI")). NBII was set up to coordinate a broad array of information at the federal level about biodiversity and ecosystems. Todd Carpenter, director of National Information Standards Organization NISO, put it nicely and succinctly when he tweeted: What is particularly sad about NBII shutting down is it's precisely the thing we need MORE of not less=>trusted data repositories #opendata Well have no fear, the Library of Congress, Internet Archive and Stanford Libraries have all harvested (separately) the NBII Website -- Stanford harvested twice between January 5 and January 13, 2012for its Fugitive US Agencies collection.
- [When we depend on pointing instead of collecting](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3900/) - NASA took its Technical Report Server (http://ntrs.nasa.gov/) offline this week, saying : The NASA technical reports server will be unavailable for public access while the agency conducts a review of the site's content to ensure that it does not contain technical information that is subject to U.S. export control laws and regulations and that the appropriate reviews were performed. The site will return to service when the review is complete. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. As Steven Aftergood reported at Secrecy News [emphasis added]: In other words, all NASA technical documents, no matter how voluminous and valuable they are, should cease to be publicly available in order to prevent the continued disclosure of any restricted documents, no matter how limited or insignificant they may be. "There is a HUGE amount of material on NTRS," said space policy analyst Dwayne Day. "If NASA is forced to review it all, it will never go back online." -- "NASA Technical Reports Database Goes Dark" by Steven Aftergood (March 21st, 2013). Michael L. Nelson of the Department of Computer Science at Old Dominion University investigated the availability of some of the NASA reports at other archives and reports his findings on his blog: NTRS, Web Archives, and Why We Should Build Collections, by Michael L. Nelson, Web Science and Digital Libraries (March 23, 2013). Nelson found that some reports are available at http://naca.central.cranfield.ac.uk/ which is an archive of some NASA information that Nelson helped establish after NASA websites were taken down after September 11, 2001. He notes that the removal of information from NASA servers at that time "made it clear to me that NASA information was too important to be left on *.nasa.gov computers." He found more data at the Internet Archive's "NASA Technical Documents" collection: http://archive.org/details/nasa_techdocs and in Mark Phillips NACA collection at http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/NACA/ . Nelson draws some conclusions from all this [emphasis added]: ...it is events like this that demonstrate the value of copying by-value and not just by-reference. In other words, pointing to web sites is much less valuable and much more fragile than acquiring copies of digital information and building digital collections that you control. The OAIS reference model for long term preservation makes this a requirement, saying that an organization that intends to provide information to its user community for the long-term, must "Obtain sufficient control of the information provided to the level needed to ensure Long-Term Preservation." Pointing to a web page or PDF at nasa.gov is not obtaining any control. He also makes a distinction between those things that are saved because of their popularity and things that will not be saved unless special care is taken to preserve them: I'm not concerned about popular culture artifacts disappearing (e.g., see our TPDL 2011 paper about music redundancy in YouTube), but it is not clear that long tail content like NASA reports will enjoy that same level of uncoordinated refreshing and migration. The moral of the story: make copies of the content... And he notes the importance of multiple copies: ...a 1994 NASA TM of mine is on at least six different hosts, none of which are *.nasa.gov. ...If NTRS was a LOCKSS participant then access would be uninterrupted... And Aftergood concludes [emphasis added]: The upshot is that the government is not an altogether reliable repository of official records. Members of the public who depend on access to such records should endeavor to make and preserve their own copies whenever possible. Here at FGI, we have repeatedly argued that identifying important information that warrants explicit preservation is the age-old role of libraries in society and that it still is (or should be) the key value of libraries in the digital age. Many government agencies, including NASA and the Government Printing Office have good intentions and good programs for preservation and access, but those agencies cannot guarantee that they will always provide preservation and access. In the case of the NTRS web site, Aftergood and others speculate that the take down was a response to a demand by a single Congressman who said in a press conference on March 18 [emphasis added]: NASA should immediately take down all publicly available technical data sources until all documents that have not been subjected to export control review have received such a review and all controlled documents are removed from the system. -- http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=40365 The NTRS web site was taken offline on March 19. Government agencies are subject to political activities like this and budgetary limitations. Very bad things can happen which, in cases like this can remove from access, "all NASA technical documents, no matter how voluminous and valuable they are" in a single moment. Libraries should still be selecting, acquiring, organizing, and preserving information for their user-communities, and providing access to and services for those collections. Libraries do no one a long-term service by simply pointing to resources over which they have no control and which someone else can simply make unavailable literally at the flick of a switch. FDLP libraries should demand digital deposit from GPO and should actively select and acquire that digital public government information that is of value to their user communities that GPO cannot deposit because it is outside the scope of Title 44.
- [EPA greenwashes its fracking site. EDGI documents the change](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13144/) - There's a new report out from the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI) chronicling the changes the EPA has made to its webpage on hydraulic fracturing or "fracking." Check out the changes side by side using snapshots from the Internet Archive's WayBack Machine. In January this year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revamped its webpage
- [Patrice McDermott posts Draft letter re  DOI records disposition request to NARA. Requests comments](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13140/) - We posted about the Dept of Interior records schedule request to NARA and have been actively working on this issue for a few weeks now. Patrice McDermott, Director of Government Information Watch -- many of you will have known Patrice from her ALA Washington Office days or laster as director of Open The Government --
- [EPA eliminates its climate change websites](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13134/) - Mashable reports that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has eliminated more than 80 climate change web pages. This according to a new report from the Environmental Data Governance Initiative (EDGI). The EDGI report notes that while NASA maintains a number of informative and frequently updated climate change websites, the EPA's sites have been gradually obscured,
- [Stanford UL's letter to AOTUS Ferriero re Dept of Interior draft records schedule](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13129/) - Last week, we posted a story "Holes in History: The Dept of Interior request to destroy records" in which we raised issues concerning NARA's records scheduling process in general and the DoI request in particular. Today my University Librarian Michael Keller sent a Letter to Archivist of the US David Ferriero re the DoI records
- [Holes in History: The Dept of Interior request to destroy records](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13099/) - [Editor's note: please scroll to the end of this post for a sample letter to submit to NARA. Thanks!] [Update: 10/30: I added another point about disposition authority. JRJ] Remember, we have until November 26, 2018, to make comments to the National Archives. (Be sure to say that you’re referring to DAA-0048-2015-0003.) request.schedule@nara.gov fax: 301-837-3698
- [Happy 60th birthday NASA!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13094/) - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), created when President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act (Public Law 85-568 or 72 Stat 426-2), began on this date in 1958. Check out some of the resources that NASA has put together to celebrate their 60 years. And if you really want to get into
- [@EPA eliminating office of science advisor](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13090/) - Buried under all the Kavanaugh sexual assault hearings and coverage, there was this side note in yesterday's NYT about the EPA shutting down the office of the science advisor. This senior post is basically the science ombudsman for the agency to assure that the latest science is applied to the agency's policies, decisions and regulations.
- [CRS Reports Now Available Online! Thanks @LibnOfCongress](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13087/) - Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced today that reports from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) are now online at crsreports.congress.gov. This is HUGE news indeed because many librarians and open government advocates have been asking for this for at least 25 years. The site is a good first step, and hopefully will only get better
- [Civic Switchboard call for Proposals: library projects partnering with community data organizations](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13083/) - This is very cool! The Civic Switchboard project - an awesome project connecting libraries and local data organizations! - has just put out a Call For Proposals for Field Projects for libraries partnering (or wanting to partner) with community data organizations. They are looking for "projects that demonstrate a commitment to understanding and engaging with
- [Heads up: Preventing Additional Printing of Electronic Records Act of 2018 or the PAPER Act of 2018](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13078/) - [UPDATE 1:30pm 09122018: The bill going forward in the Senate is S. 2944, NOT 2673. And S.2944 includes reference to the depository library program! I've updated the link below to the correct Senate bill. JRJ] Heads up! There's a bill at the beginning of the legislative process called "Preventing Additional Printing of Electronic Records Act
- [FCC data exaggerates broadband access on tribal lands](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13074/) - A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that Broadband access in tribal areas is likely even worse than previously thought because Federal Communications Commission data overstates deployment. Now it seems like we need to be worried about government data going away AND the veracity of government data. "BROADBAND INTERNET: FCC’s Data
- [Reference Resource Roundup: Hearing for Supreme Court Nominee](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13071/) - Gary Price at InfoDocket provides a very fine list of documents and other links that provide context for this week's hearings for Brett M. Kavanaugh, the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing for Supreme Court. Reference Resource Roundup: U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing for Supreme Court Nominee, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh
- [New Report on Disseminating and Preserving Digital Government Information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13062/) - The Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress conducted a survey for GPO and its report is now available. Disseminating and Preserving Digital Public Information Products Created by the U.S. Federal Government: A Case Study Report. Library of Congress. Federal Research Division. (Prepared under an Interagency Agreement with the Library Services and Content Management
- [GODORT pens thank you letter re CRS reports. LoC needs to do this right.](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13055/) - I'm still giddy that CRS reports will soon be made public! The Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) of the American Library Association just wrote a letter to the Congressional Transparency Caucus thanking them for their ongoing efforts to make Congressional Research Service reports publicly available. This comes at an especially opportune time because critics worry
- [NARA embroiled in politics surrounding documents re Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh. The public loses.](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13052/) - I've been trying to get my head around the very public wrangling of the release of archival records relating to Judge Brett Kavanaugh. The National Archives (NARA) is in the process of releasing "Approximately 900,000 pages of email and paper records were requested by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Senator Charles Grassley." But democratic Senators Diane
- [A day in the life of a govinfo librarian: FOIA'ing an old report](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13034/) - I thought I'd just share this here as no doubt other govinfo librarians have had similar experiences. When I say "day" it should really be "several months" because what started out as a simple ILL request grew into a several month email trail. A researcher asked the library to do an Interlibrary loan request for
- [U.S. Historians Are Fighting to Stop ICE From Erasing Records of Agency's Treatment of Immigrants](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13027/) - [August 9, 2018 update] Thank you Meg Phillips, NARA's External Affairs Liaison, for contacting me and offering additional information and context. Meg notes that "No agency may dispose of records without written authorization from the Archivist of the United States in the form of approval of the records retention schedule. That is what is going
- [GPO Position on FDLP Distribution -- Judith Russell](https://freegovinfo.info/node/34/) - Through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), and in partnership with more than 1,250 libraries nationwide, the U.S. Government Printing office has an abiding commitment to providing public access to the most comprehensive body of official Federal Government information possible. Since 1996, GPO has been transitioning the FDLP to a predominately electronic basis in full cooperation and consultation with the library community. This initiative has resulted in an exponential expansion of effective public access to Government information without substantial increases in funding, and today more than 1 million documents a day are retrieved from GPO Access (www.gpoaccess.gov ). At the same time, GPO has continued to provide public access to information in tangible formats in accordance with policy established by GPO's Superintendent of Documents. GPO will continue to expand electronic information offerings through the FDLP and will continue to provide for dissemination of tangible products to depository libraries in accordance with existing policy, in full consultation with the library community. GPO will ensure that the necessary resources are applied to these tasks for FY 2005 and 2006 without requiring additional resources beyond those that have been approved and requested. All ongoing work on improvements to GPO's electronic information dissemination systems-including those projects associated with the authentication, preservation, and establishment of standards for electronic information products-will continue. GPO's Superintendent of Documents will actively seek the guidance and input of the library community in planning for and implementing changes in the dissemination of Government information products in either electronic or tangible formats.
- [The Pentagon's $660 million FOIA fee](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13030/) - A friend reminded me today about this story from 2016 which was a Finalist for 2016 Golden Padlock award given each year by the group Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) "celebrating" the most secretive government agency or individual in the United States. that year, there were some real doozies. But I think the winner hands
- [Judge Lets Secret Service Hide White House Visitor Logs](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13020/) - The National Security Archive at George Washington University announced today that a federal judge is allowing the Secret Service to hide the White House visitor logs that contain 5.99 million records. Such records were routinely released by the Obama administration. When the Trump administration did not release its own records, NSA filed a FOIA lawsuit.
- [Federal Data Strategy: PEGI Project response](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13016/) - The Preservation of Electronic Government Information (PEGI) Project (of which I'm a board member) just submitted comments to the Department of Commerce concerning “Leveraging Data as a Strategic Asset Phase 1 Comments” [Docket Number USBC-2018-0011 (Federal Register)]. This is just the first round of requests for comments, with other comment periods coming up in October,
- [Trump administration officials dismissed benefits of national monuments](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13013/) - Every day seems to bring a new revelation about just how sneaky and un-transparent this administration's agency heads are. Since EPA administrator Scott Pruitt resigned, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has become the new poster boy for scandals and federal investigations. In yesterday's Washington Post, it has been revealed that "Trump administration officials dismissed benefits of
- [Critics say LC's plan to publish CRS reports is a fail.](https://freegovinfo.info/node/13010/) - Many were thrilled earlier this spring when the FY 2018 Omnibus Appropriations Law included the "public access to all non-confidential CRS reports." Well, not so fast it seems. Daniel Schuman, Kevin Kosar, and Josh Tauberer (3 folks doing great work over the last several years on the CRS reports issue) have found that the "Library
- [HHS Plans to Delete 20 Years of Critical Medical Guidelines on monday July 16!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12920/) - According to the DailyBeast, the National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC), a critical database of medical guidelines, is set to go dark on monday July 16 because "federal funding through Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) will no longer be available to support the NGC as of that date." For any questions, please contact Mary.Nix@ahrq.hhs.gov. Of
- [OMB requesting comment on federal data strategy and principles](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12917/) - According to FedScoop, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the unit in the White House which handles executive branch information policies and procedures, is requesting public comment and best practices on the Federal Data Strategy, including a new draft set of principles based on three overarching themes: data stewardship, quality, and continuous improvement. Of
- [CRS to release reports in September](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12914/) - Steven Aftergood reports that the Congressional Research Service (CRS) will begin publishing some of its non-confidential reports on a publicly accessible congressional website by September 18, 2018. CRS Previews Public Release of its Reports by Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News (Jun.22, 2018). Public Release of CRS Reports: FAQ for Congressional Staff. “For the initial public release,
- [Tracking the unlawful or accidental removal of government records](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12910/) - In the age of digital information, it is easier than it ever has been for government agencies to alter or delete official records at the flick of a switch. The U.S. Code (Title 44) and Code of Federal Regulations (Title 36) require agencies to "prevent the unlawful or accidental removal, defacing, alteration, or destruction of
- [Time Use Study of Reading in America](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12905/) - It is nice to see an article in a popular magazine make good and explicit use of government data. This article has a couple of added bonuses for government information librarians: It is about reading and it does a very good job of explaining how to avoid being mislead by sloppy use of data. It
- [Check out OpenSecrets new Anomaly Tracker](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12901/) - This is fascinating. Check out OpenSecrets new Anomaly Tracker tool. By collecting data on lawmakers, donations received by their committees or super PACs, and legislation sponsored, out of the ordinary occurrences can be exposed. The Anomaly Tracker tool highlights "anomalies" in our money-and-politics data. An anomaly, as we define it here, is an occurrence that
- [NSA security education posters from the Cold War](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12894/) - ArsTechnica just posted these wild posters from the NSA's security education program. They were released because of the diligence and FOIA request of our friends at the Government Attic where you can see all of the posters. In February of 2016, the people behind the website Government Attic made an unusual Freedom of Information Act
- [Cybersecurity of federal agencies reviewed. 71 of 96 rely on "at risk or high risk" programs](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12889/) - The Washington Post is reporting on the release of a new White House cybersecurity report titled "Federal Cybersecurity Risk Determination Report and Action Plan" (I just submitted it to GPO as a fugitive document!). The report has some very disturbing results showing that federal agencies across the government are struggling to get secure. Read on.
- [Here's what govt info *should* be but isn't currently](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12884/) - Here's a a thought-provoking tweet forwarded to me by Jonathan Petters. Random twitter user Kenny Jacoby found a giant 1,200 page document that he wanted to use -- not read! So what did he do? He banged on it for 8 hours in order to extract all the data from the PDF and convert it
- [CBO scores FDLP Modernization Act](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12880/) - the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently released its scoring or cost estimate of H.R. 5305, FDLP Modernization Act of 2018. CBO is required by law to provide a formal cost estimate for nearly every bill approved by Congressional committees to show how the bill would affect the Federal budget over the next five to 10
- [To read: "Cutting through the Fog: Govt Information, Librarians, & the 45th Presidency"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12869/) - Kian Flynn and Cass Hartnett have just published a solid article in Reference & User Services Quarterly, 57(3) called "Cutting through the Fog: Government Information, Librarians, and the Forty-Fifth Presidency" (full citation below!). In it, they broadly highlight the current govt information landscape -- kindly mention several projects including LOCKSS-USDOCS! -- and then come to
- [Discussing DLC's Title 44 Recommendations. Thoughts and questions](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12364/) - Depository Library Council (DLC) released its recommendations for Title 44 reform yesterday. Title 44 Reform Recommendations from the DLC (October 03 2017) [PDF file]. These recommendations will be at the center of discussions at the upcoming Fall 2017 Depository Library Conference. The entire Monday afternoon session (October 16) will be devoted to a discussion of Title 44
- [Tune in Weds 9:30 am PST to KCSB FM Santa Barbara to hear FGI talk about all things Title 44!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12519/) - UPDATE 11/28/2017: The audio of our interview is now safely preserved and available at the Internet Archive! Our pals Gary Colmenar and Elizabeth Robinson cohost the radio show "No Alibis" on KCSB Santa Barbara wednesdays from 9am - 11am. No Alibis is a "Critical look at news, both domestic and international, from the dystopian to
- [FGI's analysis of the draft Title 44 "reform" bill](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12546/) - [Note: We wrote this analysis based on the text of the draft bill of December 1, 2017. Just before posting we received a new draft bill dated December 11, 2017. A quick comparison shows few significant changes between the two bills, but there are some improvements (we note one below.) We encourage you to suggest
- [Title 44 "reform": Privatization of printing and erosion of GPO functions mean less public access](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12646/) - Happy 2018! We're back after a quiet and relaxing new year hiatus. While it's a new year, we're still in the throes of Congressional "reform" of Title 44 of the US Code, which defines public printing, distribution of government information, and the federal depository library program (FDLP). Up to this point, we had focused our
- [FDLP Modernization Act of 2018 introduced. Take action now to improve the bill!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12745/) - [UPDATE 3/21/2018: The CHA's business meeting has been postponed to Thursday, April 12, 2018 at 11:00 am eastern. JRJ] On March 15th, a bill to "modernize" the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) was finally introduced. There is good news and bad news. • H.R.5305 - FDLP Modernization Act of 2018 The good news is that
- [CFPB considering plan to shut down public database of consumer complaints against banks](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12864/) - Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Mick Mulvaney is considering a plan to shut down the public access to the CFPB database of bank complaints against financial institutions. A coalition of organizations -- including the American Library Association (ALA)! -- has written to Acting Director Mulvaney to protest his plan to end
- [You're invited to the PEGI May Webinar Monday May 14 @ 12pm EDT](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12860/) - Please join the PEGI Project for their May webinar. There's a great list of speakers who will be talking about various efforts and projects to identify, collect, and preserve born-digital government information. and forward on to any of your colleagues and networks who may be interested. See you there! Please join the PEGI project for
- [FGI at GovInfo Day 2018: how to build a sustainable govt information ecosystem](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12841/) - I had the distinct honor to be invited to give the keynote last week at the 20th anniversary of Canadian Govinfo Day held at Simon Fraser University in beautiful downtown Vancouver, BC. It was 2 days of a program chock full of a workshop, updates from Canadian and provincial government information providers, other presentations and
- [Modernizing the FDLP Modernization Act](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12811/) - The so-called FDLP Modernization Act of 2018 (H.R.5305) corrects many of the flaws of the 1993 law. It catches the law up to what it should have been in 1993 and conforms to current GPO practice. Specifically, it requires GPO to provide free access to digital content; it requires GPO to have a program of
- [Hot off the presses. Read AtG special issue: "Ensuring Access to Government Information"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12735/) - Thanks to Shari Laster and Lynda Kellam (our fearless editors!) we've now got all of the articles (or soon to be all) conveniently posted to the Open Science Framework (OSF) wiki. So please enjoy this special issue of Against the Grain (v29 #6 December 2017/January 2018). These are all pre-prints for which the authors have
- [538's Gerrymandering Project takes a deep dive into redistricting and US politics](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12795/) - Check out 538's Gerrymandering Project. It's an exploration into the history, complex issues, and reform ideas surrounding the process of redistricting of the US political map (Constitutionally mandated to be done every 10 years) and gerrymandering, or redrawing political district lines in a partisan, political way. The site includes an amazingly thorough Atlas of Redistricting,
- [GPO Catalogs Declassified CIA CAESAR Series. Preservation still needed.](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12784/) - Good on GPO for cataloging this important declassified CAESAR series of 54 online titles from the CIA. These working papers are a collection of "declassified analytic monographs and reference aids, designated within the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Directorate of Intelligence (DI) as the CAESAR, ESAU, and POLO series, highlights the CIA's efforts from the 1950s
- [Dept. of Commerce must release data under FOIA, not charge $174,000](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12787/) - Many federal government agencies are allowed (and in some cases are required) by law to charge fees for access to data they collect. The US Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) maintains a database of U.S. visitors by their origin, age, residency, port of entry, visa type, and initial destination. ITA charges from thirteen
- [Part 12: Nonlawyer's Journey through Title 44 – Superintendent of Documents; sale of documents](https://freegovinfo.info/node/569/) - 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: Limit access to the information product to the physical depository library, thus forcing people to walk into a building if they want free access. Provide a simultaneous user license to allow depositories to provide remote access to a few users. 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.
- [What is the Federal Depository Library Program?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/368/) - Non document-librarian readers of FGI might be interested in this fact sheet about the Federal Depository Library Program. The fact sheet is somewhat dated (2001?), but still gives a decent idea of what the program is and why it benefits citizens around the country. Briefer, but more recent information about the system can be found at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fdlp.html. To find a Federal Depository Library near you, just point your browser to http://www.gpoaccess.gov/libraries.html.
- [Federal Depository Libraries - GovDocs for Jocks](https://freegovinfo.info/node/555/) - 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
- [Where to Find Government Information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/299/) - If you are looking for information from the government, you are not quite in the right place. The Free Government Information site is devoted to raising awareness of issues related to government information policy, especially those regarding the easily restricted/malleable/trackable digital realm. But since FGI is run by volunteer librarians, we are happy to offer you some starting points for your government information resources: Places to Ask Questions Government Information Online - A free, real-time and e-mail service staffed by government information professionals. USA.Gov Question by e-mail - An offical gov't site to take your questions. USA.Gov hotline and phone directories - Pick up your phone and ask a question. Your local federal depository library - Use this page to find your nearest Federal Depository Library, who can help by phone, e-mail or in-person with your government information needs. Ask-a-Librarian on the Web - Use this link to find web-based librarians waiting to answer general reference questions. Try your local public library - It's always a good idea to give your own library the first crack at a question. After all, you pay for it! Use this link to find the nearest public library near you. Places to do your own research General GPO Federal Digital System - One stop access to thousands of publications from the Government Printing Office. General USA.Gov - Web portal with information by topic for citizens, researchers, government employees and others. Science Science.gov - a gateway to authoritative selected science information provided by U.S. Government agencies, including research and development results. Census American Factfinder - Where you want to go for population and demographic information and anything to do with Census EXCEPT Genealogy. Statistics Fed Stats - Numbers on nearly everything. Congress THOMAS - current federal legislation GAO Reports Government Accountability Office Topic Search - Nonpartisan reports on government operations browseable by topic. CRS Reports Open CRS - Brings together reports on many topics of interest done by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. Directory US Government Manual - Learn more about the structure of our government and locate government contacts. And more... National Security Archives Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Guide - Did you know that most government information is neither classified nor published? But you can ask agencies to provide unpublished information provided it isn't exempted from disclosure. List of Federal FOIA contacts - Once you learn how to make a FOIA request, find out where to file one. Site also has links to "FOIA Reading Rooms" where you can find previously disclosed information. Daniel Cornwall's guide to finding State government information. In addition to this NOT comprehensive list of outside web sites, Free Government Information has a few pages with government resources that are only here because they represent interesting uses of free, fully functional electronic information, or they represent interesting government-to-citizen communication tools. Please see our remixes page, government podcasts page and RSS directories page for examples. Good luck in your government information research! When you're done, please come back and read about the issues that might make your research harder in the future!
- [Nevada Library Assn presentation: Preservation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/297/) - Note: While these remarks are based on the outline I used to prepare my digital preservation talk at the Nevada Library Association, they are not identical to my talk. I work from talking points instead of a script and as a result my remarks will vary each time I give a talk using the same outline. In 1999, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) established an ambitious web-based family history project called "My History is America's History." "My History" aimed to assemble a history of America through the eyes of its citizens from all walks of life. At its height, the site contained hundreds of contributed stories and an extensive guide to collecting and preserving family history. Without warning or explanation, NEH shut down the site in 2002. To this day, no one knows why. To some people at the time, this wasn't a problem. They knew about the Internet Archive, a private project that aimed to collect and preserve the entire Internet. Someone else had obviously taken care of the problem. If only. The well-intentioned Internet Archive spider has limitations. One of these is that it cannot retrieve content behind a search box. So, when you go to an Internet Archive page for "My History is America's History", you get the FOUR family stories that happened to be featured on the front page. Nearly everything else is lost. This is part of the price we pay when we expect "someone else" to solve a problem for us. It's not just family history that is fading away. According to the MIT Technology Review article The Fading Memory of the State, millions of government records and even bits of military history have either disappeared or are on the verge of disappearing. I can say with confidence that we know more about the inner workings of our government in 1945 than future researchers will ever know about the inner workings of government in 2005. And that's assuming total access to intact materials. In today's fifteen minute discussion of Digital Preservation, I wish to address the unique challenges represented by digital materials, cover a few proposed solutions, and end with a few actions you can take today to keep the past from fading away. Challenges While preservation is a concern regardless of format, digital materials offer unique challenges that librarians and other stakeholders must be aware of. Most importantly, no one knows what will work. We know how to preserve paper and have made that last centuries. We're pretty sure how to preserve microforms and some has already survived decades. With the right conditions, we think we can make microforms last centuries too. And as long as humans still have magnifying glasses and light sources, microforms can be read. For both formats, there are established best practices. Not so with digital materials. There are some promising approaches, but no one is claiming they know what will work. This is part of the reason that we at Free Government Information are so insistent on the library community retaining multiple copies of electronic documents. With many documents, many approaches can be tried, and it is likely that at least one approach will work. If we only have one or even ten copies, it seems likely that all will fail. Another unique challenge is media fragility. Paper can last a century or so without special treatment if you're not in the tropics. By contrast, most magnetic media (tapes, floppy disks, hard drives) begin to have major problems after ten years. Optical media (CDs, DVDs) may last 50 years or more IF kept under PERFECT conditions. Keeping optical media under less than ideal conditions may shorten their life to less than a decade. A worse problem than fragile digital media is standards obsolescence. Who here remembers WordStar? Who still has Wang word processors? Popular software such as Microsoft Office changes quickly and older versions often get left behind. Unless there is a market for it. Some formats endure longer than others. ASCII text has been around for decades and HTML is starting its second decade. But these formats don't convey rich information like graphics or fancy formatting. Related to the problem of standards obsolescence is that of closed, proprietary standards. A proprietary standard is one that is owned by a private party and subject to licensing. A closed standard is one where the full file specification is not published. An example of a closed proprietary standard is Microsoft Word. Microsoft does not share the full standard with others. This leads to other word processors (like WordPerfect) to showing a Word document in a different format (for me, pink strike through) than the document showed in word. Closed and proprietary are NOT the same thing. The Adobe PDF and MP3 are two files that are open and proprietary. This means that the full file specification has been published, but the owning company decides who can write software that creates or modifies the files. What does this mean to digital preservation? It means that if you are writing a program to convert older files to a newer format, you must get a license from the owning company, and if the standard is closed, your program will fail to fully reproduce the look and feel of the original document. That's assuming you can find the owning company. Closed proprietary standards of bankrupt companies may be permanently unreadable. Another problem unique to digital materials is a technology called digital rights management or DRM. DRM are technology imposed restrictions on a file's ability to be printed, copied, or even viewed. DRM software can be configured to automatically delete files after a period determined by the publisher. DRM is not copyright aware, so it knows nothing of fair use. It has no timer to put it in the public domain. DRM technology can be used to "protect" public domain materials. A file that is locked down through DRM cannot be successfully migrated to a new format because the DRM software will interpret that as an effort to make an "illegal" copy even though that is a right under copyright law. A final unique challenge presented to us by digital materials is that of access versus ownership. Everyone in the world in 2000 had access to "My History is America's History" In a growing number of states, including Alaska, citizens have access to a large collection of electronic journals. This is great and its a fact that people have more access now than any other time in history -- but what happens if the vendor goes under or a state can't pay its database bill? People are left with nothing. What if the vendor is the government and takes down documents that are inconvenient to the current administration? Citizens lose access. You cannot preserve what you do not possess. II. Possible Solutions So what can we do with digital documents that we've acquired? If the file is sufficiently "document-like", you can make a tangible backup (i.e. Print it out or have it microfilmed). This is what we do in Alaska for "born-digital" publications. We print them off and put them into a non-circulating collection for preservation. The Census Bureau has taken the tangible backup approach as well. They are required to make individual household questionnaires available to the public after 72 years. So how do they intend to fulfill their responsibility to make the individual questionnaires available to the public in 2072? The Bureau is microfilming them. They've also created a digital file that they HOPE will be readable in 2072, but they KNOW the microfilm will be there for future genealogists. A number of large corporations write their important digital files to microfilm using Computer Output Microfilm (COM) technology. The "tangible backup" approach has its limitations. It can only be applied to digital objects that have an analog equivalent. Thus it cannot be used for databases and multimedia like movies and audio recordings. Even for files with an analog equivalent, a tangible backup loses functionality such as in-document searching. The most basic thing that can be done for digital files is refreshing, which is copying files onto a new medium. This will guard against media failure, but does nothing to protect you from standards obsolescence Migration is one of the promising approaches to digital preservation. Migrating a file means moving it from one format to another (i.e. WordPerfect to Word, or Word 95 to Word 2002). For maximum success, it should be done as soon as a new format looks like it is taking market share away from existing formats. If a file format has an open specification and is non-proprietary, like XML or PDF/A, it is more likely to have a successful migration path than a closed proprietary standard. If a file is in a closed proprietary format, or has been copy disabled through DRM, migration may be impossible. Emulation, the practice of using current software and hardware to simulate a different (often older) environment is a promising digital practice and may offer the best chance of retaining the look and feel of older digital materials. Unlike tangible backups, emulation could be used to preserve databases and multimedia. There are examples of working emulators today, most notably for old video games and SoftWindows, which allows a Mac computer to mostly act like a Windows box. Emulation has its problems too. It depends on open standards in operating systems and file formats to be able to write software that is faithful to the original look and feel. SoftWindows isn't Windows, as both Mac and Windows users can tell you. Unless we can specify the original operating system, the original application that created a file, and the original file specification, emulation isn't going to work. Even when we have all these items, emulation can be difficult. What all of the above solutions have in common is that they cannot be implemented in the presence of strong Digital Rights Management (DRM). If DRM doesn't allow printing, you cannot make a tangible backup. If it doesn't allow copying, you cannot refresh the file to a new media and you likely cannot upgrade to a newer format. DRM software is invariably closed and proprietary, so you will not be able to recreate the original DRM scheme in an emulator. The “digital rights” in DRM is for the publisher, not you. That is why we at Free Government Information have repeatedly called on the Government Printing Office to publicly commit to rejecting DRM and are disappointed they have not done so. III. What you can do today to save the past But let's not end on a downer. If we have the will and interest, there are things that we can do to assure the preservation of important "born digital" documents: Start by taking the Cornell University Digital Preservation Tutorial. No matter your level or lack of digital expertise, the people at Cornell will teach you something with their free tutorial. They even have a brief placement test. Keep local copies of e-pubs that are important to you, even if you don't know what to do with them. Maybe you can find a partner who does! Think about joining the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) alliance that has been preserving e-journals for several years and may expand to federal materials. Advocate for open data and operating system standards (i.e. Use or suggest open source whenever possible). This isn't a pipe dream – it is already a reality in Massachusetts and several foreign countries. Finally, if you run a Federal Depository Library, make plans today to store and serve federal e-content on local servers, whether or not those federal publications are in the Federal Depository Library Program. Post those plans to govdoc-l. Although I could talk about digital preservation for hours, like my partners I was alloted 15 minutes. So I hope that I have given you a taste of what's at stake, what are the unique challenges associated with digital materials, what some of the solutions MIGHT be, and hopefully encouraged and empowered some of you to start taking charge of our “born digital” heritage. It will be difficult and costly, but as the only institutions with a specific charge and interest in preserving our historical, cultural, and scientific heritage, libraries must lead as best they can. We are a rare "yesterday and tomorrow" institution in a "only today matters" society. We know that today will be unworkable if people cannot find and use what was done yesterday to plan for tomorrow. Thank you all for being here today. Especially the two-thirds of you that are not documents librarians. It just thrills me to see the wider community caring about the huge amount of federal information that is at stake. Thank you!
- [Privacy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/47/) - *Update October 21,2005: James R. Jacobs, Shinjoung Yeo, and Danial Cornwall were invited to speak at the Nevada Library Association Annual Conference. Here's James' panel presentation about privacy and government information. What you read about your government (or about anything) should be your business. But how well is your privacy protected? There is a great difference in privacy between the analog world of government publications and the Internet. In the analog world you decide the amount of privacy you have; in the digital world the servers of the information decide how much privacy they'll let you have. Let's look at three examples: walking into a federal depository library; viewing information on a library's web site; and downloading a document from Federal Agency X's web site. The Physical Depository Library - You can usually walk right into a Federal Depository Library. There are a few that may ask for identification, but even these libraries do not track your browsing. Once you walk in, you can browse all you like without being tracked. You can take books off the shelves and look through them and if you put them back on the shelves, no one will know what titles you looked through. If you decide to check some reports out of the depository, you'll be protected by the confidentiality statutes of the state where the library is. Since October 2001, it's been possible for your reading records to be turned over to federal authorities, but most libraries erase the record of any books you've checked out once you turn them in. Viewing information on a library web site - Most libraries have websites these days. Many have explicit privacy policies that limit the information that the library collects. Some of the information they could collect include: The address (IP) of your computer or Internet provider. The date and time you accessed their site. The Internet address of the web site that referred you to their site. Tracking information via cookies. Most libraries won't put cookies on your computer. States differ, but most of the time you can expect that your use of the library's web site to be protected by the same laws that safeguard your reading record. Also, if you follow a link off a library's web site, you are no longer covered by their privacy policy. Downloading Files from the website of Federal Agency X - When you go to http://www.fedagencyx.gov; the agency is able to collect the same kinds of information that the library can. According to M-03-22, OMB Guidance for Implementing the Privacy Provisions of the E-Government Act of 2002, federal sites may use cookies if there is a compelling need. According to the same memo, federal agencies must have a policy. We at Free Government Information are unaware of federal statutes protecting federal web browsing. Does this mean we cannot have Internet access to government information without Uncle Sam looking over our shoulder? No. One solution would be to deposit electronic copies of government information with libraries and let the libraries serve the information on their own servers. That way, electronic government documents would be accessed from privacy minded librarians. Even if the government used its new powers under the PATRIOT act, it would have to make literally thousands of requests to find out who has handled a given document. This is unlike the current system, where the gov't can ask its own webmasters for as much data as they like without anyone knowing. For further exploration try... Web resources White House IT Policies Electronic Frontier Foundation Privacy Page Electronic Privacy Information Center Privacy Page Articles Huff, James. Patron Confidentiality, Millennium Style. American Libraries, Jun/Jul99, Vol. 30 Issue 6, p86, 2p, Martin, Shannon; Chamberlin, Bill F.; Dmitrieva, Irina. State Laws Requiring World Wide Web Dissemination of Information: A Review of State Government Mandates for Documents Online. Information & Communications Technology Law, Jun2001, Vol. 10 Issue 2, p167, 12p, Murphy, Bernadette. Privacy and government information issues: Looking forward, looking back. College & Research Libraries News, Feb2005, Vol. 66 Issue 2, p132, 1p; Books General Accounting Office. (2000). Internet privacy: comparison of federal agency practices with FTC's fair information principles . Washington DC: General Accounting Office. Hernon, Peter. (2002). United States government information : policies and sources. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. Podesta, John and Shane, Peter M. (2004). A little knowledge : privacy, security, and public information after September 11th. New York: Century Foundation Press. Please post suggestions for this bibliography in the comments section.
- [Presidential Signing Statements Affecting Government Information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/641/) - As most informed people are aware, President Bush has been very active in producing Presidential signing statements that appear to indicate portions of laws signed that the Executive branch will either not carry out at all, or will carry out according to the President's interpretation. We at Free Government Information have noticed recent Presidential signing statements that appear to waive a number of reporting requirements, either to Congress or to the American people. We do not approve of this. In the spirit of sunshine being the best disinfectant, we have decided to collect signing statements where the President appears to state that he will not honor an Act of Congress to provide information. Since the President has used this hidden and untested veto power hundreds of times according to some accounts, we at FGI are hoping that you will send us instances of earlier siging statements that ignore reporting requirements. Here is a searchable database that includes signing statements to get you started. Here's what we have so far:
- [20060615 - No notice of reviving programs explicitly cancelled by Congress](https://freegovinfo.info/node/648/) - Reposted from a July 2006 blog entry: 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: Sections 1209 and 2202 of the Act prohibit use of certain funds appropriated in the Act to initiate new start programs unless the congressional defense committees receive advance written notice. The Supreme Court of the United States has stated that the President's authority to classify and control access to information bearing on the national security flows from the Constitution and does not depend upon a legislative grant of authority. Although the advance notice contemplated by sections 1209 and 2202 can be provided in most situations as a matter of comity, situations may arise, especially in wartime, in which the President must act promptly under his constitutional grants of executive power and authority as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces while protecting certain extraordinarily sensitive national security information. The executive branch shall construe these sections in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President. 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: The provision under the heading, ``Joint Explosive Device Defeat Fund,'' Department of Defense-Military, that calls for the reporting to congressional committees of information that may include highly sensitive and classified national security information, will be construed consistently with the President's constitutional responsibility to control the dissemination of such information. 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.
- [New Presidential Signing Statements purport to suspend reporting requirements](https://freegovinfo.info/node/550/) - 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: Sections 1209 and 2202 of the Act prohibit use of certain funds appropriated in the Act to initiate new start programs unless the congressional defense committees receive advance written notice. The Supreme Court of the United States has stated that the President's authority to classify and control access to information bearing on the national security flows from the Constitution and does not depend upon a legislative grant of authority. Although the advance notice contemplated by sections 1209 and 2202 can be provided in most situations as a matter of comity, situations may arise, especially in wartime, in which the President must act promptly under his constitutional grants of executive power and authority as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces while protecting certain extraordinarily sensitive national security information. The executive branch shall construe these sections in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President. 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: The provision under the heading, ``Joint Explosive Device Defeat Fund,'' Department of Defense-Military, that calls for the reporting to congressional committees of information that may include highly sensitive and classified national security information, will be construed consistently with the President's constitutional responsibility to control the dissemination of such information. 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.
- [Toward a definition of "virtual depository"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/602/) - virtual: 1. Existing or resulting in essence or effect though not in actual fact, form, or name. 2. Existing in the mind, especially as a product of the imagination. 3. temporarily simulated or extended by computer software. Usage note: When virtual was first introduced in the computational sense, it applied to things simulated by the computer, like virtual memory; that is, memory that is not actually built into the processor. --from Dictionary.com Depository: 1. a place where something is deposited or stored, as for safekeeping: the night depository of a bank. 2. a depositary; trustee. 3. of or pertaining to a depository or depositories. --from Dictionary.com A recent post on govdoc-l regarding virtual depositories, piqued my etymological interest. please bear with me as I explore the meaning of "virtual depository." It should be obvious that the two words "virtual" and "depository" are oxymoronic, like jumbo shrimp or military intelligence. The word "Depository" infers that something (money, govt documents...) is actually given to a trusted entity (a bank or library) to be stored for safekeeping. But how can something that's not actually there but only hinted at or pointed to, something simulated and not tangible, be placed in the care of some trusted entity? The term "virtual depository" then, is a misnomer. Putting aside this perplexity for the time being, let's look at "virtual depository" within a library context. The Govt Printing Office (GPO) has been experimenting with "virtual depositories" since 2002 when they teamed up with the University of Arizona for a pilot virtual depository in which the library selected online resources instead of printed/tangible items. Basically, the project substituted actual deposit of paper documents in the library's collection for links in the library's online catalog to digital documents housed on GPO servers. The FDLP community has been steadily moving toward "virtual depositories" since then as more and more government documents become born digital with no paper equivalent. As many of our loyal readers know, we at FGI have long advocated for GPO to actually deposit digital documents in depository libraries. Actual deposit (as opposed to virtual deposit) of digital documents, we feel, is an important way to assure access to and preservation of government information (see "Government Information in the Digital Age: The Once and Future Federal Depository Library Program"). A search of current depository management publications failed to turn up any formal definition of a "virtual depository", much less management procedures. So, since there appears to be no official definition of "virtual depository," I'd like to take this opportunity to propose one: Virtual depository: a collection of digital government documents published by the Government Printing Office (GPO) and/or various government agencies and distributed to and hosted on the local servers of FDLP libraries so as to adhere to Title 44 of the US code and assure the provision of no fee and fully-functional access, distributed digital preservation and better and more expanded services to government information. This is of course a definition in progress meant to open discussion on what exactly it'll mean to be a depository library in the digital future. I realize that I've proposed a definition after showing it to be meaningless; however, the term has already been released into the wilds of the govt documents community lexicon (and GPO, I assume, will continue to use the term). I thought it best to define it in order to highlight the core roles of libraries (collecting, organizing, preserving and giving access to information). "Digital depository" might be a more meaningful term, so community members may want to start using that instead. The first step is of course to define our terms clearly and succinctly and hopefully I have done that here. We'd greatly appreciate any comments you may have. And if you can coin a better term, please leave that in the comments as well.
- [Preservation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/46/) - *Update October 21,2005: James R. Jacobs, Shinjoung Yeo, and Danial Cornwall were invited to speak at the Nevada Library Association Annual Conference. Here's Daniel's panel presentation about preservation and government information. Preserving government information is key to our survival as a nation. If we don't remember what we've done and why we've done it, repeating history may be the least of our worries. In the analog world, preservation is a relative simple matter of caring for a physical object. Millions of people can visit the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights because the National Archives has taken care of the paper these documents are written on. Since the words of these important documents are human readable, no machinery is needed to make the words understandable. Given the proper conditions, citizens celebrating our nation's 500th anniversary in 2276 will be able to read these core documents of history. By contrast, digital publications and data are fragile. The main enemies of the successful preservation of digital materials are the media and the file format the data is in. Currently there are two types of media for storing digital data - magnetic and optical. Magnetic encompasses audio and video tapes, floppy drives, removable hard drives, flash drives and magnetic tape. Optical media includes the various flavors of CDs and DVDs. Magnetic media has a proven poor track record as a durable storage format. Most magnetic media may last from 10-20 years. If material isn't copied onto new magnetic media, it can be lost. Optical media fares better in terms of holding data without decay. The National Institute of Standards and Technology estimates that CD-R's and DVD-Rs may last several tens of years. Some people estimate the lifetime of the highest quality of optical media to be close to a century. Still, this is only a fraction of the lifetime of quality paper or the estimated lifetime of microfilm. However, length of media is really the least of our worries. A much greater problem is technological obsolescence. Have you tried to read a 5 1/4" disk or pull up a Wordstar document lately? There are many examples of lost data because no equipment or software exists to read it. Data could be lost to technological obsolescence within ten years if it's not migrated into new formats. So, how can we preserve digital information? Currently, no one knows how to best preserve digital information in a digital format, though there are some promising approaches. So far the safest approach is the "analog backup"; otherwise known as making tangible copies. There are several groups studying the preservation of digital government information, including the Government Printing Office, the National Archives, the ALA Government Documents Roundtable and the LOCKSS group at Stanford University. For further exploration try... Web resources
- [Comments on DLC Vision Draft](https://freegovinfo.info/dlc_vision_comments) - We think Daniel Cornwall's recent comments regarding the DLC Vision statement were thoughtful and thorough. We'd like to add a few additions and stress some of his more important points. We thank the DLC for opening the discussion on the future of the FDLP and offer this constructive criticism in the hope that the DLC will find some information of use to the final draft. We feel that there are strong reasons for having an FDLP into the future. Click here for the printer-friendly version of this post We believe that the draft could be greatly improved by changing its tone in Part I from a negative focus ("no longer exclusive...," "superseded FDLs," "curtain call for FDLP") to a positive vision of the role of libraries in the future. The tone of the current draft seems to imply that FDLP libraries need to recapture what was once a captive audience. Rather than focusing only on "access" (and thereby ignoring and diminishing the importance for libraries to select, acquire, organize, and preserve information for a constituency), Part I could describe both the effects and opportunities of digital information distribution including the provision of new and better services. We believe that the vision statement would be improved if it, instead, took a more positive and innovative approach to the future, rather than looking to the past.
- [Depository Library Council Vision](https://freegovinfo.info/DLCvision) - In September, 2005 the Depository Library Council (DLC) published Federal Government Information Environment of the 21st Century: Towards a Vision Statement and Plan of Action for Federal Depository Libraries. Discussion Paper. They're currently collecting comments on their DLC Vision blog. FGI encourages everyone to read this document, post comments to the blog, to FGI, and, if you happen to be going to the Fall, 2005 Depository Library Council meeting in D.C., raise your questions and comments there. FGI's comments to this first draft of a vision for the future Federal Depository Library Program are below. Here are Daniel's takes on the 4 sections of the Vision draft. And here is Jim's Comment on the "non-exclusive environment" Below are the comments of Jim Jacobs, James Jacobs and Shinjoung Yeo that were originally posted on the FGI blog We think Daniel Cornwall's recent comments regarding the DLC Vision statement were thoughtful and thorough. We'd like to add a few additions and stress some of his more important points. We thank the DLC for opening the discussion on the future of the FDLP and offer this constructive criticism in the hope that the DLC will find some information of use to the final draft. We feel that there are strong reasons for having an FDLP into the future. We believe that the draft could be greatly improved by changing its tone in Part I from a negative focus ("no longer exclusive...," "superseded FDLs," "curtain call for FDLP") to a positive vision of the role of libraries in the future. The tone of the current draft seems to imply that FDLP libraries need to recapture what was once a captive audience. Rather than focusing only on "access" (and thereby ignoring and diminishing the importance for libraries to select, acquire, organize, and preserve information for a constituency), Part I could describe both the effects and opportunities of digital information distribution including the provision of new and better services. We believe that the vision statement would be improved if it, instead, took a more positive and innovative approach to the future, rather than looking to the past. Here are some specific changes that could make it both stronger and more forward-looking. On the effect of the web on access, it would be more accurate to say that the web adds a new, welcome, and very useful way for some (though far from all) citizens to get information. The DLC vision should describe the opportunities for FDLs to facilitate access to ALL citizens. Many citizens still do not have broadband access, and Americans are now adopting broadband more slowly than they have in the past. Many government web sites are designed to be most effective if the user has broadband access. Therefore, there are opportunities for libraries to facilitate access to all citizens. (This can include providing public broadband terminals and having digital and print copies on hand in local collections.) The vision needs to recognize that the ability of users to "access" government information is not enough; libraries should make information easier to find and use. Digitally-distributed information provides opportunities for many different aggregations and views of the vast amount of information available from the government. We already see that, for the government itself, one "portal" is not enough. FirstGov, GPO Access, fedrnd.osti.gov, science.gov, Ben's Guide, and THOMAS are just a few of the "portals" available. We take the view that more-views-are-better because each can cater to a specific user group. Libraries have the opportunity to build such views based on their own collections that include, not just federal government information, but also information from local and international governments, private publishers and institutional repositories. Libraries should encourage and facilitate such use and re-use of government information and should actively participate in such use and re-use. Providing pointers to information on servers that are not controlled by the library is only one way to do this. A more secure and sustainable approach is to build actual digital collections. By building focused, locally controlled, digital collections that include government information as well as non-government information, libraries can make it easier for users to find information. While the DLC vision addresses some roles for GPO, it omits some crucial ones. One essential role for GPO is to provide no-fee, fully functional digital content. Another is to take an active approach to notifying libraries and the public of all new and changed content. Those looking for government information should not be required to browse or spider government web sites hoping to find new or changed information. The DLC vision statement should clearly state that GPO must actively notify libraries of new information based on library-defined profiles (similar to item lists) and either "push" new content to FDLP libraries or allow for the easy "pull" by libraries of content they select. The vision needs to identify roles that none but libraries will fulfill. The vision statement could describe at least some of these roles. These could include selecting and organizing and integrating materials from different sources (e.g., the federal government, private sector, other governments) to create integrated collections for particular constituencies; reusing and recombining information to create new information services; and preserving information. While the private sector and the government will certainly provide some useful tools and services, it would be wrong for the library community to assume that government or market priorities will always match the needs of our users. We should not assume that others will fill in gaps left by libraries shirking their responsibilities. Libraries must also recognize that the web has not created an environment where the private sector will assume responsibilities for no-fee, permanent public access to all information for all users forever. While it makes sense to use tools created by others (e.g., Google, GPO collection, private sector products etc.) as long as they exist and are useful, libraries should not ignore their own responsibilities for providing collections, tools, and services. While the remainder of the draft promotes the concept of "service," those parts are negatively affected by Part I. Instead of describing a future in which libraries can offer enhanced services by making use of the opportunities of digital information, the services described are rather passive and do little more than piggy-back on services actually offered by others (government and private sector). We offer some ideas of what might be a fourth "possible future for the FDLP" in our paper, Government Information in the Digital Age: The Once and Future Federal Depository Library Program (Journal of Academic Librarianship, May 2005, Vol.31, No.3, pp198-208.) particularly in the sections "The Once and Future FDLP" and "Stakeholder Roles." We won't repeat those ideas here, but instead will list a few small examples of possible future FDLP library services. Information should be used and reused. A first year graduate student created GovTrack.us which draws information from THOMAS, House and Senate pages, Congressional Budget Office, and Federal Election Commission and creates new information for tracking and researching activities of Congress. What if libraries did things like this? Libraries such as Oregon State University and the California Digital Library have done just such projects in the past and can do more of this in the future, especially if digital deposit is part of the future FDLP. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) (trac.syr.edu) actively acquires information from the government through FOIA and other means and assembles it for public use. Libraries equipped to accept digital deposit would also be able to include in their collections FOIA-acquired information and "fugitive" documents; in so doing they would facilitate projects like TRAC by providing regular updates of public data through their digital selection, acquisition, and delivery technologies. Libraries regularly find broken "PURLs" and dutifully report them to GPO. If there was digital deposit, libraries could provide pointers to the local copy and the original so that when a PURL breaks, the user still has a copy of the document while the broken PURL is being fixed. All libraries do not have all the digital amenities of large, better-funded, libraries. Many of the users of such libraries may also lack the tools (e.g., broadband access, up-to-date hardware and software), training, and experience increasingly required to find, locate, and use information on the Internet. But even small libraries could help users by acquiring copies of needed information once and adding that information to a local collection (on a stand-alone PC, or even CD or DVD) so that users could get those documents instantly rather than re-downloading them. Digital deposit could also facilitate innovative collaborations between large and small libraries. While digital versions of information are often useful, the digital format is not always the most usable for simple reading, browsing, preserving, or even reference. Libraries could acquire ready-to-print versions of digital documents and print them for their print collection or provide a local print-on-demand service. Academic libraries are increasingly creating Institutional Repositories (IRs) for storing digital versions of academic research. Libraries could use those IRs for storing local copies of digital government information, thus creating integrated collections from multiple sources and providing the same tools for finding and locating government information that they provide for academic research. It seems to us that the current draft assumes that GPO will provide permanent, no-fee access to all digital government information. GPO, however, does not have the ability to make such a guarantee. Because GPO is a government agency that is subject to rules and budgets set by others, is subject to pressure from the private sector not to compete, and even has a public printer who has characterized Congressional support for permanent public no-fee access as a "hand out" rather than as an essential role of government, the DLC vision statement should not base its possible futures for the FDLP on this assumption. Finally, we are well aware that, while a few of us have been vocally advocating digital deposit for some time, govdoc-l and other forums have not had extensive discussion of this issue. Many librarians have been quiet while a few have expressed opinions. At freegovinfo.info we did a very un-scientific survey and received 153 (92%) positive responses to the question, "Should GPO deposit digital files in FDLP libraries?" As Daniel Cornwall has suggested (govdoc-l post on 9/22/05, Subject: "85% Library Support for local deposit of federal e-pubs?") GPO's own, more comprehensive poll of FDLP libraries shows that there are few libraries (15%) that have little interest in digital deposit which implies that most libraries are interested in digital deposit. Since GPO has explicitly asked FDLP libraries about the delivery of digital content to depositories through "Automatic push of content from GPO," we suggest that DLC should have in hand the full results of the GPO study before dismissing the option of digital deposit from its vision of the future. If hundreds of libraries express a high or very high interest in this, it would be consistent to offer a fourth possible future of digital deposit. For over 150 years, the FDLP community has worked collaboratively to inform citizens. There are very few organizations that have lasted as long for such a noble cause. We hope the DLC's revised vision will reflect this fourth possible future for a strong, vibrant FDLP that we have described. James A. Jacobs, James R. Jacobs, Shinjoung Yeo.
- [New versions of JAL FDLP article now available](https://freegovinfo.info/node/135/) - The article, "Government Information in the Digital Age: The Once and Future Federal Depository Library Program" by James A. Jacobs, James R. Jacobs and Shinjoung Yeo, previously available as a pre-print here, is now available in new versions. In print: Journal of Academic Librarianship, (May 2005), Vol.31, No.3, pp198-208. Official online version: doi:10.1016/j. acalib.2005.02.006
- [Daniel's Take: Managing Collections and Delivering Content](https://freegovinfo.info/node/222/) - The comments below reference the Managing Collections and Delivering Content section of the September 2005 Depository Library Council publication The Federal Government Information Environment of the 21st Century: Towards a Vision Statement and Plan of Action for Federal Depository Libraries. Discussion Paper Prior comments on this discussion paper: General comments Library Roles in the Non-Exclusive Environment Adding Value Of all the sections in the DLC discussion paper, Managing Collections and Delivering Content is the most disappointing. This was the place for a ringing endorsement of local, geographically disbursed, deposit of fully functional electronic files free of Digital Rights Management (DRM) that local depositories could make available on the Internet. I hope and pray that such a vision of the future can embrace such a simple, yet essential element. If not by the Depository Library Council, then by ALA GODORT or some other documents-oriented organization.
- [Peter Suber on Open Access to Government Information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/94/) - Peter Suber is a tireless advocate of open access. His Open Access News blog is the definitive source of news on the open access movement to scholarly communication. On April 22, Suber added this comment to the story about the Santorum bill that would drastically limit distribution of weather data by the government: The argument used by Santorum --that government shouldn't compete with private-sector companies-- has been used against OA to research literature as well. If the private-sector companies are not repackaging and reselling publicly-funded resources, then this argument might be taken seriously. But when they charge customers for something already paid by the customers' taxes, then the argument collapses. For example, if the private weather companies collected the same data at their own expense, then it might be wasteful duplication for the government to do so as well. But if the companies want to use publicly-funded data, then their request to be the sole distributors is simply the request to rip off the public. Governments have an obligation to prevent that from happening, not an obligation to step back and let it happen. Santorum wants to end OA to publicly-funded weather data Suber has posted more information about the bill and its supporters here.
- [In response to the "Economic case against homosexuality"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2820/) - Recently Bert Chapman, the Government Information & Political Science Librarian and Professor of Library Science at Purdue University, posted a comment (An Economic Case Against Homosexuality) on his blog (Conservative Librarian, October 27, 2009). We disagree both with Bert's premises (that homosexuality is "aberrant " or a "lifestyle" or that it is a "threat" to "traditional sexual morality") and with his conclusions (that "the extremely high financial costs" justify imposing one's religious beliefs on others). In fact, we do not believe that any economic argument could justify denying basic human rights to members of our society. Jonathan Swift made this point better than we ever could in his satiric piece, A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick (1729). We understand that, in a secular country whose citizens embrace many (often conflicting) religious beliefs, we make economic and legal choices democratically all the time. Those decisions come from what we as a society value collectively, democratically. We make those choices with the understanding that the process will yield good decisions for all (including minorities). We also believe that, in this country, we have an explicit, Constitutional responsibility to refrain from imposing one religious or philosophical belief on others who do not share that belief. Although we reject Bert's premise that economics can be used as an argument "against homosexuality," we do recognize that some people might find Bert's "economic case" convincing even if they do not share Bert's religious beliefs. For that reason, we think it important, even necessary, to address the factual inaccuracies of Bert's posting. Our colleague and guest FGI blogger Amy West, Data Services Librarian at the University of Minnesota, has investigated Bert's claims and reports, below, on her findings. --FGI ============================================= Introduction As the FGI folks say above, I'm not planning to discuss the premises underlying Bert's article. Instead, I will take his arguments as is and respond. As I look at the comments he's received on his site, on the article in Inside Higher Ed (http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/11/13/purdue) and on professional listservs, I notice no one has systematically addressed the figures he presents, or more commonly doesn't present. So, paragraph by paragraph, here's what I found... Paragraph One: Introduction - no factual assertions Paragraph Two: Federal Expenditures on HIV/AIDS Bert says that federal expenditures on HIV/AIDS related activities in 2008 are $23.3 billion dollars, but provides no citation. So, I went to the Consolidated Federal Funds Report (CFFR) from the Bureau of the Census. The CFFR provides annual reports on funds expended by the federal government. According to the CFFR, in Fiscal Year 2008, the federal government expended $3,692,496,880 on activities related to HIV and AIDS.(1) However, the total amount of federal expenditures is $4,416,612,547,616 or $4.4 trillion dollars. Thus, HIV/AIDS expenditures would be 0.08% of all federal expenditures. Yes, $3.6 billion dollars is a lot of money, but in context of the overall federal budget, it's a tiny, tiny portion of the pie. Does this really constitute an undue burden on the overall population? For some additional perspective, keep in mind that federal flood insurance expenditures for FY 2008 were $1.16 trillion dollars or 26% of total federal expenditures.(2) Paragraph Three: Costs from pharmaceuticals and patient care as a result of sexually transmitted diseases. Bert suggests that we should factor in costs from behaviors he's opposed to, but doesn't provide any such data himself - just implies that there must be a cost and it must be significant. However, if you look at the leading causes of death from the Centers for Disease Control, you'll see that the number one cause of death in the U.S. is heart disease.(3) Further, as of 2005, Forbes.com reported that the best-selling drug in the U.S. was Lipitor ($8.4 billion in sales in the list attached to the article), which treats high cholesterol (a factor in heart disease).(4) Given the readily available data showing that other diseases and associated treatments are significant factors in health care costs, it's going to take more than an assertion to make this point. It's also worth noting that $8.4 billion dollars in sales for a single drug for a single health condition in 2005 is more than double all federal spending on HIV/AIDS programs for 2008 as reported in the CFFR. Paragraph Four: HIV/AIDS in Prisons The inclusion of this paragraph is a mystery. Rape is certainly bad in any circumstance, but the relationship of prison rape to HIV/AIDS and any economic costs is left unstated in Bert's post. Of note is the series HIV in Prisons published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics which shows that for 2006, "1.6% of male inmates and 2.4% of female inmates in state and federal prisons were known to be HIV positive or to have confirmed AIDS."(5) HIV in Prisons sheds no light on how or when the prisoners acquired HIV/AIDS because of the varied methods in which testing occurs in prisons.(6) Paragraph Five: Domestic Partner Employee Benefits Reduce Benefits to Heterosexual Couples Once again, there is no data here, just assertions. There is reference to an article called "Do Domestic Partner Benefits Make Good Economic Sense?" as a source of supporting data.(7) This article relies on a single study of small businesses to make arguments regarding all domestic partnership benefit packages from all employers of all sizes. Yet, even the authors of this article acknowledge that there exists no data to prove their claims when they say "To date there is very little publicly available data-and no publicly available actuarial studies-on the cost of health-care for live-in partners, for nearly 90 percent of the employers with such benefits adopted them within the past six years. Moreoever, most employers and insurers either do not track the cost of domestic partnership benefits separately, or do not disclose the information publicly. Accordingly, it is nearly impossible to accurately predict the cost of granting cohabitation benefits."(8) In fact, the study on which they rely analyzed small businesses. It may well be that adding domestic partnership benefits is more expensive for small companies than large companies, but that could just be an effect of the overall structure of health care in the U.S. According to the fact sheet "The Economic Effects of Health Care Reform on Small Businesses and their Employees" from the Council of Economic Advisers, the current structure of health care means that small businesses usually pay 18% more the same sets of benefits as large employers, regardless of what those benefits might be.(9) Paragraph Six: Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage nationwide will increase costs for insurance, estate planning, divorce There is no data in this paragraph; just what a "what-if" scenario. Since only five states allow same-sex marriages and federal law actively bans them, there simply is no data on which to base speculations on the effect of expanding marriage to more people with respect to insurance, estate planning and divorce law.(10) It is worth noting though that for those people who do have the option to marry, not all is rosy: nearly half of all marriages end in divorce.(11) Any increase in costs associated with marriage and divorce (if there are any) must lie with heterosexual couples because they are only ones with a guaranteed right to do both nationwide. Paragraph Seven: Conclusion - - no factual assertions Conclusion Bert describes his post as a description of "substantive realities which cannot be denied". However, as I show above, he describes neither current reality nor provides indisputable data. If there is an economic case to be made against homosexuality, it's not present here. (1) West, Amy. "HIV/AIDS Expenditures." Consolidated Federal Funds Report. https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AuLB6VoqlRSidE11YVZBMFRMZFB2UzhiQ2pLS0NzblE&hl=en. Accessed 11/16/09. (2) Bureau of the Census. "Table 9. Federal Government Insurance Programs—Volume of Coverage Provided by State and Outlying Area: Fiscal Year 2008." Consolidated Federal Funds Report for Fiscal Year 2008. http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/cffr-08.pdf. Accessed 11/16/09. (3) Centers for Disease Control. "Deaths and Mortality." FASTSTATS. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm. Accessed 11/16/09. (4) Herper, Matthew. "The Best-Selling Drugs In America." Forbes.com. http://www.forbes.com/2006/02/27/pfizer-merck-genentech-cx_mh_0224topsellingdrugs.html. Accessed 11/16/09. (5) Maruschak, Laura M. "Highlights." HIV in Prisons, 2006. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/html/hivp/2006/hivp06.htm#highlights. Accessed 11/16/09. (6) Maruschak, Laura M. "HIV Testing in Prisons." HIV in Prisons, 2006. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/html/hivp/2006/hivp06.htm#testing. Accessed 11/16/09. (7) Corporate Resource Council. Do Domestic Partner Benefits Make Good Economic Sense? http://www.corporateresourcecouncil.org/white_papers/DP_Good_Business_Sense.pdf. Accessed 11/16/09. (8)ibid, pg. 1. (9)Council of Economic Advisors. The Economic Effects of Health Care Reform on Small Businesses and their Employees. http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cea/Health-Care-Reform-and-Small-Businesses. Accessed 11/16/09. (10) United States Congress. To define and protect the institution of marriage. P.L. 104-199. http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=104_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ199.104. Accessed 11/16/09. (11) Centers for Disease Control. "Marriage and Divorce." FASTSTATS. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/divorce.htm. Accessed 11/16/09.
- [Save Government Information!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12738/) - Library Journal published our opinion piece in its "Peer to Peer Review" section today: Save Government Information! by James A. Jacobs and James R. Jacobs. Library Journal Peer to Peer Review (March 15, 2018). In it, we make the case that the impending Title 44 bill does not go far enough to building a truly
- [Republicans Seek to Force a Census Undercount](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12731/) - We've been hearing about problems with the 2020 census for quite some time. For those interested, the Census Project, an organization that "supports a fair and accurate 2020 Census and comprehensive American Community Survey," has a ton of good information. This latest article by DCReport "Republicans Seek to Force a Census Undercount" has a goodly
- [2/22 draft Title 44 "reform" bill now available. Help us dig through it.](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12725/) - We got our hands on a copy of the 2/22 draft "GPO Reform Act of 2018." So now we can read GPO's comments on the draft alongside the actual draft. Please help us dig through and let us know where the potential roadblocks and poison pills are at. Our general working assumption is that chapter
- [The EPA's Website after a year of climate change censorship](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12719/) - Here's a good article from Time Magazine -- "Here's What the EPA's Website Looks Like After a Year of Climate Change Censorship" -- which accurately reports how the Trump Administration and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt have changed, skewed or deleted government information from the EPA Website for crass political purposes. For more in-depth analysis of
- [GPO posts comments to 2/22 draft Title 44 "reform" bill. Still replete w poison pills](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12713/) - GPO just released its comments on the latest draft Title 44 "reform" bill dated February 22, 2018 (here's a PDF copy saved to FGI's servers for posterity). The latest draft of the bill has not been made publicly available beyond GPO and a few lobbyists, so I have not seen this version. But it's clear
- [Historical election data and mapping now easier than ever!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12705/) - I’ve been exploring the Constituency-Level Elections Archive (CLEA) and have been impressed by their historical lower house election data coverage from countries around the world, not just the US Congress. Things are really starting to shape up (pun intended!) in having access to historical election results! And through the work of Jeffrey B. Lewis et
- [GPO releases comments on draft Title 44 reform bill](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12685/) - The Government Publishing Office (GPO) has recently made public their comments regarding the draft title 44 reform bill (PDF) currently working its way through the Congressional Committee on House Administration (CHA). GPO's comments are broken into the following sections: Contracting out congressional printing Decentralizing agency printing Work produced in agency plants Economic impact on GPO
- [2016 End of Term Web Archive is now available](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12700/) - The 2016 end of term .gov/.mil web crawl is now available! We collected approximately 300TB of government websites which includes over "70 million html pages, over 40 million PDFs and, towards the other end of the spectrum and for semantic web aficionados, 8 files of the text/turtle mime type" as well as @100TB of public
- [Legal Link Rot](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12697/) - The good folks at perma.cc recently conducted a "quick review" of the links in court filings made in the last five years by three of the largest law firms in the U.S. Link Rot for Lawyers: a Prodigious Problem. (February 1, 2018) They found that over 80% had at least one broken link and that,
- [Threats to Government Data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12691/) - Researchers at the Brookings Institution are monitoring the Trump administration’s management of federal government data sources. Threats to Government Data Are Threats to Democracy, by Andre Perry and Katherine Guyot, The Brookings Institution. Government Executive (February 8, 2018). Census. The Census Bureau has canceled crucial preparations for the upcoming decennial census because of persistent underfunding
- [ICPSR to host new U.S. Census Bureau Data Repository](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12693/) - Check out this cool new partnership between the US Census Bureau and Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) to archive and preserve data for future use. This deepens the longstanding collaboration between the two organizations. You can find it online at census.icpsr.umich.edu/. A new U.S. Census Bureau Data Repository has been launched to
- [Government Tech Agency 18F in Decline](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12682/) - Fedscoop reports that 18F, an office within the General Services Administration (GSA) tasked with improving how the government delivers services to the public, has less than half the employees it had 18 months ago. The rise and fall of 18F, by Daniel Castro, Fedscoop (Feb 6, 2018). Virtually all this attrition is likely voluntary and
- [Suggestions for Revisions to Chapter 5 of the Title 44 Bill](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12659/) - The draft bill to reform Title 44 of the U.S. Code provides some much needed improvements over the current law. It explicitly requires GPO to follow existing privacy laws and would, for the first time, legally require GPO to preserve digital government information. It also removes the provision that allows GPO to charge for online
- [The Congressional Joint Committee On Printing (JCP) Should Be Kept](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12611/) - [Editor's note: Bernadine Abbott Hoduski has generously contributed the following article about the proposal to abolish the Joint Committee on Printing in the draft bill to reform Title 44 of the U.S. Code. No one is better placed to help us understand the importance of the JCP. She is a (retired) Professional Staff Member of
- [MSU scholars find $21 trillion in unauthorized government spending. Agencies disable links to key documents](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12636/) - I visited the MSU Today news site for the headline about massive unauthorized spending happening at the Department of Defense and Housing and Urban Development. That in and of itself was troubling. But what really drew my attention was in the 2nd paragraph where it stated that the agencies' Inspector Generals(!) -- which are supposed
- [Bill introduced requiring Congressionally mandated reports be deposited to GPO](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12607/) - The Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act (ACMRA) H.R. 4631 was introduced yesterday by Representative Mike Quigley. If passed, it will require that all Congressionally mandated reports be deposited in a publicly accessible database maintained by the GPO. For more background, see Daniel Schuman's writeup and background. The Washington Post wrote about the problem a
- [Here we go again: GPO wants to change Title 44](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12123/) - In case you missed it, in a simple announcement after the 2017 annual ALA meeting GPO Director Davita Vance-Cooks asked the Depository Library Council (DLC) to make recommendations for changes in Chapter 19 of Title 44 of the U.S. Code (Title 44 Modernization: Contribute Your Ideas, FDLP (June 27 2017). This is a big deal. Chapter 19
- [Schultze argues that PACER Should Be Free in new paper. FGI concurs!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12543/) - Our friend Stephen Schultze, a 3rd year Georgetown University law student (formerly associate director of the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University), argues in a new paper that the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system should be free. We concur! Schultze, Stephen, The Price of Ignorance: The Constitutional Cost of Fees
- [Bringing GPO into the Digital World](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3076/) - Mike Wash, CIO for the Government Printing Office, is Washington Post's Federal Player of the Week. Also interesting, this article was jointly prepared by the Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service, which strives to improve federal government performance and recognize the good, hard work of our public servants. In an environment replete with knee-jerk anti-government sentiment, such work seems especially important for enhancing the public's understanding of government professionals' work and impact. Another similar organization I follow is Understanding Government, which supports excellence in reporting of the executive branch. Of course, we need our watchdogs and gadflies to push back against government secrecy, but we also need to know when people at all levels of government are doing things well.
- [Tax bill’s automatic spending cuts would decimate GPO along w many critical programs](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12539/) - I was struck by the data visualization in today's NY Times UpShot column which showed just how much impact the "tax cut" bill would have on government services across the federal government for at least the next 10 years! "If Congress passes its tax bill and then takes no other action, the funding for dozens
- [Volunteer to describe state gov info!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12535/) - The Archive of the California Government Domain, CA.gov, is a collaborative project run by government information librarians at the University of California and Stanford University, coordinated by the California Digital Library (CDL) with support from the California State Library & California State Archives. The project is hosting a metadata sprint December 6-13 to improve description for
- [Many Federal Websites Again Fail to Meet Basic Standards for Speed and Security](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12530/) - About 91 percent of federal websites failed at least one of the government and industry standards for design and development in the latest test by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). The metrics analyzed included an assessment of speed, accessibility and security. Benchmarking U.S. Government Websites [Summary], by Daniel Castro, Galia Nurko, and Alan
- [New GPO IG report includes troubling findings regarding fugitives and FDLP](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12513/) - "although the exact number of USDA publications could not be determined, the amount would be a small percentage because GPO focuses most of its efforts on congressional publications." We just came across this recent report of the GPO Inspector General (IG) called "Additional Information Needed for Ensuring Availability of Government Information Through the Federal Depository
- [The mystery of the suspended U.S. government Twitter accounts](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12510/) - here's a strange story unfolding. Our End of Term project friend Justin Littman from George Washington University, was doing some maintenance on the official US government twitter accounts that had been captured for the End of Term crawl, and noticed a number of .gov twitter accounts had been suspended. Account suspension happens when an account
- [FBI labels FOIA superhero Ryan Shapiro’s dissertation a threat to national security](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8482/) - Ryan Shapiro, a PhD candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a FOIA superhero. He has become the "most prolific" FOIA requester the FBI has ever had, and they seem to be actively obstructing his legal right for documents in order to complete his research. Check out this DemocracyNow interview with him as he
- [Digital Deposit And The Biennial Survey: context and actions](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12457/) - It is time for the biennial survey of FDLP libraries and, therefore, a good time to review "digital deposit." Digital deposit is a very simple concept: It simply means that GPO should treat digital and non-digital government information the same way. In so doing, GPO would allow FDLP libraries to select digital government information and
- [GPO Director Davita Vance-Cooks Departs Federal Service](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12495/) - GPO Director Davita Vance-Cooks is leaving GPO for the private sector. Congratulations to Ms Vance-Cooks. The first African-American and first woman to lead the agency, she did so ably for 6 years. While this shouldn't be a surprise -- GPO directors (nee "public printers") are political appointees named by Presidents after all -- the timing
- [Walks through a sunken dream: the CIA report on life on Mars](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12455/) - Document of the day -- perhaps of the decade!! Thanks MuckRock! In 1984, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sent a psychic back in time to talk to Martians. This is not code language. The CIA sent psychics back in time to talk to Martians because the CIA had time-traveling spacefaring psychics. Nothing else we could
- [Treasury Department scrubs paper from website](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12403/) - The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the Treasury Department removed from its website a 2012 technical paper that contradicts the statements that the Treasury Secretary has been making about corporate tax cuts. Rubin, Richard. (2017, Sep 28). Treasury removes paper at odds with Mnuchin's take on corporate-tax cut's winners. Wall Street Journal. The
- [Rev up your FOIA engines! Trump Admin's first FBI Crime Report Missing 70% of data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12450/) - This is definitely bad. Government data collection has always been political and driven by legislative requirements. The FBI has published uniform crime reports since 1930. but FiveThrirtyEight's report about missing data in the 2016 FBI Crime Report is a new and troubling turn of events. The Trump administration is just ignoring long standing data collection
- [McCaskill amendment to H.R. 195 set to gut Congressional printing. Act now!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12445/) - The Federal Register is the official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains government agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices. There's a particularly damaging bill, H.R. 195: Federal Register Printing Savings Act of 2017, winding its way through Congress, having already passed the House, reported out of the Senate Committee
- [Selective-deposit and the technical requirements of a digital-deposit FDLP](https://freegovinfo.info/node/735/) - There was one issue that evidently came up in the discussions of digital deposit at the Fall 2006 Depository Library Council meeting that we at FGI think deserves highlighting and clarification from Council or GPO or both. This issue relates to "general assumption 5" Libraries receiving FDLP digital publications would be responsible for providing sufficient infrastructure, including bandwidth and storage, to provide timely and effective public access. In the notes about the proceedings that we have read (here and here), there were questions about "streaming video" and other bandwidth-intensive infrastructure needs. Our concern is that a library might assume from this discussion that if it wants digital deposit, it will be required to support things like streaming video. We don't believe that is the intent of the GPO or Council even in these early discussions, but it would be useful to have GPO or Council or both clarify that selectivity in a digital-FDLP is still a valued concept and that there is no intention to develop a one-size-fits-all technical infrastructure requirement. To elaborate on this just a bit and state what is probably obvious to most of us, what we are thinking about here is analogous to what FDLP has always had in the paper world. In the paper world, not everyone had the physical infrastructure or resources to deal with the serial set or Y4's from every little committee. We might think of those as the streaming media of the paper world. But the availability of those large sets in the depository program did not mean that every library had to select them; it did not mean that every depository library had to have the infrastructure to deal with them. But availability of those materials in a selective-depository program did mean that some libraries could select them. And so it should be, we believe, in a digital-depository FDLP. Selective depositories would still be able to select what information content and types they would want. That would mean that a small library and a large library with vastly different technical infrastructures could both participate in a digital-deposit FDLP. That still leaves the issue of regional depositories and how the community will define them in the digital age. But that is a different question that should be dealt with separately. We shouldn't confuse the issue of technical requirements for most FDLP libraries with the technical requirements for a future regional-depository model. We can foresee, for example, one selective depository library hosting databases and multimedia files, another having a large collection of PDF and HTML files on a topic or subject area gathered together from several agencies along with commercial information into a digital subject collection, and another library having a few PDF files and CD-ROMs and DVDs available to users on a library workstation or library local area network. There should be room in a digital-deposit FDLP for all these scenarios and more. One of the advantages we will gain in a digital FDLP is the ability for each library to select what it wants with great precision. Selection by media-type, subject, agency and pre-coordinated item-numbers will just be the beginning. Selecting based on content as determined by keywords or authors, on technical requirements for delivery, on popularity, on availability (or lack of availability) of the content in other formats, and more should all be possible. A digital FDLP can have more flexibility than we ever had in the paper world and GPO and Council can and should make that point now by affirming that the technical infrastructure requirements will be flexible. We encourage everyone to participate in this important discussion that will determine the future FDLP. We'd like to remind you to check out the notes and audio of Fall DLC and by all means please give us your thoughts on digital deposit.
- [GPO releases digital Congressional Record for 1911-1921](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12426/) - GPO is diligently working on releasing digital versions of the historic Congressional Record. The Congressional Record is now available on govinfo from 1911 – 2008. Historic! The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) partners with the Library of Congress to release the digital version of the bound Congressional Record from 1911-1921 on GPO's govinfo. This release
- [Technical Requirement for Digital Deposit](https://freegovinfo.info/node/1111/) - A recent thread on the govdoc-l mailing list is about digital deposit. See Digital Deposit by Janet Fischer, 26 Apr 2007 and digital deposit by James [R.] Jacobs, 27 Apr 2007. Thanks to Janet for bringing this up and to James for the helpful links to technical information on digital deposit. I'd just like to add two thoughts: 1. I believe that it is best to think about digital deposit in much the same way we think about paper deposit: every library will be different. We shouldn't be looking for a one size fits all solution in the digital world anymore than we expect any two depositories to be identical. The technical requirements that any given library comes up with will depend on the level of service and collection profile that the library chooses. We should be thinking of services and collections first and technology second. We should not be trying to shoehorn our service and collection decisions into an abstract technological solution. Nor should we assume that every digital depository will have to meet the same requirements that an OCLC, CDL, NARA, or FDSys will meet. I can, for example, easily imagine a small depository with a slow or intermittent Internet connection and little or no online services selecting a few essential titles and putting them on a stand-alone public PC so that users can easily use those titles when in the library even if the network is down or slow or the originating site unreachable. And, at another extreme, I can see a large library, which already has some digital collections online and accessible over the web, adding government information to its collection and integrating government and non-government sources together so that its users do not have to go to two different interfaces or sites to find the information they need. You can probably easily expand these simple examples too your own situation and see where digital deposit will fit into your existing collections and services -- or collections and services you are planning. 2. I think it is equally important to emphasize to library management and to your technical support people that there are different technologies for implementing any given collection and service plan. Again, I believe that we should not be looking for a one-size-fits-all technological solution -- even for similar collection and service plans. For example, one library might choose to use LOCKSS to implement online collections, another might use its institutional repository software (e.g., DSpace, EPrints, Greenstone, etc.), another might use content management software, and another might integrated documents into its existing webspace by uploading them to the same server that hosts its existing html documents. The point is that there are different technical ways to implement the same collection and service plans. I hope this helps and others will contribute to this thread. If you have specific suggestion or solutions that you anticipate using, please share your stories!
- [Hundreds of libraries waiting for digital deposit](https://freegovinfo.info/node/369/) - The Government Printing Office (GPO) presented an update of their recent work to a Mid-Winter meeting of the American Library Association last week in San Antonio. As part of that update, Superintendent of Documents Judy Russell made partial results of the biennial survey of federal depository libraries public. Ms. Russell shared the results of two questions related to digital deposit of federal electronic publications, based on 987 responses to the biennial survey. There are approximately 1250 libraries in the program, so at least 261 libraries have not yet been heard from. By law, all depository libraries must complete this survey, so I expect full results later this spring. On to the questions themselves and their results. Question 65 was related to current depository efforts at local collection of federal electronic publications. Currently there is no distribution mechanism, so depositories have to actively gather and store materials. 65: My library systematically downloads, stores online publications identified from GPO Access or through GPO-created PURLS, and makes them accessible to the general public from local servers. This past year my library downloaded the following number of digital publication files (this does not include shipping lists, Web pages, or datasets): 0 = 823 libraries 1-25 = 90 26-100 = 25 101-500 = 26 501-1000 = 7 1001-5000 = 11 More than 5000 = 4 Even in the absence of a distribution system for federal electronic publications from GPO, 163 libraries are storing local copies of federal pubs. Based on a depository community of 1,250 libraries, this represents 13% of all depository libraries. One in ten libraries are already doing more than what GPO is asking of them. The other "digital deposit" question asked libraries how many digital documents they might be willing to store and serve locally, if GPO provided them. No distribution mechanism was proposed. 66. My library is willing to receive Federal digital publication files on deposit from GPO, store them, and make the accessible to the general public from local servers. My library is willing to receive the following number of digital publication files per year (this does not include shipping lists, Web pages, or databases): 0 = 652 libraries 1-25 = 176 26-100 = 56 101-500 = 41 501-1000 = 26 1001-5000 = 14 More than 5000 = 21 This question tells me that 334 libraries are willing to at least make a trial of storing and serving electronic materials locally. These libraries represent more than a quarter of the depository community. Surely this should be a call to establish a formal deposit system for electronic publications for depositories to try. Even without a formal digital deposit proposal, over a hundred libraries are willing to store and serve more than 100 documents per year. Even if these hundred libraries are the only ones to step forward, that's a far higher level of backup and redundancy than the current system has. I believe that's worth GPO committing to a system of local, distributed system of electronic deposit such as the one described in Government Information in the Digital Age: The Once and Future Federal Depository Library Program, today.
- [Demystifying Digital Deposit: What It Is and What It Could Do for the Future of the FDLP](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2785/) - At the Fall Depository Library Council Meeting in Arlington, VA, Rebecca Blakeley gave a presentation that she and I wrote on "Demystifying Digital Deposit: What It Is and What It Could Do for the Future of the FDLP." Although a PDF version of the presentation is available on the FDLP web site, it only has the slides, not the text of the presentation. The complete, original PowerPoint file, including the "speaker notes" with the complete text of the presentation, is available on slideshare: Demystifying Digital Deposit: What It Is and What It Could Do for the Future of the FDLP, by Rebecca Blakeley and Jim Jacobs, Fall DLC Meeting - Arlington, VA, October 20, 2009. Demystifying Digital DepositView more presentations from Rebecca Blakeley.
- [Hearing on Title 44 and FDLP libraries now available for viewing](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12358/) - For all you documents nerds out there, the Committee on House Administration's hearing on GPO and the FDLP is now available for your viewing pleasure. All of the witnesses' written testimonies are now also available from the Committee's repository. I'm glad that the FDLP community was able to represent. Enjoy!
- [GPO releases digital Congressional Record for the 1920s](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12356/) - GPO has just released another decade of digitized Congressional Record, this time 1921 - 1930. The Congressional Record is now available on govinfo from 1921 - 2008. Very cool! Washington –The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) partners with the Library of Congress to release the digital version of the bound Congressional Record from 1921-1930 on
- [CHA Hearing on tuesday about Title 44 and "Transforming GPO for the 21st Century and Beyond"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12351/) - Be sure to tune in this coming Tuesday for the Committee on House Administration's hearing on Title 44 and the FDLP. It looks like it'll be streaming from CHA's Website. And if you haven't yet done so, please sign our petition "Protect the public right to government information: help preserve and expand Title 44." We're
- [Threats and opportunities re Title 44. FGI audio & DLF, Harvard, MIT libraries' letters in support of FGI recommendations](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12339/) - The Digital Library Federation's Records Transparency and Accountability Group hosted FGI'er Jim Jacobs on August 18, 2017 to present about the threats to Title 44. They just posted the audio of Jim's session on the DLF blog. Jim outlines the issues clearly and concisely, and makes an outstanding case for positive substantive changes to Title
- [USGS Library Cuts faces 52% budget cut for FY18 harming research and extremely rare collections](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12335/) - Oh come on?! The Trump administration really thinks it can balance the budget by cutting a measly $3 million from the US Geological Survey (USGS) library?! This budget cut would barely cause a blip to the federal budget, but would be truly devastating to the library and it's extremely rare collections -- I didn't know
- [Strengthening Title 44 part 1: Modernize definition of "publications."](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12261/) - Modernizing the FDLP We recently made several recommendations for strengthening Title 44 of the U.S. Code. In a new series of posts, we will explain the reasoning behind each of those recommendations. Our first recommendation suggests how a very simple change to Title 44 would modernize the FDLP for the digital age and explicitly broaden
- [These Advocates Want to Make Sure Our Data Doesn't Disappear](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12330/) - Here's another story about data rescue and the preservation of government information, this time from PC Magazine UK. Though the last data refuge event was in Denton, TX in May and the 2016 End of Term crawl has finished its collection work and will soon have its 200TB of data publicly accessible, there still remains
- [Sign the petition "Protect the public right to govt information: help preserve and expand Title 44"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12325/) - As many of our readers know, there has recently been a lot of activity surrounding efforts to modify title 44 of the US Code. YOU can make your voice heard by signing the petition "Protect the public right to govt information: help preserve and expand Title 44". Signatures will go directly to staffers on the
- [Strengthening Title 44, part 4: Preservation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12300/) - Preservation This is the fourth in a series of four posts in which we elaborate on the reasons behind our recent recommendations for strengthening Title 44 of the U.S. Code. We recommend changes to chapters 19 and 41 of Title 44 that will require the preservation of digital government information. Recommendation Require Preservation Make changes to
- [Strengthening Title 44 part 3: Privacy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12284/) - Privacy This is the third in a series of posts in which we elaborate on the reasons behind our recent recommendations for strengthening Title 44 of the U.S. Code. We recommend strengthening the language of Title 44 to ensure the protection of the privacy of users of online government information. Recommendation Add a privacy provision for govinfo.gov
- [Strengthening Title 44 part 2: Free Access](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12264/) - Free access This is the second in a series of posts in which we explain the the reasons behind our recent recommendations for strengthening Title 44 of the U.S. Code. Three of our recommendations suggest strengthening the language of Title 44 in order to ensure free public access to government information. Recommendations Retain and enhance Free use
- [Strengthening the Discussions about Title 44](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12316/) - Since last week, when we posted Stanford Library Director Michael Keller’s letter to the Committee on House Administration (CHA) and the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP), there has been more activity around the efforts to modify Title 44 of the US Code. We understand that the ALA and its Committee on Legislation (COL), the Government
- [US Supreme Court *finally* moving to adopt electronic filing AND free access](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12259/) - This is welcome news re the US Supreme Court. Fulfilling a promise outlined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. in his 2014 year-end report on the federal judiciary, the Supreme Court is adopting electronic filing for all of its cases. The new electronic filing system will begin operation on November 13, 2017. Full and
- [Stanford Library Director sends letter to Committee on House Admin in support of Title 44 and the FDLP](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12255/) - On Friday, Stanford Library Director Michael Keller sent a letter to the Committee on House Administration (CHA) in support of Title 44 and the FDLP (attached and text below). This same letter will also be going out to the Senators on the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP). With his permission, we are posting it here
- [Reading between the tea leaves: more about revising Title 44](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12217/) - More about revising Title 44 We learned a bit more about GPO's intentions with regard to revising Title 44 when GPO Director Davita Vance-Cooks testified at a Hearing of the Committee on House Administration on July 18, 2017. Hearing, July 18, 2017 In June, Vance-Cooks asked the Depository Library Council (DLC) to make recommendations for changes to
- [This is not a drill. The future of Title 44 and the depository library program hang in the balance.](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12168/) - As we wrote last week the Government Publishing Office (GPO) has asked the Depository Library Council (DLC) to recommend changes to Title 44 of the US Code. We believe this is a bad idea at this moment in history and worry that the unspecified changes GPO wants will result in damage to the FDLP and long-term
- [Strategic Planning, Part I: A Workable Plan for GPO and FDLP](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10964/) - The GPO's Office of the Superintendent of Documents released its National Plan for Access to U.S. Government Information: A Framework for a User-centric Service Approach To Permanent Public Access in February. Our colleague Shari Laster has written a really thorough overview and background of the document, so we will use this post to analyze the
- [Drastic Cuts to CBO Budget](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12165/) - The Washington Post reports that amendments to the Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill contained in H.R. 3219 would gut the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). These amendments would make it impossible for CBO to continue to execute one of its core duties by eliminating CBO's Budget Analysis Division and reduce the agency’s staff by at least one
- [Lunchtime listen: "Storing Data Together" by Matt Zumwalt at Code4Lib2017](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12119/) - Drop everything and watch this presentation from the 2017 Code4Lib conference that took place in Los Angeles March 6-9, 2017. Heck, watch the entire proceedings because there is a bunch of interesting and thoughtful stuff going on in the world of libraries and technology! But in particular, check out Matt Zumwalt's presentation "How the distributed
- [CRS reports set to become public!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12115/) - I can't believe it's finally happened, but today the House Appropriations Committee voted to “allow public access to all non-confidential CRS reports” as part of the FY 2018 Legislative Branch Appropriations bill. We're one step closer to having public access to CRS reports! A bipartisan group of 40 nonprofit organizations (including FGI!) and 25 former
- [Tweets of Congress, tweets of Trump archived and downloadable in bulk](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12113/) - The recently-launched Tweets Of Congress is collecting and publishing daily archives of tweets by congressional representatives, caucuses, and committees. The site only got up and running last week, so there are daily archives starting June 21, 2017. There's also the Trump Twitter Archive, which has collected more than 30,000 of @realDonaldTrump’s tweets, which can be
- [GAO adds 2020 census to its high risk list](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12106/) - The U.S. Constitution — Article I, Section 2, clause 3, as modified by Section 2 of the 14th Amendment — requires a population census every 10 years for apportioning seats in the House of Representatives. However, in the wake of US Census Bureau Director John Thompson's abrupt resignation in May -- which garnered a rash
- [Supreme Court transcripts](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12102/) - Do you need audio recordings of the Supreme Court hearings? How about transcripts of those audio recordings available for bulk download? Are you responsible for helping people find data as well as government information? Are you looking for alternative sources for government data -- in bulk? Well, if you are not already subscribed to Jeremy
- [Montana Library Association passes Resolution to fund US govt publications preservation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12097/) - Bernadine Abbott Hoduski, the grande dame of government documents -- she's got a GODORT award named after her for gosh sakes! -- sent me this announcement. The Montana library Association, at its annual membership meeting in March, 2017, passed a packet of resolutions including their Resolution on Funding the Preservation of Federal Government Publications (text
- [Carl Malamud conducting audit of public domain in scholarly literature](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12094/) - Carl Malamud of Public.Resource.Org has long done yeoman's work in furtherance of the public domain. Who can forget that it was he who forced the SEC to build and maintain the EDGAR database for public access to company filings? And he's long been on the side of open law ("Law is the operating system of
- [Voting & Elections at the State Agency Databases Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12091/) - This week’s State Agency Databases Project subject highlight is Voting & Elections, featuring 36 states that project volunteers know to have publicly searchable databases in this subject area. Three examples from this compilation are: ALASKA Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) Reports Search - Searchable database of Campaign Disclosures and Financial Disclosures for Alaska State Government.
- [Transportation at State Agency Databases Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12089/) - This week’s State Agency Databases Project subject highlight is Transportation, featuring 36 states that project volunteers know to have publicly searchable databases in this subject area. Three examples from this compilation are: COLORADO Seat Belt Enforcement Reporting Site - Statistics on current seatbelt use, violations, and fatalities. Customizable by type, date, and location. OHIO
- [Statistics, Data & Mapping/GIS at State Agency Databases Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12087/) - This week’s State Agency Databases Project subject highlight is Statistics, Data & Mapping/GIS, featuring 40 states that project volunteers know to have publicly searchable databases in this subject area. Three examples from this compilation are: ALABAMA Alabama Geologic Mapping - Browse geological maps or search by keyword. MAINE Maine.gov Data Share - catalog of various
- [Recreation, Travel & Tourism at State Agency Databases Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12083/) - This week’s State Agency Databases Project subject highlight is Recreation, Travel & Tourism, featuring 35 states that project volunteers know to have publicly searchable databases in this subject area. Three examples from this compilation are: CALIFORNIA Interpretive Services Vendors and Contractors - A database of vendors used by the California State Parks for interpretive services. You can search
- [Military & Veterans at State Agency Databases Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12067/) - This week’s State Agency Databases Project subject highlight is Military & Veterans, featuring 22 states that project volunteers know to have publicly searchable databases in this subject area. Three examples from this compilation are: ALABAMA Alabama Civil War Service Database - Search Civil War service records by name, branch, company unit, regiment unit, or co. unit
- [Licensing at State Agency Databases Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12065/) - This week’s State Agency Databases Project subject highlight is Licensing, featuring 47 states that project volunteers know to have publicly searchable databases in this subject area. Three examples from this compilation are: ARIZONA Liquor License Queries - This page lets you choose from numerous queries: License No., Business Name, Location Address, Pending Applications and Interim Permits, Recently
- [Laws, Legislative Materials, and Legal Issues at State Agency Databases Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12063/) - This week’s State Agency Databases Project subject highlight is Laws, Legislative Materials, and Legal Issues, featuring 48 states that project volunteers know to have publicly searchable databases in this subject area. Three examples from this compilation are: ALASKA Alaska Case Law Service - This database provides opinions and some supporting documentation for cases decided by Alaska's
- [Jobs & Unemployment at State Agency Databases Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12061/) - This week’s State Agency Databases Project subject highlight is Jobs & Unemployment, featuring 44 states that project volunteers know to have publicly searchable databases in this subject area. Three examples from this compilation are: CALIFORNIA Alternative Workweek Elections - This database provides a listing of all California employers that have filed alternate workweek election results
- [History, People & Culture at State Agency Databases Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12059/) - This week’s State Agency Databases Project subject highlight is History, People & Culture, featuring 49 states that project volunteers know to have publicly searchable databases in this subject area. Three examples from this compilation are: ALABAMA Alabama 1867 Voter Registration Database - Search the 131 volumes of the 1867 Voter Registration Records, which was one
- [Health, Medicine & Safety at State Agency Databases Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12056/) - This week’s State Agency Databases Project subject highlight is Health, Medicine & Safety, featuring 43 states that project volunteers know to have publicly searchable databases in this subject area. Three examples from this compilation are: ARIZONA Arizona Board of Nursing Online Verification - Search by license number or name; records will include information about actions
- [Big news: CIA agrees to release ORIS, one of CREST's counterparts](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12053/) - This just in from Michael Best, the CIA has just announced that it will soon release Officially Released Information System, or ORIS. ORIS is the counterpart to the CREST database -- the CIA Records Search Tool -- begun in 1991. This is a whole lot of declassified records that will soon be available to researchers,
- [The "orderly shutdown" of NEH and 18 other agencies](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12051/) - It looks like University of North Texas' Cyber cemetery is going to be busy this year, with National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) set to shut down and 18 other agencies targeted by the Trump administration for elimination. For a deeper look into Trump's budget -- and what's getting cut! -- see this recent Washington
- [Help edit the "Preserving Data in Government Act of 2017"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12043/) - This is a very cool idea as well as an important policy statement. Sunlight Foundation and a diverse coalition of government transparency, data innovation, scientific groups and environment defense advocates have come together to advocate for the "Preserving Data in Government Act of 2017", which was recently introduced in the Senate. Sunlight has put the
- [NARA to offer digitized papers of Obama administration](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12040/) - In a press release today, The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) announced a "new model for the preservation and accessibility of Presidential records." The Obama Foundation has announced its commitment to fund the digitization of all of the unclassified Presidential records created during the administration of President Barack Obama and NARA says that, "Instead
- [State of Mississippi Breaks All Its URLs](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12035/) - Carl Malamud noticed that the State of Mississippi relaunched their web site and INVALIDATED EVERY SINGLE URL! The generic 404 error message delivered by the state's website says: The SOS site has recently been redesigned and relaunched and the addresses for most pages and files have now changed Pointing to government websites is neither effective
- [Government Finances & Contracts at State Agency Databases Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12029/) - This week’s State Agency Databases Project subject highlight is Government Finances & Contracts, featuring 46 states that project volunteers know to have publicly searchable databases in this subject area. Three examples from this compilation are: ALASKA Financial Documents Delivery System - Provides “access to every municipal budget and year-end financial statement submitted” to the
- [Government Agencies & Elected Officials at State Agency Databases Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12027/) - This week’s State Agency Databases Project subject highlight is Government Agencies & Elected Officials, featuring 42 states that project volunteers know to have publicly searchable databases in this subject area. Three examples from this compilation are: ALABAMA Local Alabama Government Search - Search for local officials by zip code or place name. LOUISIANA Louisiana Boards
- [Education at State Agency Databases Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12009/) - This week’s State Agency Databases Project subject highlight is Education, featuring 43 states that project volunteers know to have publicly searchable databases in this subject area. Three examples from this compilation are: ALASKA Teacher Certification Database - Searchable by teacher first or last name, this database will provide a list of that teacher's current certifications along with
- [GPO releases digital Congressional Record for the 1960s](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12017/) - The Government Publishing Office (GPO) just announced that GPO in concert with Library of Congress have released another decade of historic bound Congressional Record, this time covering 1961 – 1970. The CR is now available on govinfo.gov for 1961 - 2006. This release covers debates and proceedings of the 87th through the 91st Congresses. Spanning
- [Check out Endangered Data Week - April 17-21, 2017](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12014/) - This week is Endangered Data Week, a new effort to raise awareness about publicly available data and the threats to its creation, sharing and retention. Follow along with the conversation at the Twitter hashtag #EndangeredData, check out the Endangered Data events near you, tune in on friday for the webinar hosted by the Digital Library
- [Crime, Criminal Justice & Law Enforcement at State Agency Databases Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12001/) - This week’s State Agency Databases Project subject highlight is Crime, Criminal Justice & Law Enforcement. This guide is one of the few cases where all 50 states and the District of Columbia have at least one publicly searchable database in a subject area. Three examples from this compilation are: ALABAMA Alabama Blue Alert Search - Blue Alert
- [Earth & the Environment at State Agency Databases Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/12004/) - This week’s State Agency Databases Project subject highlight is Earth & the Environment, featuring 44 states that project volunteers know to have publicly searchable databases in this subject area. Three examples from this compilation are: ALABAMA Alabama Drought Conditions - Enter your zip code to view drought conditions in your area. MONTANA Abandoned-Inactive Mines Database - The
- [Community & Social Services at State Agency Databases Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11997/) - This week’s State Agency Databases Project subject highlight is Community & Social Services, featuring 36 states that project volunteers know to have publicly searchable databases in this subject area. Three examples from this compilation are: ALABAMA Alabama Children Awaiting Adoption - Search children available for adoption by gender, number of children, age, race, disability, and profile
- [State Agency Databases Project: Agriculture & Food Sources](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11983/) - As a result of the State Agency Databases Project migration to GODORT LibGuides, the volunteers are able to offer more subject guides covering the fifty states. We plan to highlight one subject guide a week till we get through all of the guides. This week's highlight is Agriculture & Food Sources, featuring 35 states that project volunteers know
- [Depository Library Council class of 2017 named](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11992/) - Congratulations to the Depository Library Council class of 2017: Erik Beck, Jane Canfield, Mary Clark, Donna James, Celina McDonald. These five new DLC members will serve from June 1, 2017 – May 31, 2020 Erik Beck: Digital Services Librarian, University of Colorado Law School, William A. Wise School of Law, Boulder, CO. Eric is the
- [John Oliver analyzes Gerrymandering. Hilarious and disturbing](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11990/) - John Oliver is at it again, deeply analyzing a boring political concept in a smart, interesting -- and funny -- way. This time, he explains Gerrymandering, the nefarious practice of manipulating district boundaries for political advantage, named after Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry. If anyone is interested in delving deeper, you can read the new book
- [State Agency Databases Project: Business, Finance & Economy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11985/) - This week we are highlighting the Business, Finance & Economy 50-State guide from the State Agency Databases Project. This guide lists 47 states that are known to have publicly searchable, state agency produced databases in this subject area. Three databases from this compilation are: ARIZONA Charitable Organizations System - May be searched by name, dba or purpose. Records indicate
- [Announcing the Preservation of Electronic Government Information (PEGI) project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11981/) - Here at FGI, we have been raising concerns about the many issues surrounding the preservation of born-digital govt information for quite some time. Over the last year, there have been some fruitful discussions about digital preservation. Out of those discussions and meetings has grown a new collaborative project called the Preservation of Electronic Government Information
- [Reflections from the Digital Preservation of Federal Information Summit](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11151/) - I was lucky enough to attend last month's "Digital Preservation of Federal Information Summit", 2 days chock full of discussion, brainstorming, scoping, strategizing etc. The group has now released its Reflections Report (PDF). The meeting goal was to "engage national leaders in a structured, facilitated dialogue on at-risk digital government records and information...and explore the
- [State Agency Databases Project now on GODORT LibGuides](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11978/) - On behalf of the 40 volunteers who made it possible, I (Daniel) am pleased to announce that all content with working links from the State Agency Databases Project has been moved from the GODORT Wiki to GODORT LibGuides. See http://godort.libguides.com/statedatabases for lists of agency produced databases from the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
- [What's sauce for the gander: Congress' trips to GovTrack.us made public IRT](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11975/) - Last week, Congress passed and sent a bill to the President that will greatly decrease individual privacy and cybersecurity (for more, see Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) "Five Ways Cybersecurity Will Suffer If Congress Repeals the FCC Privacy Rules"). S.J.Res. 34: A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States
- [Check out NASA’s new searchable database of space pics and video!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11970/) - NASA just made my day! The U.S. space agency launched a new web-based search engine for much of its catalog of images, video and audio files, browsable by keyword and metadata. All the content on the site is embeddable, and there are multiple resolutions to choose from for downloads. The site also shows image metadata,
- [We Have 24 Hours to Save Online Privacy Rules](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11966/) - We Have 24 Hours to Save Online Privacy Rules BY KATE TUMMARELLO, Electronic Frontier Foundation. We are one vote away from a world where your ISP can track your every move online and sell that information to the highest bidder. Call your lawmakers now and tell them to protect federal online privacy rules. The Senate
- [Activists Use FOIA to Ensure Availability of Thousands of Federal Datasets](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11950/) - The Center for Biological Diversity has announced an effort to prevent hundreds of environmental datasets on government websites from being removed by the Trump administration. Three separate Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for data sets have been submitted to eight federal agencies. Many (perhaps most) of the datasets requested are currently available on government
- [Cuts to Environmental Monitoring "Willfully Blinding" the Nation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11947/) - Scientific American reports that many science policy experts are "startled" by the Trump administration's proposed budget for 2018 that envisions dramatic cuts in funds for monitoring air and water quality, climate change and more. Trump Wants Deep Cuts in Environmental Monitoring, by Annie Sneed Scientific American (March 24, 2017). Pres. Donald Trump’s administration could be
- [FGI theme issue](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11945/) - Sorry for the odd look gentle readers. We're experiencing some technical issues with our site's theme, so I've switched over to another theme while we work them out. The site should be fully functional, but if you experience any problems, please let us know at admin AT freegovinfo DOT info.
- [Senators Express Concerns Over Trump Admin. Records Compliance](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11858/) - Gary Price at InfoDocket reports that Senators Claire McCaskill and Tom Carper from the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs sent a letter to David Ferriero, the Archivist of the United States, "regarding concerns over compliance by President Donald Trump's Administration with the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act."
- [Key Press Offices Still Not Staffed](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11940/) - Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting says that the Trump administration has not filled key staff positions in public affairs offices, newsrooms, and media offices of many government departments and agencies. This is consistent with the administration's well reported "glacial pace" in filling 2,000 mid-level political-appointee positions in the Executive branch. Trump in No Hurry to
- [Congress Set to Kill FCC Privacy Rule](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11937/) - Politico reports that Congress is set to cancel the privacy rules that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established in December. The rule is intended to to implement the Congressional requirement that "telecommunications carriers protect the confidentiality of customer proprietary information." TICK, TOCK ON CRA - Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune said Tuesday the votes to
- [FGI accidental docs librarian webinar: "Saving govt data: a conversation with the future"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11934/) - Please tune in next Wednesday, March 29, 2017 from 9am - 10am Pacific / 12:00 – 1:00pm Eastern for the next Help! I'm an Accidental Government Information Librarian Webinar "Saving government data: A conversation with the future." You'll need to in order to get the link to the WebEx live session. "See" you there! Help!
- [Status of OMB Policies](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11917/) - In an unusual move, the Trump Administration is separating OMB publications into two groups on the whitehouse.gov website: those from "Prior administrations" and those that are "Recent." Thus, the White House is pointing to the obamawhitehouse.archives.gov copies of all OMB Bulletins, Circulars, and Memoranda issued prior to January 20 instead of maintaining these as part
- [LGBT Questions Removed From HHS Surveys](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11921/) - The Center for American Progress reports that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has eliminated questions about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from two critical surveys. This policy decision will make it impossible to assess whether key programs for seniors and people with disabilities are meeting the needs of LGBT Americans.
- [A War on Data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11913/) - Engadget makes the case that the Trump administration is waging a "war on data." It says that, although removal and manipulation of existing data are a concern, the biggest threat to data is budgetary. Trump's quiet war on data begins, by Terrence O'Brien, Engadget (Mar 20, 2017). The administration seems focused on two avenues of
- [Workplace Injury Reporting Under Two-Pronged Attack](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11903/) - National Public Radio reports that Congress is moving to nullify a Labor Department rule that requires employers to keep careful records of worker injuries and illnesses for five years. If the new legislation goes into effect, the Department will have only six months to check companies' logs and issue a fine if they are inaccurate
- [U.S. Backing Away From Oil And Gas Transparency Validation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11899/) - The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) reports that the U.S. will no longer seek validation by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global anti-corruption effort to bring openness and accountability to the oil, gas and mining sectors. Administration Sounds Death Knell for Transparency Initiative, by Mia Steinle POGO press release (March 17, 2017). A
- [Treasury.IO: A daily data feed for the U.S. Treasury](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11897/) - Ever wonder about the federal government's checkbook? Well now you can take a peak inside for each day using Treasury.io. “Every day at 4pm, the United States Treasury publishes data tables summarizing the cash spending, deposits, and borrowing of the federal government.” Those data tables “catalog all the money taken in that day from taxes,
- [APDU's public letter in support of Federal statistical programs](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11894/) - I was so glad to see that the Association of Public Data users (APDU) just sent a letter in support of federal statistical agencies to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. This letter has well over 700 signatories (including FGI!) from organizations including the National Association for Business Economists
- [Dept. of Labor is not announcing worker safety violations](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11889/) - The New York Times reports that the Department of Labor has not publicized a single worker safety corporate fine since the inauguration of the President. Worker Safety Rules Are Among Those Under Fire in Trump Era, by Barry Meier And Danielle Ivory, New York Times (March 13, 2017). In a sharp break with the past,
- [Data-brarianship](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11886/) - For those of you who have "data" as part of your job responsibilities, here is an indispensable book. Databrarianship: The Academic Data Librarian in Theory and Practice Edited by Lynda Kellam and Kristi Thompson. ACRL. 386 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0-8389-8799-5 (2016). Databrarianship (website with table of contents and some sample content. Drawing on the expertise of
- ["In Order That They Might Rest Their Arguments on Facts"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11884/) - Because the Trump Administration has questioned the accuracy of federal statistics such as the unemployment rate and because of reports that it will propose substantial cuts to government statistical agencies, the Hamilton Project and The American Enterprise Institute have released a new report about the vital importance of data collected by the federal government. "In
- [Three out of Five Federal Agencies Flout New FOIA Law](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11881/) - The National Security Archive at George Washington University reports that only 38 of 99 federal government agencies have updated their FOIA Regulations as required by law. Three out of Five Federal Agencies Flout New FOIA Law Audit compiled and written by Lauren Harper, Nate Jones, and Tom Blanton National Security Archive (March 11, 2017). The
- [Ethics Waivers Missing from White House Website](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11876/) - A White House web page that says it will report appointees who have been granted waivers to an Ethics Pledge has no posting as of March 10. A January 28 executive order, “Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees” requires full-time political appointees to sign an Ethics Pledge that is similar to President Obama's Executive Order
- [Major News Organizations Protest Secy. of State Ditching Press](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11873/) - The Poynter Institute reports that bureau chiefs from major news organizations sent a letter to the State Department protesting Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's decision to travel to Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo without any traveling press. Bureau chiefs 'deeply concerned' that Rex Tillerson is ditching the press on Asia trip, by Benjamin Mullin Poynter (March
- [Broadband Privacy Rules Under Attack](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11871/) - InfoWorld reports on the measures that the FCC under Ajit Pai and Republicans in Congress are taking to "to ensure nothing stands in the way of ISPs profiting off your personal data." All hope of broadband privacy bites the dust, by Caroline Craig, InfoWorld (Mar 10, 2017). Pai and Ohlhausen said they favored having privacy
- [Fears Raised About Access to Government Data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11868/) - McClatchy News Service outlines the things that the Trump administration has done that have alarmed groups with a stake in public access to information including historians, librarians, journalists, climate scientists, internet activists. Trump’s actions raise fears about access to government data, By Stuart Leavenworth and Adam Ashton, Spokane, WA Spokesman-Review [McClatchy] (Mar. 8, 2017). Wondering
- [Many Federal Websites Fail to Meet Basic Standards for Speed and Security](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11864/) - A new report by The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) says that ninety-two percent of federal government websites studied fail to meet at least one basic standard for security, speed, mobile friendliness, or accessibility. Benchmarking U.S. Government Websites by Alan McQuinn and Dainel Castro The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (March 2017). (summary) (press
- [Changes to Title 44 would enhance accountability and kill printed Federal Register](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11851/) - The federal technology news site FCW.com reports that The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will vote on bills, which have been introduced in previous Congresses, that try to keep electronic government records from being altered or disappearing outright. One of the bills will also cease the printed version of the Federal Register. Lawmakers target
- [GPO releases digital Congressional Record for the 1970s](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11848/) - The Government Publishing Office just announced that they've released another decade of historic bound Congressional Record, this time covering 1971 - 1980. The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) partners with the Library of Congress to release the digital version of the bound Congressional Record from 1971-1980 on GPO's govinfo system. This release covers debates and
- [Trump Officials Refuse to Give Their Names to Reporters](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11845/) - In a break with standard practice, Trump administration officials participating in a conference call with reporters did not give their names even though journalists had agreed to identify them only as unnamed officials. Trump’s Revised Travel Ban Excludes Iraqis, by Glenn Thrush, New York Times (March 6, 2017). In a conference call with reporters on
- [To Help Consumers, DOL Removes Consumer Information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11839/) - The Department of Labor (DOL) has deleted a blog post and a consumer FAQ that explained the benefits of a rule that requires financial advisers act in the best interest of their clients. Both the blog post and the FAQ explained the benefits of the "Conflict of Interest Rule." The post on the U.S. Department
- [EPA Stops Collecting Some Methane Information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11825/) - Another reduction in information gathering: EPA Drops Request for Methane Information from Oil and Gas Industry, By Ellen M. Gilmer, Scientific American (March 3, 2017). Companies are no longer required to provide information about onshore equipment and controls that could reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Mark Brownstein, vice president of climate and energy for the
- [State Department Has Had No Daily Press Briefings in Six Weeks](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11835/) - The State Department has not had a Daily Press Briefing in the six weeks since the inauguration. The calendar of the Trump Administration DPBs are empty for January and February and March.
- [FCC Reverses Internet Lifeline Designations](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11833/) - Affordable internet access is essential or people will not have adequate access to government information and egovernment services. In a move that reverses an Obama administration decision, the Trump administration FCC eliminated the designations of nine companies as providers of Lifeline broadband service. The Lifeline program provides low-income households with a monthly credit of $9.25
- [FCC Stops Privacy Rule Before It Takes Effect](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11829/) - In one area, the Trump administration will allow more access to information. Unfortunately, the information is not pubic data, but data on your personal use of the Internet and access will be given to private sector marketers. The Trump Administration's FCC stayed the FCC's recently adopted Privacy Rules before they could take effect on March
- [Dept of Transportation Suspends Public Comments on Two Measures](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11827/) - The Department of Transportation (DOT) has suspended public comment on two proposed consumer-protection measures that the Obama administration put forward during its last months in office. One measure simply requested comments in order to help the Department determine if it should regulate the common airline practice of offering less information to travel vendors such as
- [Cuts to NOAA Climate Change Information Gathering](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11823/) - One of the ways that the government decreases public access to important information is to just stop collecting it. The Trump administration has proposed cutting research funding to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a leading climate science agency. The biggest cut would be to NOAA’s satellite division, known as National Environmental Satellite, Data and
- [Public comment open until Nov 20 on OMB Circular A-130](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10574/) - [UPDATE 11/20/15: OMB has extended the commenting period for 15 days until December 5, 2015. JRJ] Office of Management and Budget's Circular A-130 Managing Information as a Strategic Resource -- along with the 1980 Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) 94 Stat. 2812, which "establishes a broad mandate for agencies to perform their information resources management activities
- [Visualizing the gerrymandering of a Congressional district](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11809/) - Here's an interesting little GIF that Lazaro Gamio (@LazaroGamio) posted to twitter recently. The visualization shows the historical Congressional district boundaries of Maryland's 3rd district, from 1789-2017. this district is one of the most gerrymandered in the country. The last few years are particularly startling. As one commenter put it, the later district shape "looks
- [Why Law Libraries Are More Important Than Ever](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11806/) - Librarians in the 21st Century: Why Law Libraries Are More Important Than Ever by D.M. Moehrle, Literary Hub (February 22, 2017). In a Nation of Laws, the Right of Access is Fundamental.
- [University of Washington Gov Pubs Finds](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11797/) - It is hard to keep up with everything even just in the world of government information. FGI provides a list of recommendations in its "blogroll" (look in the right column just below the list of recent comments). These are people, and blogs, and organizations that we find useful if you want to keep up with
- [EPA mirrors its own pre-Trump website](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11793/) - Gizmodo and TechCrunch are reporting that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has put a mirror of its own website online — a “snapshot” from January 19, the day before Trump was sworn in as president. The EPA posted a backup of its website dated just before inauguration day, by Devin Coldewey techcrunch (Feb 16, 2017).
- [White House and Agencies Close Channels of Public Communications](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11790/) - The trump administration seems to be systematically making it more difficult for the public to communicate with the government. Last week the White House closed its telephone comment line (202-456-1111) and suggested that people make comments on the White House's website at or on Facebook Messenger although there is currently no way to leave a
- [Blog posts scrubbed from U.S. Department of Labor Blog. Why?!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11788/) - Here's an oddity. On the Department of Labor's blog, there was a post on september 6, 2016 titled "What is the ‘Real’ Unemployment Rate?" that described the "huge array of measures, which together provide a comprehensive picture of the state of job opportunities" in the US. As you'll see if you click on that link,
- [Internet Archive offers to host PACER in perpetuity FOR FREE!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11785/) - This is an amazing offer from Brewster Kahle and the internet Archive. Kahle just wrote a letter to the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet Committee on the Judiciary stating unequivocally that they will "archive and host -- for free, forever, and without restriction on access to the public -- all records
- [Rescuing Government Information: The Long View](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11741/) - There is a lot of activity going on to ensure that government information on government servers does not get altered, deleted, or lost during the transition between administrations. As we have pointed out before, this is not a new issue even if the immediacy of the problem is more apparent than ever before. Much of
- [EPA cuts attendance at Alaska environment forum](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11775/) - NPR reports that Trump administration transition officials ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to cut in half its staff attending the Alaska Forum on the Environment. EPA Halves Staff Attending Environmental Conference In Alaska, by Rachel Waldholz and Bill Chappell, NPR (February 10, 2017). NPR reports that EPA transition official Doug Ericksen blamed the cutback
- [New App Will Aid Data Rescue](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11737/) - A custom-built app will soon make it easy for anyone check government URLs to determine if they have been archived outside of government control and, if not, submit them for archiving. Guerrilla archivists developed an app to save science data from the Trump administration, by Zoë Schlanger, Quartz (February 09, 2017). The article in Quartz
- [Trump Administration Scrubs Healthcare Website](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11730/) - The Washington Examiner reports that 'The Trump administration has stripped the Obamacare marketplace of positive references to the healthcare law, including removing the words "Affordable Care Act" from federal websites.' Trump administration strips down Obamacare website, by Paige Winfield Cunningham, Washington Examiner (2/9/17). The article says that the website healthcare.gov as well as information about
- [EPA Provides Misleading Assurance of Information Preservation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11726/) - An email sent by the press office of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) incorrectly claims that "federal record keeping requirements" ensure that information withdrawn from the EPA website will remain "available to the public." Doug Ericksen, the head of communications for the Trump transition team at the Environmental Protection Agency, responded to reports of potential
- [Early Warning: Countering Violent Extremism](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11724/) - Reuters reports that the Trump administration wants to revamp and rename a U.S. government program designed to counter all violent ideologies so that it focuses solely on Islamist extremism. Exclusive: Trump to focus counter-extremism program solely on Islam - sources, By Julia Edwards Ainsley, Dustin Volz and Kristina Cooke, Reuters (Thu Feb 2, 2017). The
- [Found and liberated: Deleted APHIS Annual Reports From Animal-Experimentation Facilities](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11722/) - Last week, we posted that the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service had announced that it was removing from its Website “inspection reports, regulatory correspondence, research facility annual reports, and enforcement records that have not received final adjudication.” Russ Kick of the MemoryHole blog has now published thousands of these reports, which he had
- [Found and liberated: DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11719/) - On January 25, we blogged that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report has been summarily discontinued. This report provided a daily curated selection of articles/links/summaries to open source articles about various areas of U.S. critical infrastructure. Effective January 18, 2017, the Office of Infrastructure Protection (IP) is discontinuing the DHS
- [EPA Removes and Changes Climate Information from its Website](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11710/) - Climate Central, an organization of scientists and journalists, reports that the Trump administration has removed federal climate plans, tribal assistance programs, and references to international cooperation from the Environmental Protection Agency’s website. The EPA Has Started to Remove Obama-era Information, By Brian Kahn, Climate Central (February 2, 2017). The report also says: A mention of
- [Federal Gun Datasets Being Preserved in Fear Feds Will Withdraw Them](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11704/) - Wired reports today that research data on guns and violence have been suppressed in the past and that researchers are working to ensure that similar data on the websites of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are not lost if
- [Preliminary List of Official White House Twitter Accounts](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11702/) - whitehouse45 A public list by Ari Herzog.
- [FBI will no longer accept FOIA requests by email](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11697/) - TechCrunch and The Daily Dot report that the FBI will no longer accept Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by email starting next month. FBI axes FOIA requests by email, so dust off your fax machine, by Taylor Hatmaker TechCrunch (Feb 6, 2017). FBI will revert to using fax machines, snail mail for FOIA requests,
- [Trump FCC rescinds and revokes reports and actions](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11690/) - On Friday February 3, 2017, the FCC rescinded and revoked orders and reports that had been issued late in the Obama administration. Some of the reports can be found under transition.fcc.gov, but it is not clear if there are links to them from fcc.gov or if they will remain available to the public. The Benton
- [Trump's fleeting tweets alarm archivists](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11688/) - Politico reports that some, but not all, of the tweets from @realDonaldTrump show up on the official Twitter handle @POTUS. The article also says, "Trump's aides have also used their own unofficial Twitter accounts to speak to voters. And on occasion, both the president and his advisers have scrubbed posts after they've gone up --
- [Transparency Problems at the White House](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11684/) - McClatchyDC reports that The White House comment line is shut down, that new signatures aren't being counted on petitions posted on the White House's website, that Federal agencies are not allowed to respond to requests, that transcripts, executive orders and news releases aren't being posted online, that social media accounts, including Flickr, Pinterest and Tumblr,
- [USDA has removed reports on commercial dog and horse breeders](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11682/) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced today that it "will remove from its website inspection reports, regulatory correspondence, research facility annual reports, and enforcement records that have not received final adjudication." In a bulletin posted on govdelivery.com, APHIS said that this was the outcome of a comprehensive review during
- [Court Rules That Laws Can Be Copyrighted](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11675/) - Carl Malamud has been fighting for free public access to private standards (like building codes) that are "incorporated by reference" into the law. Such standards are usually copyrighted and not published in official, public domain versions of the law. The federal district court in Washington DC has just ruled that this practice of, essentially, copyrighting
- [New and Updated Newsworthy CRS Reports](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11673/) - Gary at InfoDocket lists 20 New or Recently Updated Reports From the Congressional Research Service (CRS) selected from EveryCRSReport.com and the CRS reports at the Federation of American Scientists. These include reports covering newsworthy topics like Barriers Along the U.S. Borders: Key Authorities and Requirements and Dakota Access Pipeline: Siting Controversy and Executive Authority to
- [Government Statistics Under Trump](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11669/) - Scientists and statisticians are worried that the 115th Congress and Trump Administration will harm the collection of statistical data by the government, according to several articles cited in the January 31, 2017 Ocassional Note of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics (COPAFS). Trump shouldn’t close the doors on government data, By Catherine Rampell.
- [Groups Advising President Structured to Avoid Public Disclosure](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11663/) - The White House appears to be deliberately structuring and naming business-focused groups that advise the President to exempt them from federal transparency law that requires meetings of such groups be formally announced in advance and open to the public. A White House official who asked not to be named told Politico that the White House
- [Data Rich Reports](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11659/) - Gary at InfoDocket produced a great list of more than 100 "data rich" reports from all over. Get 'em while you can! Reference: A Roundup of New Research and Data-Rich Reports Available on the Open Web The list includes reports on "newsworthy" topics (Brexit, Muslim Populations world wide, State and Local Sales Tax Rates) as
- [Document of the day: NSA's guide to the internet](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11657/) - This just came through my twitter feed from @MuckRock. Through a FOIA request which shook it loose from the notoriously difficult NSA, we now have access to NSA's 2007 Untangling the Web: a guide to Internet research. It kind of reads like a Terry Pratchett novel if Terry was having a psychotic/psychedelic episode. As MuckRock
- [Vigilance and Action in Uncertain Times](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11636/) - During this past week, there were many reports about the Trump administration's actions that appear to be either removing information, or blocking information, or filtering scientific information through a political screen before allowing that information to be released. How concerned should government information specialists be about these developments? Very. What can we do? First, let's
- [End-of-term crawl ongoing. Please help us do QA!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11630/) - The End of Term 2016 collection is still going strong, and we continue to receive email from interested folks about how they can help. Much of the content for the EOT crawl has already been collected and some of it is publicly accessible already through our partners. Last month we posted about ways to help
- [ERIC suspends some full text over privacy concerns](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3856/) - I'm not sure how long this has been going on, but in trying to retrieve a report from the Education Resources Information Clearinghouse (ERIC), I received this "error" message: Dear ERIC Community, We have currently disabled access to many ERIC full-text PDFs due to the discovery of personally identifiable information in some documents. A team is in place to check each PDF to see if it contains personally identifiable information. Due to the quality of many of the documents, a large portion of the search has to be done by hand. This will take several weeks, but our primary concern is to protect the privacy of individuals. To minimize the burden on our users, we will prioritize searching the PDFs that users request. If you would like to request a PDF to be returned online, please fill out this form, which requires only the document’s ERIC record number and your email address. Full-text PDFs will be returned on a rolling basis. We will be posting the list of newly released documents here. We are sorry for the inconvenience and want to thank you for bearing with us through this unexpected delay. The ERIC Team It seems like a responsible enough message and they are trying to assist researchers who need documents. It would have been nice if the message had a date stamp so we could see how long it will take ERIC to rectify this situation. I'm also wondering about the status of ERIC fiche collections. Wonder if we'll see withdrawal requests from ERIC and whether that would wind up highlighting the personal information they're trying to withdraw.
- [PACER lawsuit certified as class action case](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11621/) - Lawsuit claiming public being milked for access to court records advances by David Kravets, arsTechnica (1/25/2017). A lawsuit that claims the public is being overcharged by the US government's website for accessing federal court records just took a major step forward. A federal judge overseeing the litigation against PACER, the Public Access to Court Electronic
- [DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report discontinued](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11619/) - Gary Price at InfoDocket is an excellent source of fast changing information about government information. If you don't already follow InfoDocket, now is a good time to start so you can stay on top of things. Gary called our attention to this: Another U.S. Gov Resource No Longer Available: DHS Stops Publishing "Daily Open Source
- [Popular Science Magazine explains importance of open government information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11613/) - News of the Trump administration's actions to control the release of scientific information are coming out fast today. After posting a few stories about the issue here, I realize that we at FGI will have to focus on substantive announcements and analyses rather than every hour-to-hour development. With that in mind, here is an article
- [Reuters reports Trump administration ordered EPA to cut climate page from website](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11610/) - Reuters is reporting that "U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to remove the climate change page from its website....The page could go down as early as Wednesday, the sources said." Trump administration tells EPA to cut climate page from website: sources
- [Sunlight Foundation lists agencies told not to communicate with the public](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11608/) - The Sunlight Foundation says, "We adamantly oppose measures that limit disclosing documents and data to the public, particularly the publication of scientific papers, research and analysis, or public access to government scientists or technologists that can explain the findings" and provides a list of "reported formal actions to limit public communication at federal agencies." Reports
- [National Park Service employees react to censorship](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11605/) - After this week's shutdown by the Trump administration of publications and "outward facing" documents at executive agencies, government employees are taking action. Scientific American reports that anonymous employees of the National Park Service have created the AltUSNatlParkService Twitter account announcing their intent: "Mr. Trump, you may have taken us down officially. But with the scientific
- [Troubling freeze on science by Trump administration](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11603/) - The news out of Washington DC is not good if you're a government information librarian or an open government advocate. In the last 24 hours, the Trump administration has put a freeze on EPA grants and contracts and ordered USDA science researchers to "cease publication of 'outward facing' documents and news releases." Not only does
- [Congress has information, needs more knowledge](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3825/) - New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute (OTI) has released a new report that The U.S. Congress lacks "shared expert knowledge capacity" and that has "created a critical weakness in our democratic process." The report says that Congress depends on outdated and in some cases antiquated systems of information referral, sorting, communicating, and convening." Congress' Wicked Problem [announcement and summary]. This paper does not put forward a simple recipe to fix these ailments, but argues that the absence of basic knowledge management in our legislature is a critical weakness. Congress struggles to make policy on complex issues while it equally lacks the wherewithal to effectively compete on substance in today’s 24 hour news cycle. This paper points out that Congress is not so much venal and corrupt as it is incapacitated and obsolete. And, in its present state, it cannot serve the needs of American democracy in the 21st Century. Congress' Wicked Problem, Seeking Knowledge Inside the Information Tsunami, By Lorelei Kelly, New America Foundation, (December 2012). [PDF, 6 pages] This paper distinguishes between information and knowledge: Members of Congress and their staff do not lack access to information. Yet information backed by financial interests and high-decibel advocacy is disproportionately represented. Most importantly, they lack the institutional wisdom that can be built via a deliberate system that feeds broadly inclusive information through defined processes of review, context, comparison and evaluation of the implications for the nation as a whole. Concurrently, Congress also needs more expert judgment available to it during the policymaking process, which, for the purposes of this paper, means a focus on development of knowledge.
- [James A. Jacobs](https://freegovinfo.info/node/978/) - Jim Jacobs (James A. Jacobs) is Data Services Librarian Emeritus, University of California San Diego. He is one of the co-creators of FreeGovInfo.info. Jim is a librarian, teacher, trainer, researcher, writer, and consultant. He specializes in government information, providing data services in libraries, OAIS, TRAC, and digital library certification. Jim received his Bachelors degree from Oberlin College and his MSLS from University of Southern California. Jim served as data services librarian at the University of California San Diego for more than 20 years. In other libraries, he has worked as state government publications librarian, Librarian for Instruction and International Documents, and Documents Librarian. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Public Data Users and the Administrative Committee of the International Association for Social Science Services and Technology. Since 1990, he has co-taught the ICPSR summer workshop, "Providing Social Science Data Services: Strategies for Design and Operation." He is a technical consultant to the Center for Research Libraries on matters dealing with long-lived repositories and the certification of digital archives. Some of Jim's publications include Preserving research data by James A. Jacobs and Charles Humphrey. Communications of the ACM. Volume 47, Number 9 (2004); Government Information in the Digital Age: The Once and Future Federal Depository Library Program by James A. Jacobs, James R. Jacobs, and Shinjoung Yeo, Journal of Academic Librarianship, May 2005; Government Information in the Digital Era: Free Culture or Controlled Substance? by Karrie Peterson and James A. Jacobs, Symposium on Free Culture and the Digital Library 2005, Emory University, October 2005; Government Documents at the Crossroads, Karrie Peterson, Elizabeth Cowell, and Jim Jacobs. American Libraries 32(8) (September 2001): 52-55; and "The Technical is Political," Jim Jacobs, Karrie Peterson, Of Significance..., 3(1) 2001, p.25-35, Association of Public Data Users. Jim can be reached at jajacobs at ucsd.edu
- [Panel on End-of-term crawl and the collection of vulnerable government information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11594/) - I was honored last week to be part of a panel hosted by OpenTheGovernment and the Bauman Foundation to talk about the End of Term project. Other presenters included Jess Kutch at Coworker.org and Micah Altman, Director of Research at MIT Libraries. I talked about what EOT is doing, as well as some of the
- [Is cataloging government information obsolete? FGI says NO!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9770/) - There was a provocative post on govdoc-l this week asking if the cataloging of government information is "obsolete"? We thought the question needed to be unpacked and contextualized and wanted to share more widely. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Here is the post that posed the question: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Folks, First of all, I'm asking this question to be provocative.
- [Review of 2016 in anticipation of 2017](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11549/) - It is January and time once again to review what last year brought to libraries and the FDLP and where we should put our energies in the coming year. 2016 In 2016 GPO issued a series of policies that express its intentions to enhance both access to and preservation of government information. While we applaud
- [Looking Backward, Looking Forward](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10752/) - It is that time of year when we tend to look back at what has happened over the last 12 months and look forward to what we anticipate in the coming year. The urge to look back and see what has happened comes, usually, not so much from nostalgia as from a desire to evaluate
- [Privatization of GPO, Defunding of FDsys, and the Future of the FDLP](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3416/) - On July 22, the House passed a bill that would remove funding for FDsys, reduce funding for GPO by 20%, and reduce funding for the Superintendent of Documents by 16% (Kelley). The House Report on the bill also directs the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study on "the privatization of the GPO" and the transfer of the Superintendent of Documents and the FDLP to the Library of Congress (page 25). The bill includes many other changes that are relevant to the dissemination of government information (see House Bill Questions Future of GPO and the comments to that post, and the stories in Library Journal and OMB Watch), but the ones related to FDsys and the privatization of the GPO are the ones which, if ultimately approved, would have the greatest negative impact on long-term free public access to government information. Passage of only some of these bad ideas would almost certainly result in a catastrophic loss of long-term access to and preservation of government information. These bad ideas are, however, only symptoms of a still bigger problem. There is, luckily, an obvious, logical path around all these threats. Proposals not new While these proposed cuts and changes are drastic, they are not new. Similar proposals were considered in 1982 and 2001 by NCLIS, in 1988 by the Office of Technology Assessment, and in 1993 and 1994 by bills in the House of Representatives. In addition to these official recommendations, the information industry has long argued that the private sector, not government agencies, should disseminate government information. It has characterized almost any government information activity as unfair competition with the private sector. Industry commissioned reports and official statements in 2000 and 2004 (Wasch) suggested that governments should only distribute raw data and should refrain from making data easier to use if there is even a potential commercial market for such information. These private sector ideas have re-emerged in the last few years as governments have made raw data more easily accessible and technological mashups of government data have become almost commonplace. Calls for government to limit its role to the delivery of raw data and for a reliance on the private sector to make the data useful have become popular. (Robinson) Bad Policies Whether such proposals suggest turning over government information dissemination to the private sector or commercializing the distribution of information by agencies themselves, when such proposals have been examined from the perspective of the user and from the perspective of information access in a democracy, they have been found to be severely wanting. An examination of the literature reveals three reasons that proposals to privatize and commercialize government information make bad policy. First, by commoditizing public information, they conflict with the needs by citizens in a democracy for free access to accurate information about the activities of government. Second, they ignore that producing and disseminating public information is an essential role of government, not something that can be left to the whims of the market. Third, it has never been demonstrated that the privatization of major federal information dissemination activities is cost-effective or beneficial for important governmental functions. It is also worth remembering that GPO was originally created because relying on private printing did not work well. Private printers often delivered jobs late and the printers themselves found that they lost money on public printing contracts (MacGilvray). Today, GPO contracts with many private publishers while maintaining overall control of the entire throughput. Even information-industry-friendly reports on similar proposals have recognized an important, even essential, role for the government in government information dissemination. The 1982 NCLIS report, while strongly promoting a major role for the private-sector, nevertheless said that government information should be openly available without any constraints on subsequent use. It also advocated depositing documents into FDLP libraries for free accessibility. The 2001 NCLIS report similarly supported private-sector involvement but also concluded that, "...the federal government must continue to have primary responsibility for the entire life cycle of government information, including the dissemination and permanent public availability to public information resources to the American public without restrictions on its use or reuse." (emphasis added) Nevertheless, there are still those who promote policies that would rely on market forces to determine what public information would be available to the public and at what cost. Strong opposition to that approach comes from non-profits, libraries, citizen advocacy groups, scientists, journalists, historians, and government agencies. These groups understand that "there is [a] need to ensure equitable, open access by the public in general to information which has been generated, collected, processed, and/or distributed with taxpayer funds." (NCLIS p.ix). And in 1988, OTA said, some government information dissemination activities are "inherently governmental" because they "facilitate an informed citizenry [and] assist the mission agencies in carrying out their statutory responsibilities." (p301) Failed Attempts Some attempts by the government to commercialize or commoditize its information have failed either economically or functionally. For example, although STAT-USA existed on a "revolving fund" without Congressional funding for many years, charging a cost recovery fee for access to economic and trade information from federal agencies, in the long run it found that its fee-for-service business model was no longer viable and it shut down its operations. (Krasowska) If you have been around government information issues for less than fifteen years, you may not be aware that the first incarnation of GPO Access attempted a cost recovery model similar to NTIS or STAT-USA. It charged annual suscription fees ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars for access to the Congressional Record and Federal Register (GPO Access Status Report ). This model failed and was abandoned after less than two years (Relyea), partly as a result of libraries creating gateways that made this same information available without charge. Even when fee-based services, such as PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records), seem to survive financially, their functional failure to provide free information is obvious and it is arguably true that they fail to adequately meet the needs of all. Catch 22 There are Catch-22s implicit in proposals to privatize or commercialize government information. First, the information-industry suggests that it should have exclusive rights to information products that are profitable and leave to governments those that are not profitable. This sets up governments for failure when they try to support their activities with income from demonstrably non-profitable information products. Second, governments set themselves up for failure when they charge for access to public information. If they simultaneously attempt to honor their role of providing information to the public without charge while charging for that same information (as in the early years of GPO Access), they compete against themselves. But if they attempt to protect their ability to charge for their information "products," they find themselves in the awkward position of attempting to control and restrict access to public information that is in the public domain. (Gellman) Ultimately, attempts to commercialize government information therefore conflict fundamentally with the essential and inherent duty of government to make public information freely available and usable. The current threat Unfortunately, just because a proposal is bad policy, self-contradictory, or doomed to failure does not keep it from being implemented. The current budgetary and political situations in Washington DC create an environment where one or more of these bad ideas is more likely to pass than ever before. Regardless of how important this issue is, it is unlikely that it will get much media attention. It is also not at all clear that proposals to keep government information free and well-preserved will garner much support politically. When essential government services such as food safety, police, defense, nutritional programs for low-income women and children, nurses, clean drinking water, and much more all face drastic cuts, will there even be room in the budget debates to consider government information? When Congress can seriously consider proposals to cut spending on programs that affect the health and safety of the country, we can hardly assume that it will necessarily provide adequate funding for information access. President Obama's own government transparency programs have been drastically cut and Obama himself is on record as thinking the printing of the Federal Register is wasteful. The Big Problems As serious as the current situation is, it can at least help us see the bigger issues that surround long-term preservation and access of government information and suggest solutions. The big problem is that we lack an adequate preservation and access "ecosystem" for government information. This puts all government information at the mercy of relatively small changes in government budgets. It is somewhat ironic that, if we had addressed the underlying issues earlier and had a rich ecosystem, we would be less vulnerable to the drastic proposals on the table today. There are lots of issues and challenges that face those who wish to preserve long-term free access to government information. We can boil down a lot of those issues to two big ones: 1. Quantity. Just the quantity of information being produced digitally provides one huge challenge. Any attempt to preserve so much information must be able to scale to sizes that, until recently, were almost unimaginable. As Nicholas Taylor at the Library of Congress wrote recently, the amount of "data stored by the Library of Congress" has become a popular, if unusual, unit of measurement for capacity of storage, network traffic speed, size of digital collections, and so forth. The "End of Term" crawl of the web pages of the George W. Bush presidential administration by the Library of Congress, the California Digital Library, the University of North Texas, the Internet Archive, and the Government Printing Office produced almost 16 terabytes of data. (See more size comparisons here.) And digital preservation and access requires duplication and replication and backups that multiply the scale of projects quickly. LOCKSS-USDOCS, for example, says that the approximately 1 terabyte of data it is currently preserving is only a fraction of the 18 terabytes of content in FDSy when all the workflow iterations, copies, and backups are taken into account. What this means is that providing preservation and access to all government information is a very large, non-trivial task. It is not clear that any one institution or organization will ever have the capacity or resources to do everything on its own. 2. Selection. But, you may well ask, how much of all digital government information is worth preserving? It is almost certainly true that much of the born digital content being produced by the government is of only transient interest or value. It is without question true that the rules have changed in ways that make it more difficult to know what is worth saving. In the past, we knew and could fairly easily define and identify "government publications" and could identify who created and published them. "Publications" were, for the most part, packaged as "books" and "journals" and "pamphlets" and so forth. These qualities made it relatively easy to know what we wanted to preserve and how to preserve it. But in the digital environment, we find ourselves facing a whole new set of circumstances. It is not always clear who has created digital information, whether or not it is "government" information, or whether or not we have sufficient rights to collect or preserve or provide access to any given piece of information (Peterson). A single web page may display information from many different sources. A dot-gov web page may contain information from a commercial source and government agencies may post original content on dot-com web sites. The very processes that put a wealth of government information a click or two away also make it harder for us to preserve that same information and ensure its usability far into the future. Apart from some obvious, preeminent series (e.g., Federal Register, Congressional Record, Hearings, Reports, the censuses, and other Essential Titles), lies everything else. Who will decide what of that "everything else" is worth saving? Who will decide if we save the digital equivalent of looseleaf binders, pamphlets, posters, one-off maps, slip laws, drafts, versions, editions, memos, press releases, and so forth? We must consider multi-media formats. We have to decide whether or not the "look and feel" of website presentations of information is important to preserve and, when there are several different presentations of the same information, which we should preserve. Selection in the world of bad budgets ultimately means de-selection and weeding. Digital objects don't get preserved by accident. They require constant attention and preservation work. When a repository says, "We can no longer afford to preserve this and this and this," it is often relegating those things to oblivion. Despite these big difference between the digital world and the analog world, the big, foundational issues we face are not that different. Specifically, there are two foundational issues: First, different people have different needs. What is important to you may not be important to me and vice versa. Second, the question of selection of what to preserve is a question of who will have the decision making power and who will have the control over their own decisions (Jacobs). Some conclusions. There are some inescapable conclusions we can draw from the combination of the issue of quantity and need for selection. First, there is a need for more than one organization to be responsible for preservation and long-term access just to deal with quantity and scale. We cannot rely on any single institution or organization to preserve everything that is of value to everyone; that is just too big a job. The Library of Congress has come to the same conclusion, which is why it has created the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA). Second, there is a need for different organizations to be involved in preservation in order to adequately reflect the information needs of different user communities. No single institution that intends to serve "everyone" can afford (literally afford, in terms of money and other resources) to pay sufficient attention to the needs of every small, specialized constituency. Without such attention, information will fall through the cracks and be lost. Third, each such institution must have the ability to select information for preservation and obtain sufficient control over that information such that it can perform the needed digital preservation activities that will ensure long-term preservation of and access to that information. Digital Preservation Road Maps Luckily, we have road maps for digital preservation that help us address the issues and challenges outlined above. The road maps are the Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS) combined with the checklist for certifying digital repositories, the Audit And Certification Of Trustworthy Digital Repositories (TDR). TDR is built upon OAIS. Together they provide the context for long-term preservation and access to any digital collection. They do not describe how to build a repository nor do they define technologies that must be used. Rather, OAIS describes the required functions of a digital repository and TDR provides a checklist of "metrics" for evaluating if a given repository is meeting its own goals and objectives for achieving those functions. OAIS and TDR are just as applicable to small repositories and institutions as large ones. TDR recognizes that preservation is not just about technology. It is also about continuity over time of the archive itself. TDR describes two essential requirements in this area that are particularly relevant here: the need for long-term financial sustainability and the need for succession planning. 1. Sustainability. TDR says that, to ensure viability, a repository must have business planning processes that ensure its financial sustainability over time. Viewing sustainability for government agencies is tricky. On the one hand, an agency can claim that it has the full faith and credit of the government, legal mandates, and (in some cases) the historical precedent of its long-term mission. On the other hand, agencies come and go, budgets are cut and reallocated, and missions change. In fact, as noted above, the current proposals are only the most recent examples of these very issues facing GPO. GPO has always had high hopes and made big promises, but its hopes and promises are limited by what Congress sets as its mission from year to year and how Congress funds it -- or denies it funding. In a single budget cycle, "permanent preservation" can change to "temporary storage" and "free" can change to "fee-based." A single bad-budget year can force GPO to make selection decisions that result in weeding of information that some communities will still consider vital. While a lot of what affects sustainability is outside the control of the repository, there are many things than each repository can control and many actions it can take to control those. It can also take actions that will provide the best possible context for dealing with events outside its control. TDR enumerates these. But TDR says that a repository must also prepare for the possibility that unforeseen or unavoidable events might make sustainability impossible. For such occasions, a repository needs a succession plan. 2. Succession Planning. Any organization faces the possibility of funding cuts and shortages and unforeseen problems that can result in anything from scaling back to going out of existence entirely. IBM recently made this point clear about private sector companies when it said, "Nearly all the companies our grandparents admired have disappeared. Of the top 25 industrial corporations in the United States in 1900, only two remained on that list at the start of the 1960s. And of the top 25 companies on the Fortune 500 in 1961, only six remain there today." TDR recognizes this and says that any trusted repository must have a formal succession plan, contingency plans, or escrow arrangements in case the repository ceases to operate or the governing or funding institution substantially changes its scope. These are exactly the threats GPO faces today. I cannot think of a better demonstration of the need for succession planning. But what does it mean to have a succession plan? It means having a plan that will ensure the long-term preservation of the content for which a repository is responsible even if the repository ceases to exist. In general terms, it means that an organization has a plan for what specific actions it will take if it learns it has to change missions or if it will cease to exist. In extreme circumstances, it means that it has a plan in place to hand over its content to one or more trusted repositories. We already have some existing projects for government information that may serve as models for for viable, long-term, collaborative solutions to succession. These include the Department of State Foreign Affairs Network (DOSFAN) partnership between the U.S. Department of State, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Government Printing Office; the LOCKSS-USDOCS partnership between Stanford, Carl Malamud's public.resource.org, GPO's FDsys, and more than three dozen libaries; and the CyberCemetery partnership between The University of North Texas Libraries and GPO. In order for a repository to say that its content will survive the downsizing or elimination of the repository, it needs to be able to show that its content already is in another repository or that it could hand over its content to another repository. For a hand-over to take place, there would have to be another repository technically capable of accepting such a hand-over. This, along with the above conclusions based on quantity and selection, leads us to some solutions both for our current situation as well as for the underlying issues surrounding long-term preservation and access. Solutions There is a common theme to the conclusions above. First, to ensure preservation of all that needs to be preserved, we need multiple repositories serving the needs of multiple communities of interest. OAIS calls these "Designated Communities" and both OAIS and TDR make them an essential (non-optional) element of trusted repositories. Second, in order for repositories to have realistic succession plans, we need an information preservation ecosystem consisting of many repositories capable of cooperating with each other's succession planning. In a nutshell: The more repositories we have, the more secure all repositories will be, collectively. The more repositories we have, the better we can ensure that content relevant to all user communities will be selected and preserved by at least one of those repositories. Visions of the future What might this look like in practice? There is no single prescription for success, but we can imagine effective, practical, successful scenarios. Success would be achieved if we had a mix of a variety of different kinds of libraries and archives and repositories, each working for the best interests of its own designated user community, but, collectively, providing a national, loosely-coupled "system" of preservation and access. (Does this sound like the traditional FDLP? Yes! The FDLP provides us with a working model of experience in just such a system.) In such a system, individual libraries (small and large) and consortia of libraries (small and large) could contribute to the long-term free public access to government information -- simply by meeting the needs of their own user communities. The Digital Public Library of America might provide a technical and organizational framework within which many libraries might act and contribute. I can imagine lots of examples of how individual libraries or groups of libraries might take actions that would benefit their own user communities as well as the information ecosystem as a whole. I am sure that you can add to this list from your own experiences with your own user communities. A few big repositories like HathiTrust, the Internet Archive, and LOCKSS-USDOCS containing large volumes of easily identifiable and obtainable major series of government digital information. Consortia of law libraries (like the Chesapeake Project Legal Information Archive) combining forces to preserve the basic, essential, official legal record of the nation (from all 3 branches). Regional, state, and local law libraries preserving local jurisdictional legal information and linking their collections through rich metadata and APIs to each other and national collections. Libraries with a regional focus collecting information relevant to the region from multiple agencies and jurisdictions. (e.g. water rights, immigration, trade, agriculture) Libraries that focus on specific kinds of users with common kinds of information needs (e.g., undergraduates, K-12, practicing physicians, farmers) collecting government information from many sources to build strong, dynamic working collections. Libraries that want to emphasize a particular kind of information or research (e.g., spatial/GIS data, astronomical data, statistical and raw numeric data from censuses, weather data, textual corpa), combining government information with information from other sources and with computational tools to provide rich research environments for researchers. Research libraries with institutional repositories of their research output combining government information to supplement, document, and enhance those collections. The above are just examples, not prescriptions or predictions. The concept I want to illustrate above is that, when lots of libraries and archives and repositories select and acquire digital government information and create rich digital collections for their own communities, the result will be, collectively, better preservation and more focused access than any single institution could create on its own. This rich environment would be much more secure than our current environment in which each library hopes that some other library or government agency will take care of preservation and access to materials that are essential to its own user community. Next Steps So what do we do next? We need to oppose recommendations before Congress that would gut GPO or force GPO to weed or disable FDsys or commercialize government information. The current bill will not be the last; we need to be able to make a convincing, persuasive case that government has an essential, inherent role in the life cycle of government information. We need to work with existing large digital repositories (e.g. HathiTrust, Internet Archive, LOCKSS-USDOCS, etc.) to see if they can host government information and make it freely accessible now -- particularly in the event of a scaled back or discontinued FDsys. We need to work with Depository Library Council, GODORT, ALA, GPO, our own local FDLP libraries and Regional Depositories to plan for an FDLP of the future that includes life-cycle management of digital government information. This will inevitably include, but not be limited to, digital deposit of Title 44 materials into FDLP libraries. We need to instruct ourselves in the requirements of Trusted Digital Repositories by learning about OAIS and TDR. Where there are learning opportunities we need to take them and where there need to be new opportunities we need to make them. Those of us with influence on the curricula of library schools need to make this a requirement. Building on our own individual knowledge we can then work at a local level within our own libraries and library consortia and library organizations to build our own digital infrastructures and digital collections that meet the requirements of OAIS and TDR. We need to make sure that the planning process is not overwhelmed by technical considerations to the exclusion of long-term sustainability and succession planning. Sustainability and succession planning need to be integrated into the planning process from the beginning, not addressed later as an afterthought. This will help us have better conversations with our colleagues and will lead to more cooperative projects and better cooperative planning. We need to work with national and regional organizations and professional associations to plan for a future information preservation ecosystem and infrastructure. Librarians need to work with different kinds of libraries; librarians and archivists and technologists need to work together. The ecosystem doesn't have to be a huge bureaucratic institution -- indeed, it probably should not be -- but it will benefit from collaborations and planning that stretch across traditional boundaries. Ask or Act? The future of long-term preservation of and free access to government information is in the hands of Congress today. That leaves us with the feeling that all we can do is ask Congress to do the right thing. But we can do more than ask; we can act. Indeed, we must act. We have the power to take that control out of the hands of Congress and put it into our own hands by building our own digital collections. For many libraries, that will mean a change in strategy: instead of relying on someone else to ensure long-term access to the information your Designated Community requires, you will rely on your own actions. This comes with costs, of course, but it also has big benefits. You will be providing the essential services that your community needs. And that means that you will have a built-in, inherent role that no one else has, which will make your library more sustainable for the long run. Endnotes. Ambacher, Bruce I., Government Archives and the Digital Repository Audit Checklist, Journal of Digital Information, 8 (2007). Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS) CCSDS 650.0-B-1 BLUE BOOK January 2002’ (CCSDS Secretariat, 2002), CCDS. Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, Audit And Certification Of Trustworthy Digital Repositories, "Red Book," Issue 1 (Washington D.C.: Council of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, October 2009). Federal Executive Agencies Terminated, Transferred, or Changed in Name Subsequent to March 4, 1933, United States Government Manual 2009-2010 (Appendix B). Gellman, Robert M. Twin Evils: Government Copyright And Copyright-Like Controls Over Government Information, Syracuse Law Review 45:999 (1995). Government Printing Office Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act of 1993 [Public Law 103-40]. House Report 112-148, to accompany H.R. 2551, Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill, 2012, Committee on Appropriations (July 15, 2011) H.R.2551, Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2012, Referred to Senate committee 7/22/2011. Jacobs, James A. FDLP: Services and Collections [preprint] by Against the Grain, 21(2) April/May 2009. Kelley, Michael. Bill Passed by House Would Provide No Money for GPO's Federal Digital System, Sharply Cuts Other Information Resources, Library Journal (Jul 27, 2011). Krasowska, Francine. A Message from STAT-USA’s Director (August 2010) MacGilvray, Daniel R. A Short History of GPO, Administrative Notes (1986). McGilvray, Jessica. ALA opposes cuts to Government Printing Office in Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, by District Dispatch, American Library Association, Washington Office (July 21, 2011). OMB Watch. House Questions Future of Government Printing Office, (July 27, 2011) Peterson, Karrie and Jacobs, James A. Government Information in the Digital Era: Free Culture or Controlled Substance?, paper presented at the symposium, "Free Culture and the Digital Library" at Emory University in Atlanta Georgia, October 2005. Relyea, Harold C. Public Printing Reform: Issues and Actions, Congressional Research Services report 98-687 (June 17, 2003), Robinson, David G., Yu, Harlan, Zeller, William P. and Felten, Edward W., Government Data and the Invisible Hand (2009). Yale Journal of Law & Technology, Vol. 11, p. 160, 2009. Sheketoff, Emily. Letter [MS Word document; available as a PDF document here] to Harold Rogers and Norman D. Dicks, Committee on Appropriations U.S. House of Representatives, from Emily Sheketoff, Executive Director ALA Washington Office (July 21, 2011). [includes attached "Resolution On Government Printing Office Fy 2012 Appropriations" Adopted by the Council of the American Library Association, June 28, 2011. STAT-USA. STAT-USA Office to Cease Operations September 30, 2010 Stiglitz, Joseph E., Orszag, Peter R., and Orszag, Jonathan M. The Role of Government in a Digital Age, Commissioned by the Computer & Communications Industry Association. October 2000. Terry, Jenni. House passes Legislative Branch Appropriations Act with 20 percent cut to Government Printing Office, District Dispatch, American Library Association, Washington Office (July 25, 2011). U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Informing the Nation: Federal Information Dissemination in an Electronic Age, OTA-C IT-396 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, October 1988). [Y 3.T 22/2:In 3/9:] U.S. General Accounting Office. Information Management: Electronic Dissemination of Government Publications, GAO Report 01-428 (March 30, 2001) U.S. Government Printing Office. Essential Titles for Public Use in Paper or Other Tangible Format. (Written on Monday, 24 November 2008 Last Updated on Monday, 20 June 2011) U.S. Government Printing Office. GPO Access: Status Report. (June 30, 1994). U.S. Government Printing Office. Printing Procurement Regulations (revised 2/11) U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. A comprehensive assessment of public information dissemination: final report, United States. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, Washington, DC : The Commission, (2001) [Y 3.L 61:2 D 63]. U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. Public Sector/Private Sector Interaction in Providing Information Services. Report to the NCLIS from the Public Sector/Private Sector Task Force. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (1982). [Y 3.L 61:2 P 96/2]. U.S. Office of Management and Budet. OMB Circular A-130, Transmittal Memorandum #4, Management of Federal Information Resources (11/28/2000) Wasch, Ken. Letter (May 13, 2004) "SIIA Comments Regarding New Economic Model for The GPO Sales Program," Letter to Bruce James, Public Printer, U.S. Government Printing Office from From Ken Wasch, President Software and Industry Information Association.
- [CIA finally declassifies last WWI era classified documents](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3260/) - So the CIA just got around to declassifying 6 of the U.S.'s oldest classified documents from WWI (1917 + 1918). They've posted them in their CIA FOIA reading room and the CIA Records Search Tool (CREST) at the National Archives (but to use CREST, a researcher must physically be present at the National Archives, College Park, Maryland :-|). That also means that the documents will also soon be available at the archive-it FOIA collection (I'm harvesting them as we speak ;-)). These documents, which describe secret writing techniques and are housed at the National Archives, are believed to be the only remaining classified documents from the World War I era. Documents describing secret writing fall under the CIA's purview to declassify. "These documents remained classified for nearly a century until recent advancements in technology made it possible to release them," CIA Director Leon E. Panetta said. "When historical information is no longer sensitive, we take seriously our responsibility to share it with the American people." One document outlines the chemicals and techniques necessary for developing certain types of secret writing ink and a method for opening sealed letters without detection. Another memorandum dated June 14, 1918 - written in French - reveals the formula used for German secret ink. "The CIA recognizes the importance of opening these historical documents to the public," said Joseph Lambert, the Agency's Director of Information Management Services. "In fiscal year 2010 alone, the Agency declassified and released over 1.1 million pages of documents."These documents, which describe secret writing techniques and are housed at the National Archives, are believed to be the only remaining classified documents from the World War I era. Documents describing secret writing fall under the CIA's purview to declassify. "These documents remained classified for nearly a century until recent advancements in technology made it possible to release them," CIA Director Leon E. Panetta said. "When historical information is no longer sensitive, we take seriously our responsibility to share it with the American people." One document outlines the chemicals and techniques necessary for developing certain types of secret writing ink and a method for opening sealed letters without detection. Another memorandum dated June 14, 1918 - written in French - reveals the formula used for German secret ink. "The CIA recognizes the importance of opening these historical documents to the public," said Joseph Lambert, the Agency's Director of Information Management Services. "In fiscal year 2010 alone, the Agency declassified and released over 1.1 million pages of documents." Declassified CIA documents (all pdf): Document 1 Document 2 Document 3 Document 4 -- This is the one with the steps for checking for invisible ink. Document 5 Document 6 This was such cool news that Rachel Maddow went gaga over the news! Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy [HT to Gary Price for posting CIA Declassifies Oldest Documents in U.S. Government Collection (1917 + 1918), View Them Online on InfoDocket. Thanks Gary!]
- [Can't buy libraries love: FGI responds to Anderson's Ithaka S+R issue brief "'Can't Buy Us Love'"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3999/) - I just finished reading Rick Anderson's Ithaka S+R issue brief "'Can't Buy Us Love:' The Declining Importance of Library Books and the Rising Importance of Special Collections." it is not the most articulate argument for the future of libraries, but it certainly may be the best eulogy. Anderson's perspective bothered me so much that I jotted down a few thoughts to ponder in response. I wanted to post as a comment but it ran a little longer than Ithaka allows on their site. By all means, read Anderson's piece, and then my comments below. I'd love to hear what our readers think. Full citation: "'Can't Buy Us Love:' The Declining Importance of Library Books and the Rising Importance of Special Collections." Ithaka S+R Issue Brief. August 1, 2013. Rick Anderson, Interim Dean & University Librarian, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah. Here are a few thoughts to ponder:
- [2016 End of Term (EOT) crawl and how you can help](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11477/) - [Editor's note: Updated 12/15/16 to include updated email address for End-of-Term project queries (eot-info AT archive DOT org), and information about robots.txt (#1 below) and databases and their underlying data (#5 below). Also updated 12/22/16 with note about duplication of efforts and how to dive deeply into an agency's domain at the bottom of #1
- [CIA to post millions of CIA declassified documents online](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11418/) - The Central Intelligence Agency said this week that it will post its "CREST" (CIA Records Search Tool) database of more than 11 million pages of historical Agency records that have already been declassified and approved for public release online, making them broadly accessible to all interested users. CIA Will Place Its CREST Database Online by
- [More about CIA's CREST system](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2528/) - Steven Aftergood has a good post about the CIA Records Search Tool (CREST): CIA’s CREST Leaves Cavity in Public Domain, by Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News, April 6, 2009. Among other things he points to the new article in Mother Jones: Inside the CIA's (Sort of) Secret Document Stash. by Bruce Falconer. Mother Jones. 3 Apr 2009. The article notes that the CIA monitors users of the FOIA documents: Next to the computer terminals is a sign warning that "the CIA will gather and store information about your visit automatically" (a message driven home by two overhead video cameras encased in tinted glass) and that "unauthorized attempts to modify any information stored on this system, to defeat or circumvent security measures, or to utilize this system for other than its intended purposes are prohibited and may result in criminal prosecution." See also: CIA Records Search Tool (CREST).
- [CIA Records Search Tool (CREST)](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2513/) - Steven Aftergood reports (CIA Updates Digital Archive, Restricts Access, Secrecy News, March 26, 2009) on the release by the Central Intelligence Agency of a new tool that allows users to search on-line to discover the availability of declassified CIA documents. The tool is the CIA FOIA - 25-Year Program Archive Search. But you cannot download the documents you discover. Steven notes that the CIA will not "put the entire CREST database online so that anyone, anywhere could download these declassified, often heavily censored records. Nor will CIA release an electronic copy of the CREST database so that others may post it." The CIA justifies withholding the complete text because, "The Agency evidently believes that there are latent secrets concealed in the declassified record that could somehow be extracted by a clever analyst who reviewed them in electronic form." See also: Pozen, David. The Mosaic Theory, National Security, and the Freedom of Information Act. SSRN eLibrary. 26 Mar 2009. Steven also says: In 1995, President Clinton ordered agencies that classify information to “establish a Governmentwide database of information that has been declassified” (Executive Order 12958, section 3.8). That never happened, and in 2003 President Bush deleted the requirement (Executive Order 13292, section 3.7). Restoring such a requirement, and fulfilling it, would be an appealing feature of a new executive order on classification.
- [CIA's CREST declassified database is now online. Thanks MuckRock and others!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11546/) - The CIA's CREST database of declassified records is gradually being made publicly available online, thanks to the efforts of MuckRock, Michael Best and others. Prior to MuckRock's lawsuit, CREST was *technically* available, but only Monday through Friday from 9 Am to 4:30 PM at the National Archives facility at the University of Maryland. Some CREST
- [What You Need to Know about the New Discard Policy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10525/) - GPO's new Regional Discard Policy and GPO's recent presentations about it are full of hopeful words and good intentions. We applaud GPO for having good intentions and high hopes, but we question if the Policy can meet those expectations. Introduction of the Policy and its Implementation One definite Goal. Some questionable objectives Preservation of and
- [Why GPO's proposed policy to allow Regionals to discard is a bad idea](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9073/) - The discussion surrounding ALA's Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) response to a recent Government Printing Office (GPO) proposal to allow Regional Depositories in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) to discard some government documents has been intense and impassioned. In the interest of brevity on the GOVDOC-L listserv, I decided to post a longer piece
- [Using Government Data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11537/) - Back when I helped teach new data librarians about data, one of the themes my colleagues and I liked to repeat was that "data should tell a story." By that we meant that raw facts are literally without meaning until we analyze them and understand the stories they tell. "Understanding" is more than facts. As
- [How a complex network of bills becomes a law: GovTrack introduces new data analysis of text incorporation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11535/) - Here's a fascinating new way to look at US Congressional legislation from our friends at GovTrack.us. As Josh Tauberer explains, GovTrack's new service “Enacted Via Other Measures," their new data analysis of text incorporation, will now provide connections between bills -- when a bill has at least about 33% of its provisions incorporated into one
- [The Fake News Attack on the U.S. Census](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11530/) - A lot has been written about "fake news" in the last few months. Too much of that writing has (IMHO) muddled the differences between just-plain-lies and everything else that divides the country at the moment. But the basic issue of politicians who distort the truth because they are more interested in the zero-sum game of
- [The Shame of Bad Digitizations](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11510/) - In a recent thread on the Govdoc-l mailing list about a Congressional Publications Hub (or "pub hub" -- more of the thread here), one commenter said that The American Memory project's digital surrogates of the pre-Congressional Record publications "probably aren't salvageable" because the TIFFs were captured at 300 ppi resolution and then converted to 2-bit
- [House Republicans' plan to permanently cripple government](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11507/) - The first thing the new Republican-led Congress did was attempt to kill the Office of Congressional Ethics -- thankfully the public uproar forced them to withdraw the plan *for now*. Now Congress is set to put into place a terrible new law called Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act (REINS Act). This
- [PBS NewsHour: Internet Archive and the fragility of Internet history](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11504/) - PBS NewsHour recently ran this very good piece on the fragility of Internet information and what the Internet Archive is doing about it. This is a good short piece that succinctly explains why in the digital age lots of copies are necessary to keep information safe. And the corollary to lots of copies is that
- [Attend the FGI virtual EOT seed nomination sprint. Help make and preserve .gov history!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11500/) - If you’ve been waiting for your chance to make history: now’s the time! Please join us for the FGI virtual End of Term Project Web archiving nomination sprint on Wednesday 11 January 2017 from 9AM - 11AM Pacific / 12 noon - 2PM EST. During that time, We'll set up a virtual conference room, give
- [EPA's changes fracking report (at least) twice, downplaying then emphasizing risk of drinking water pollution](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11496/) - Wow, this *should* be bombshell news. According to joint reporting from APMreports and MarketPlace, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made 11th hour changes to a fracking study to downplay the risk of drinking water pollution (november 30 story). Then just a couple of days ago, EPA reversed course *again*, saying there *is* a connection between
- [OPEN Government Data Act (S. 2852) passes Senate](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11487/) - Here's some good news from our friends at the Sunlight Foundation. After much work by Sunlight, the Congressional Data Coalition, and many others, the "Open, Public, Electronic, and Necessary Government Data Act" or the "OPEN Government Data Act" (S.2852) just passed the US Senate with an amendment by unanimous consent. The OPEN Government Data Act
- [Senators appeal to Obama to save the Senate Torture Report](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11482/) - UPDATE: Senate torture report to be kept from public for 12 years after Obama decision by Spencer Ackerman, The Guardian (12 December 2016). President Obama has agreed to preserve the report, but his decision ensures that the document remains out of public view for at least 12 years and probably longer. Obama's decision prevents Republican
- [Pentagon buries internal study finding $125 billion in bureaucratic waste](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11473/) - This is the kind of news that makes the public distrust government (in this case rightly, but just as frequently that distrust is misplaced). It's also the kind of news item that I like because there's context AND there's a copy of the internal study that I can archive, catalog and give access to via
- [GPO releases digital Congressional Record for the 1980s](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11469/) - Back in September, 2016, we posted about the project undertaken by the Government Publishing Office and Library of Congress to digitize the Congressional Record in its entirety back to 1873. At that time, GPO released volumes from 1991 - 1998 (covering the 102nd - 105th Congresses). Today, GPO issued a press release about the next
- [New PACER RECAP project!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11460/) - PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) is a database of databases of judicial opinions, pleadings, motions and other papers from 94 district courts, 93 bankruptcy courts, and 13 circuit courts that compose the federal judiciary. The RECAP project was initially a firefox/chrome extension which allowed users to automatically search for free copies during a
- [Trump to scrap Nasa climate research in crackdown on "politicized science"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11454/) - And so it begins. The Trump administration is targeting government agencies which produce "politicized science" -- or as most of us call it, "science"! -- and will be looking to defund those agencies. This story from the Guardian focuses on NASA, but no doubt EPA, NOAA, and other agencies which work on climate change and
- [After the Election: Libraries, Librarians, and the Government](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11451/) - Like many of my colleagues, I’m struggling to understand what the results of the Presidential election mean for my work as a government information librarian at a public institution of higher education. In the weeks and months ahead, those of us who claim to value diversity, inclusion, and a human-centered approach to our work have
- [How Much Money Does PACER Make?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11443/) - Here's some solid research by the Free Law Project about Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER). Amazing how much revenue PACER makes each year. That's a TON of pages downloaded by users of public domain legal information! And they've got some ideas for developing a solution to this problem. In total, that’s $1.2B that
- [New report on open government data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11428/) - A new report by the Data Foundation and Grant Thornton LLP "seeks to capture the moment, provide a vision of the future, and catalyze further efforts for the open data movement." It includes interviews with more than 40 Congressional and agency leaders, open data experts and advocates, and private sector leaders. It also has a
- [Election Resources](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11422/) - Here are some links you might want to use this week. The Scout Report (October 28, 2016) Volume 22, Number 42. A special edition of The Scout Report on voting. "While U.S. presidential elections date back to 1789, the practice of voting in such elections has greatly changed as suffrage rights have expanded and new
- [Debunking the Patriot Act as It Turns 15](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11414/) - "The Patriot Act turns 15 today, but that’s nothing to celebrate." Debunking the Patriot Act as It Turns 15, by Kate Tummarello, The Electronic Frontier Foundation (October 26, 2016). Number 4: Surveillance under the Patriot Act goes far beyond your phone company – Section 215 dramatically expanded the “business records” provision of the Foreign Intelligence
- [Curating Web-Based Information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11407/) - Our friend Gary Price, who produces the excellent InfoDocket and Full Text Reports, has a new presentation online about selecting and curating and preserving information on the open web. Maximizing Use Of The Open Web by Gary Price, MIT Brown Bag: "Issues in Curating the Open Web at Scale" (September 20, 2016). Much of the
- [EveryCRSReport.com launches. Public cheers. Congressional privilege intact](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11404/) - OMG I am so excited. This morning, Daniel Schuman and the fine folks at DemandProgress announced the launch of EveryCRSReport.com, a new website with 8,200 CRS reports from the Library of Congress' Congressional Research Service (CRS), and more coming. This is so awesome because CRS reports, written by experts in "Congress' Think Tank," have long
- [Feedback Needed by November 18th: FDLP Public Libraries Retention Study](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11402/) - The Government Publishing Office (GPO) has published a draft report asked for by the Depository Library Council (DLC) in response to learning that public libraries appear to be dropping from the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) at a faster rate than other libraries. The DLC asked GPO to: Identify the reasons why libraries left the
- [Science and Congress](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11394/) - Take a few minutes away from politics and read this fascinating article! One would think that Congress would want to have good solid scientific advice and not have to rely on think tanks or the Executive Branch agencies for an understanding of complex scientific issues. Well, in 1972 Congress passed and President Nixon signed a
- [DoE's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) shut down without comment. Data in preservation danger](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11389/) - This is terrible. The US Department of Energy (DOE) has summarily shut down the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC), located at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) as of 10/1/2016. CDIAC is the primary climate change data and information analysis center for DOE. CDIAC is supported by DOE's Climate and Environmental Sciences Division within
- [Just launched: FOIA wiki](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11386/) - This is very cool. Check out -- and bookmark right away! -- the just released FOIA wiki. This looks to be a great resource not just for journalists, but for researchers of all stripes as they wend their way through the arcane and sometimes frustrating world of FOIA. And while you're at it, check out
- [NBIB hires KeyPoint, same company suspected of blame in OPM breach](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11384/) - According to Reuters, The company called KeyPoint, a "private company whose login credentials were used in hack attacks that looted the personal data of 22 million current and former federal employees" from the US Office of Personnel Management has now won a major contract for security clearance process from the new agency created because of
- [Class Action Suit against PACER Overcharges Proceeds](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11381/) - PACER Class Action Advances By JUNE WILLIAMS Courthouse News Service (September 27, 2016). A federal judge refused Monday to dismiss a class action accusing the U.S. government of systematically overcharging for access to court records through its system PACER, short for Public Access to Court Electronic Records. Bryndon Fisher sued the United States for a
- [GPO & Library of Congress begin release of digitized Congressional Record](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11379/) - This is good news. Today GPO announced the first release of digitized volumes of the Congressional Record, part of a collaborative project between GPO and the Library of Congress. The plan is to go back to volume 1, 1873. So stay tuned for additional releases. The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) partners with the Library
- [Nominations sought for the U.S. Federal Government Domain End of Term Web Archive](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11377/) - Some of our readers may have seen this announcement already. But in case not, we need your help to preserve the .gov domain. See the announcement below to find out how. How would YOU like to help preserve the United States federal government .web domain for future generations? But, that's too huge of a swath
- [Carl Malamud fighting for public information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11373/) - A story about Carl Malamud's long fight to keep public information public. Details his current fight against a lawsuit that seeks to keep laws that cover building codes, plumbing regulations, and product safety rules for baby seats accessible only for a fee. Carl Malamud has standards by Steven Levy, Backchannel (Sep 12, 2016). For the
- [Systematic bias at the US Copyright Office](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11371/) - Wow, just ... wow! Go right now and download (or better yet, store a copy in your local repository like we're going to do!) Public Knowledge's new report about the US Copyright Office entitled Captured: Systemic Bias at the US Copyright Office. This is how a completely unaccountable government agency runs roughshod over the public
- [FGI Podcast: Building a Collaborative FDLP](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11354/) - Today’s lunchtime listen is FGI's first podcast(!), a conversation recorded on July 25, 2016, with James A. Jacobs, James R. Jacobs, and Shari Laster discussing “Building a Collaborative FDLP.” If you missed that post, here’s an excerpt: FDLP libraries can work together to provide, collectively, more than GPO — or any one library — can
- [Happy Birthday National Park Service](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11351/) - Today is the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service. Our friend Gary Price has a nice collection of 10 Digital Resources to Help Celebrate 100th Birthday of the National Park Service over at infoDocket. Thanks Gary! NPR has a series celebrating the National Parks: national park service centennial as well as a good overview
- [HathiTrust Federal Documents Registry Progresses to Beta](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11349/) - This is big news indeed. According to a press release, HathiTrust's Federal Documents Registry -- pulled together from the records of over 40 libraries -- is now available as a beta release! Mike Furlough and Valerie Glenn gave a very good presentation of the project, methodology, etc. at IFLA last week. A HUGE thanks to
- [Lunchtime listen: DoE Direct Current Episode 4: Backronyms](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11345/) - Do you love government acronyms? Come on, you know you do. Check out episode 4 of the DoE's Direct Current podcast. In this episode, they interview our colleague Kelly Smith from UC San Diego about her labor of love, the GovSpeak guide, which tracks and explains more than 3,800 acronyms ranging from the familiar to
- [NASA rolls out PubSpace, public portal for NASA-funded research](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11340/) - The 2013 White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memorandum, "Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research," is really starting to bare fruit. NASA just announced the creation of PubSpace -- which will go hand in hand with the NASA Data Portal -- to provide a public access portal to NASA-funded
- ["Open Government." Register to use?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11341/) - The Sunlight Foundation notes that when an agency like the Department of State publishes a draft of its Open Government plan, the public should not have to provide the agency with personal information in order to read the draft and provide feedback. Sunlight is providing a a PDF of the State Department's open government plan
- [Watercolors from USDA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11334/) - A fascinating niche site: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Pomological Watercolor Collection! It "documents fruit and nut varieties developed by growers or introduced by USDA plant explorers around the turn of the 20th century. Technically accurate paintings were used to create lithographs illustrating USDA bulletins, yearbooks, and other series distributed to growers and gardeners
- ["Flexibility" and the collaborative FDLP](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11321/) - There's something that has been sticking in my craw for quite some time. That something is the term "flexibility" that has been used as a bludgeon by regional FDLP libraries to push the Government Publishing Office (GPO) to create its potentially disastrous regional discard policy. Over the last 5 years at least, some FDLP librarians
- [How to vote in every state. Thanks VlogBrothers!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11319/) - The VlogBrothers Hank and John Green have completed a massive project for the public good. They've created short videos explaining how to vote in every state -- from registration to voter ID laws to absentee ballots to casting your vote! Find your state at https://www.youtube.com/c/howtovoteineverystate and pass it along to all your friends, family and
- [Rare & Endangered Government Publications committee (REGP) panel discussion at ALA Annual: GPO’s National Plan for Access to U.S. Govt Information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11313/) - At the 2016 ALA Annual Conference, held in Orlando in late June, GODORT’s Rare & Endangered Government Publications committee hosted a panel discussion about GPO’s National Plan for Access to U.S. Government Information. The discussion responded to four questions: How can depositories ensure preservation of their tangible collections while still providing access for users?< What
- [Update on Questions about GPO's Regional Discard Policy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11250/) - In December of last year, sixteen librarians wrote an Open Letter to GPO regarding the Regional Discard Policy in which we asked twelve questions about the approved version of the Regional Discard Policy. Now that GPO has released several new "informational resources" about progress of the "testing phase" (now referred to as "implementation phase one")
- [Analysis of the Regional Discard Policy: What you need to know about implementation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11247/) - Now that GPO is testing the implementation of implementing the Regional Discard Policy, it is time to finally get answers to the important questions that GPO has not addressed over the last two years. Although we have asked many questions about this policy, our concerns boil down to one simple question: Will FDLP -- and
- [Lunchtime listen: Kittens Kick The Giggly Blue Robot All Summer maybe God-damn!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11242/) - Here's a good mnemonic device, brought to you by RadioLab, for remembering all of our current US Supreme Court Justices -- Kagan, Kennedy, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer, Roberts, Alito, Sotomayor, and maybe Garland! But before you listen to the snappy song, listen to this episode from RadioLab (one of my favorite podcasts!) and their new venture
- [28 pages of 9/11 Report finally declassified](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11239/) - The U.S. Congress on Friday released the previously classified 28 pages of the 9/11 Commission Report on potential Saudi government ties to the 2001 terrorist attack. The pages were posted (pdf) on the House Intelligence Committee's website. Hopefully, GPO will add these 28 pages to the original 9/11 report that they host on FDsys (officially
- [President Obama publishes journal article. AMA claims copyright](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11237/) - File this under "not quite getting the concept." President Obama just published an article in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) entitled "United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next Steps.". But strangely, according to TechDirt, the AMA is claiming copyright on the article despite Section 105 of US copyright law clearly
- [Bot to tweet Chilcot Report 140 characters at a time](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11234/) - Finally, after 7 years of investigation, the British government has released the Chilcot Report, the UK's official inquiry into its participation in the Iraq War (coverage at the Guardian, NY Times, and the Intercept). We've purchased a copy, and are also in the process of storing a digital copy in the Stanford Digital Repository. Now
- [CA Legislature drops copyright language in AB 2880. Much rejoicing commences!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11231/) - According to my pal Kris Kasianovitz over at Free State Government Information, California Assembly Bill AB 2880, which would have granted state agencies sweeping powers to copyright their materials -- a horrendously bad idea to say the least! -- has been amended to remove ALL language about copyright! Please see these posts by the Electronic
- [Law Library of Congress acquires Federal Register from Hein. Yay access, but questions remain](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11224/) - Here's the good news: The Law Library of Congress has acquired the digital Federal Register (1936 - 1993) from Hein, which until now had only given licensed access to the collection to libraries which had subscribed. The collection is available from the LoC website. But this raises a few troubling questions: While the collection seems
- [Legislative Data and Transparency Conference 2016](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11221/) - The Congressional Committee on House Administration just finished up the 2016 Legislative Data and Transparency Conference. It was 8 hours chock full of good discussions and panelists from government and the open data community discussing bulk data, open source software, etc. Here's the agenda for the day, helpful collaborative live notes by my pal Daniel
- [Hurry! Action alert on continued funding for ACS and US Census!!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11219/) - Care about the US Census and American Community Survey? Of course you do! That being the case, it'll behoove you to contact your Senators ASAP about a couple of draft amendments coming out in the discussion about the FY2017 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill. The Census Project has the details: TO CENSUS PROJECT STAKEHOLDERS:
- [Yay! The Memory Hole is back!!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11217/) - I was so happy to see that the Memory Hole -- which for a long time posted amazing FOIA'd and found government documents but which went dark in 2009 -- is back to work. Russ Kick is doing yeoman's work to shake loose and shine light on amazing documents. I often save copies in the
- [National Security Archive highlights 50 news stories for FOIA's 50th birthday](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11214/) - The [[Freedom of Information Act (United States)]] (FOIA) was born on July 4, 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill into law. To celebrate, the National Security Archive has posted 50 of the year’s most important stories made possible by FOIA! I can only hope the 2nd 50 years of FOIA's life will see
- [Strategic Planning part II: SWOT analysis for the FDLP](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11088/) - Introduction In our previous post about GPO's National Plan for Access to U.S. Government Information: A Framework for a User-centric Service Approach To Permanent Public Access, we suggested two small changes to the Plan that we believe would improve it by giving it a clearer focus (on preservation for communities of users) and and a
- [The United States of Women](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11210/) - The White House has launched a video message in the lead-up to the first United State of Women Summit on June 14th, 2016. On June 14th, the White House Council on Women and Girls, together with the Department of State, the Department of Labor, the Aspen Institute and Civic Nation, is convening the first United
- [Congress needs to "rebuild" CRS -- and other agencies too!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11207/) - As a government information librarian, I know the value of reports from the Congressional Research Service (CRS). They're great publications for understanding public policy being discussed at the Federal level and because of that, FGI has been fighting hard to make those publications public. Steven Aftergood, from the Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy News project
- [LII and Justia give "Oyez Project" a new home. Supreme Court audio to remain free!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11204/) - This is great news. A few months ago, the news broke that Jerry Goldman, who ran the Oyez Project, was looking to retire and cash in his site for upwards of $1 million. I was afraid that some for-profit publisher like WestLaw of LexisNexis was going to scoop it up. But now it seems that
- [2016 Legislative Data and Transparency Conference (#LDTC16), Tue, Jun 21, 2016](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11201/) - Sign up now for this year's Legislative Data and Transparency Conference (#LDTC16) held in Washington DC. In years past, they've streamed the proceedings, so definitely sign up for free if you're interested in open legislative data, even if you're not in the DC area! The 2016 Legislative Data and Transparency Conference (#LDTC16), hosted by the
- [ProPublica launches tool to track Congressional members, encourages data download!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11199/) - I've had a tab open to this ProPublica post "A New Way to Keep an Eye on Who Represents You in Congress" for a couple of weeks and just now getting around to sharing. Their new project called "Represent" is a great way to track on lawmakers, the bills they consider and the votes they
- [CIA IG office "mistakenly" deletes Senate report on CIA torture](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11197/) - This is why US government information needs to be preserved off of .gov servers by FDLP libraries and other non-governmental organizations. It's not enough that each agency has an Inspector General. Each agency should have one or more libraries collecting, preserving and giving access to its information *regardless* of political embarrassment or any other excuse
- [Strategic Planning Part III: Building a Collaborative FDLP](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11094/) - In this part of our three-part series on strategic planning for the FDLP and GPO, we offer a vision of a collaborative FDLP that will greatly enhance preservation of government information, improve access for users, and increase the value of individual FDLP libraries to their communities and to the public. Part I of this series
- [Department of Commerce Data Usability Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11156/) - This certainly seems to be the year when open government data really flowers. From NASA to Census to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) -- not to mention data.gov! -- across the Federal government, agencies are setting up developer sites with open APIs so that the public can reuse
- [Internet preservation: what do we do now?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11046/) - I'm at the International Internet Preservation Consortium General Assembly and Conference this week in beautiful Reykjavik, Iceland. Follow the flow of the conversation from the #IIPCga16 and #IIPCwac16 twitter hashtags. Here are a few pieces of the week that have especially hit me as important: The technologies and tools to collect, preserve and use Web
- [New Depository Library Council members named](https://freegovinfo.info/node/11042/) - Congratulations to Thomas Fischlschweiger, Cass Hartnett, Kirstin Krumsee, Lori Thornton, and Stanford's own Beth Williams for being named to Depository Library Council to the Public Printer (which is now called the "GPO Director"). This group works hard to advise GPO on FDLP library issues. GPO DIRECTOR NAMES NEW MEMBERS TO THE DEPOSITORY LIBRARY COUNCIL WASHINGTON
- [Digital Preservation of Federal Information Summit](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10979/) - I'm excited and honored to be attending the Digital Preservation of Federal Information Summit this weekend in San Antonio. Dr Martin Halbert of the University of North Texas has invited government information librarians, archivists, technologists, and administrators -- including my FGI colleague Jim jacobs! -- to mobilize efforts at preserving digital federal government information. If
- [Rethinking the cloud](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2773/) - A couple of recent events have caused me to reanalyze and clarify my thoughts about [w:Cloud computing]: first there was the GPO Purl server crash and today there's the story about massive data loss from T-Mobile and Microsoft/Danger for anyone using a Sidekick: "Regrettably, based on Microsoft/Danger's latest recovery assessment of their systems, we must now inform you that personal information stored on your device—such as contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists or photos—that is no longer on your Sidekick almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger." Ouch indeed! [w:Cloud computing] is basically the outsourcing of Web services (storage, email and other application layers, computational cycles etc) to a third party. Although I am guilty of using the cloud metaphor to describe the digital FDLP, it's clear from the concept map below that I don't mean we should outsource FDLP Web services to third parties. I hope it's clear that I'm describing a collaborative and distributed system of digital content, collaborative cataloging/metadata creation, as well as shared technical infrastructure in which data and technological redundancy and collective and proactive action reign. This is the exact opposite of the "cloud." So what would that metaphor be? I was thinking of the birch or banyan tree; but it's more like the symbiosis or [w:mutual aid] exhibited by certain ants and trees. It's a [w:Peer-to-peer] network with a conscience. Let's call it the FDLP ecosystem. FDLP Cloud
- [Congressional Data Coalition: open Congressional information and make Congress work better](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10954/) - Yesterday, FGI, along with a group of citizens, public interest groups, libraries and trade associations comprising the Congressional Data Coalition, submitted testimony to the House Appropriations Committee regarding legislative branch funding priorities for fiscal year 2017. The group made recommendations on where the House should focus next or what kinds of data should be released:
- [Classroom Deliberation: Should the United States Senate Conduct Confirmation Hearings for a Supreme Court Vacancy in a Presidential Election Year?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10948/) - As part of C-SPAN's "Classroom Deliberations" site (produced by C-SPAN's Senior Fellows, designed to engage students in classroom deliberations about current issues being debated in the United States) a new lesson: Should the United States Senate Conduct Confirmation Hearings for a Supreme Court Vacancy in a Presidential Election Year? Following the death of Supreme Court
- [GPO’s National Plan for Access to U.S. Government Information: an overview](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10942/) - Last month, the Government Publishing Office (GPO) released the National Plan for Access to U.S. Government Information: A Framework for a User-centric Service Approach to Permanent Public Access. The National Plan is the culmination of four years of study and planning activities conducted by GPO’s Library Services & Content Management (LSCM) in response to a
- [MuckRock's FOIA redaction hall of shame](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10945/) - In honor of Sunshine week, MuckRock has put together their FOIA Hall of Shame. These would be incredibly funny if they weren't so egregious and if I didn't know just how the FOIA submitter felt when she received her completely inadequate response to a FOIA request. Unfortunately, the FOIA law deals only with release of
- [List of articles about FBI vs Apple](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10938/) - Lots of News and Essays about the FBI vs. Apple, by Bruce Schneier, Crypto-Gram (March 15, 2016). Bruce says, "This isn't the most comprehensive list of links, but it's a good one. They're more or less in chronological order." Indeed, it is a very good list for catching up on this important issue, or filling
- [FOIA'd docs reveal how Obama Administration killed FOIA reform](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10933/) - This is extremely disappointing, especially given Obama's presidential memorandum, signed on his first day in office in 2009, that instructed all government agencies to "adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government." The Obama
- [John Oliver explains special districts](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10931/) - John Oliver explains special districts on "Last Week Tonight." These units of government are local government bodies designed to collect taxes dealing with one specific service, like water, parks or sewage. But they are "ghost" entities with little or no oversight and are largely unknown to the public. Hilariously informative!
- [GPO Continues Its Move To Cloud Technology With Library Community Websites](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10928/) - Press Release from GPO: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 10, 2016 No. 16-05 GPO CONTINUES ITS MOVE TO CLOUD TECHNOLOGY WITH LIBRARY COMMUNITY WEBSITES WASHINGTON — The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) continues to embrace technological innovation by transitioning its Integrated Library System (ILS) public websites to the cloud using Amazon Cloud Services. This move supports
- [Act to prevent cuts to the National Health Interview Survey](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10924/) - Crucial content may be cut from one of the most valuable surveys that the U.S. Government does, the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). For more than 50 years, this survey has conducted personal household interviews and gathered data that helps track health status, health care access, and progress toward achieving national health objectives. The Minnesota
- [Open CRS Bill Introduced In House and Senate](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10921/) - This is YUGE! The "Equal Access to Congressional Research Service Reports Act of 2016" was introduced in both the House and the Senate, cosponsored by Senators McCain and Leahy and Representatives Lance and Quigley. 40 organizations -- including FGI and Stanford University libraries (where I work)! -- signed a letter in support of the legislation,
- [The Official Senate CIA Torture Report](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9325/) - Update GPO has released an official version of the "THE SENATE CIA REPORT" as Senate Report 113-228. The digital version is available on GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys): http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRPT-113srpt288/pdf/CRPT-113srpt288.pdf The print version is available for purchase at GPO’s retail and online bookstore for $29. http://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/052-071-01571-0 This is a single-volume, 712 page version. It contains: Letter
- [ODNI & DOJ release declassified documents ... on Tumblr?!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10915/) - The US Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) just declassified the Bush administration's memo justifying warrantless surveillance – via PDF on Tumblr! Turns out ODNI has been doing this since 2013. I'm not averse to federal agencies having a social media presence. But the release of declassified and/or FOIA'd documents should NOT be done
- [Hot off the presses: "Public Knowledge: Access and Benefits"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10865/) - Government information specialists know the value of the information that government agencies gather, create, assemble, and distribute, but wouldn't it be nice to have a book that documents that value and provides examples of how that information is used? Wouldn't it be nice to have a book that doesn't just list useful databases, but describes
- [Legislative Data now available in bulk. Thanks GPO and Library of Congress!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10879/) - Here's some big news. According to Daniel Schuman at the Congressional Data Coalition, today the Government Publishing Office (GPO) and the Library of Congress opened up the bulk data tap for bills, bill summaries, and bill statuses! See below for Daniel's description of the new service and its implications. Today the Government Publishing Office and
- [Announcement: Bulk Download Access to Bill Status Information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10862/) - Press Release: GPO And Library Of Congress Make Senate And House Bill Status Information Available For Bulk Download FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 24, 2016 No. 16-04 GPO AND LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAKE SENATE AND HOUSE BILL STATUS INFORMATION AVAILABLE FOR BULK DOWNLOAD WASHINGTON — The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has partnered with the Library
- [Comment on article: Depository Library Program in 2023](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2706/) - A recent article reports on a survey of ARL library directors and their vision of their libraries' roles in the depository library program: The Federal Depository Library Program in 2023: One Perspective on the Transition to the Future. Peter Hernon and Laura Saunders. College and Research Libraries, July 2009, Vol. 70, No. 4). [In the interest of academic discussion and openness, we've posted a copy of the article on FGI.] The survey asked directors to choose among several future scenarios for the FDLP and their role of provision of government information. The authors are explicit about their intentions saying that "the study neither directly addresses whether the depository program itself will exist fifteen years hence nor offers a vision of what future will emerge after 2023." They also note that the survey explicitly focused on the question "how many libraries want to remain in the depository library program and what role do they intend to play?" This focus predetermines the outcome of the survey somewhat. It doesn't tell us what FDLP should be or how libraries could have a role in ensuring the long term, free access to government information. Instead we get a lot of information about what directors worry most about: money and resources. The authors point out that no other study has systematically surveyed library directors for their perspective on the FDLP. This is particularly interesting given the rumors, gossip, and scuttlebutt going around about how many university librarians want to get rid of their depository collections, don't trust their depository librarians, and see depository status as costing more than it is worth. The study reinforces some of those stereotypes and provides some evidence that some ARL library directors do indeed think that way. Sample quotes: "Several directors look forward to a time when they can 'dump the print.'" "Although some directors believe they have 'forward-thinking' documents librarians, others feel the opposite. As the director of a regional depository explains, 'the more that directors know about the program and a library's responsibilities, the less likely documents librarians can bluff about the legal obligations and seek to maintain the status quo.'" "The burden of participation in the program, including that of cost, is a recurring theme." "The directors I talk to all want to get rid of the [depository] collection and drop out of the program as soon as possible." Not surprisingly, the directors who think that way are apparently part of the minority (13% that chose "scenario 1") who believe that libraries should withdraw from the depository program or that the program will simply wither away. What the survey documents for the first time, however, is how much value ARL directors put in government information and digital collections. Many of the directors see government information as essential to their academic communities and have serious concerns about how to ensure its availability. Fully half the respondents envision (scenarios 3 and 4) some sort of digital collections as part of their responsibility -- either in partnership with GPO or separate from GPO if GPO does not provide adequate leadership. While this survey is very interesting and provides much food for thought, it is far from the final word on the future of the FDLP, GPO, or government information. It leaves many questions unanswered and raises other questions. For example: The survey's use of the term "digital depository" is confusing at best and misleading at worst. One of the "scenarios" presented to directors in the survey describes "digital deposit" as the library providing "a digital feed of government information resources to its Web site, thereby becoming a portal for access to e-government information resources. The library receives, but does not create, digital content." We wonder how directors interpreted this? Did they think that "receiving" digital content meant getting copies of digital files that they would keep in a digital collection? Or did they think that "providing a feed" and "becoming a portal" was a passive job of pointing to content at GPO or elsewhere? The article does not make this clear and we would have to guess that directors may not have provided responses that we can interpret consistently. (And, we would have to ask the authors, whose work we respect, why they chose the outdated word, indeed the outdated concept, "portal"? Does anyone really believe that users want or will use "portals" anymore?) Another term that is used in a confusing way in the article (at least I was confused by it) is the term "dark archive." We normally associate this with digital archives such as Portico (which archives digital copies of journal articles but is "dark" because no one can see the articles unless a particular kind of event -- such as a publisher going out of business -- allows the archive to make articles available). In this article, the authors use "dark archive" in that sense but they also use it to refer to print collections that have copies of last resort. Was this confusing to the surveyed directors? Did different interpretations skew their answers? Some of this confusion is evidently apparent to the authors. When they analyzed the directors' comments, they discovered that there was some "imprecision" by directors in choosing a scenario. Some were unable to place their institution fully in one of the provided scenarios. There were many reasons for this, but it makes it harder for us to interpret and understand the results. The survey did not specifically present a scenario of real digital deposit in which GPO sends (i.e., deposits) authentic digital files to depository libraries. As noted above, the survey focused on two different but related questions: who wants to remain in the FDLP and what role do they intend to play. Combining those two questions may have further muddied the responses and left out options (e.g., true digital deposit). One theme mentioned several times in the article is the need for a shared digital archive of digitized materials similar to the JSTOR model. To me, this seems to be an indication that the directors value digital information, see a need for a trusted repository in addition to GPO, and would support shared responsibilities for such an archive. This should spark some good discussions at the next DLC meeting. The survey seems to perpetuate and even reinforce misleading concepts about the permanent availability of digital government information. Although the authors acknowledge that "government entities often do not retain all resources permanently on their homepages, and content can be difficult to find and can be subject to removal, redacting, or alteration", they also passively quote directors who say they will rely on search engines and other libraries and government web sites to provide government information for them. There are certainly some libraries (even among ARL libraries) that will not have large digital collections of government information, but the survey does an injustice by passing along these comments without follow up questions to those directors about who will ensure access. Another questionable idea that came out of the survey was about staffing. Several directors said "they would cease to employ separate, dedicated government documents librarians. They assume the specialized knowledge will be passed to reference librarians." Shouldn't ARL directors be thinking about the need for new skills to manage digital deposit and digital preservation and digital access to locally held files? Shouldn't they be concerned about the special skills that will be needed to locate government information and provide reference service for it if they do not have a collection that they control? In summary, the article provides much to discuss and good opportunities for further research. It also provides some clear evidence that the rumors that ARL directors want to dump their depository collections and drop their depository status are well founded, but that these directors are in the minority. Most ARL directors highly value government information and are looking for smart, efficient ways to ensure long term access to digital collections.
- [Weeding libraries. Hello, Grisham -- So Long, Hemingway?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/1563/) - Hello, Grisham -- So Long, Hemingway? With Shelf Space Prized, Fairfax Libraries Cull Collections. Lisa Rein, Washington Post, January 2, 2007 This is probably the saddest, most telling story about libraries I've read in years. It all is pitched as 'strategic' and 'popular' and 'data-driven' as if it is inevitable and unavoidable, but the real reason is clearly stated in the article: these changes are "driven by a $2 million cut to the budget" and "...circulation, a sign of prestige and a potential bargaining chip for new funding." Once again it looks like libraries have correctly defined a problem and instituted a completely wrong solution :-| There's plenty of literature that says that building collections based solely on popularity doesn't work over the long run, but there are plenty of people (including I guess ALA president Leslie Burger) who, instead of being creative in highlighting their collections, would rather rely on some piece of software to tell them when a book hasn't checked out for 24 months. I also found the bit about "it's not here, but we can get it to you in a week" lame and dishearteningly parallel to the FDLP "shared collections" weeding plans (see for example, Govt Printing Office Draft guidelines for shared regionals (PDF), GODORT/AALL/SLA letter commenting on the draft, and ARL Draft support). I would agree that you don't need 40 shelf feet of books on tulips (unless you're the SF Botanical Garden or Longwood Gardens), but the public interest in much fiction and non-fiction (not to mention government documents) looks like a sine wave, not a long tail.
- [Farewell OpenCongress, hello GovTrack](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10853/) - The news just hit the street that Sunlight Foundation's OpenCongress will be retired on March 1. OpenCongress has been a valuable tool for Congressional information seekers since 2007. But this news is actually a good thing. OpenCongress will now point users to GovTrack.us which also has a long history of valuable information service. And what's
- [Thoughts on the connection between collection development and research/information need](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10851/) - A friend just posted this really interesting Atlantic article on Facebook about "redlining" and a project called T-RACES, or Testbed for for the Redlining Archives of California's Exclusionary Spaces that brought me back to my first year as a govt documents librarian in 2002. "The Racist Housing Policy That Made Your Neighborhood." Alexis C. Madrigal.
- [John Oliver shows the incredible hypocrisy of voter ID laws](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10849/) - Voting is one of our basic rights in the US -- though you might not know it from the tragically low turnouts in US elections. Some of that can be blamed on voter apathy, but much can also be blamed on voter ID laws put in place to suppress voter turnout of especially African American
- [Do libraries need more shelving? Isn’t everything digital?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10846/) - We here at FGI have been making the argument against the destruction of physical collections in connection with digitization efforts for a long time (see e.g., Wait! Don’t Digitize and Discard! A White Paper on ALA COL Discussion Issue #1a and What You Need to Know about the New Discard Policy). So it's nice to
- [NARA releases a coloring book of weird and wonderful patents](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10839/) - The National Archives (NARA) has just put out a coloring book of patents from their archives. And they're pretty awesome! I would totally buy the public transit hammock! It's a reminder that most patents are either contraptions for supremely lazy people (the saluting device!) or for inventions of the unnecessary (eye protectors for chickens?!). Check
- [Marine Corps Film Repository](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10841/) - University of South Carolina Plans to Preserve, Digitize U.S. Marine Corps Film Repository InfoDocket. The university’s Moving Image Research Collections will digitize the Marine Corps Film Repository, with plans to eventually place the films online for the public to view free of charge.
- [2017 Budget Available Today](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10835/) - GPO and OMB Release President Obama's Fiscal Year 2017 Budget. (Note: that link may not be permanent. See permanent links to each part of the budget from that link, while you can.)
- [New NASA Visions of the Future Posters](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10829/) - The Verge reports that NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory commissioned Seattle design firm Invisible Creature for a 2016 "Visions Of The Future" calendar that will be given to NASA staff, scientists, engineers, and government officials. JPL will also release digital copies of each month's artwork for free. (Watch for them! Get the whole set!) :-) For
- [USGS releases plan to increase public access to scientific research](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10827/) - This is welcome news indeed! According to a press release yesterday, the US Geological Service (USGS) has just released its plan “Public Access to Results of Federally Funded Research at the U.S. Geological Survey: Scholarly Publications and Digital Data.” The USGS open access plan is in response to the Office of Science and Technology Policy
- [U.S. Budget FY 2017 coming Feb 9, 2016](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10818/) - [press release] The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will be releasing President Barack Obama’s Budget for the U.S. Government, FY 2017. Printed copies will be available through GPO’s retail and online bookstore. The Budget will also be available as a mobile web app and electronically on govinfo.gov
- [Oyez Supreme Court Archive up for sale](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10814/) - This is a sad state of affairs IMHO. The gentleman who runs Oyez, the privately-run US Supreme Court audio archive, is set to retire. But it seems that he wants to sell the database for $1million dollars! He unironically doesn't want to sell it to a private company because “They’ll put it behind a paywall
- [GovInfo.gov](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10804/) - Today GPO announced the launch of the beta version of www.govinfo.gov. It is a new front end to the content of FDsys.gov, providing a mobile-friendly interface, An ABC list of collections, Quick Links to popular publications, Related Documents, a Browse by date option, a front-page link to the most recent issue of popular serial publications,
- [Govdocs are hard mkay?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10747/) - I thought I'd recount an interesting little research question I had yesterday that took me down a rabbit hole trying to answer. This student was looking for an edition of a 1913 publication called the "Immigration Laws and Rules" (WorldCat helpfully notes the uniform titles of "Laws, etc." and "Immigration Laws"!) but couldn’t find the
- [State of Federal Blogging 2016](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10744/) - This is an interesting article that goes a bit behind the scenes to give you a sense of the what, why, and who of blogs at the White House, NASA, and the Department of the Interior. State of Federal Blogging 2016 by Danielle Brigida, DigitalGov (January 15, 2016).
- [PACER's bad math overcharges users. US Courts Administrative Office sued](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10742/) - The Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) document system of the US Courts provides online access to US Appellate, District and Bankruptcy court records. But this access is not free; PACER charges users $.10/page to access and download court documents. For years, many have pointed out both the technical and philosophical problems with the
- [DLC responds to open letter regarding the new Regional discard policy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10736/) - On December 18, 2015, a group of 16 librarians wrote an open letter to GPO regarding the implementation of the new Regional discard policy (here's more on our coverage of the regional discard policy). The letter asked a series of questions that the signatories felt would need to be thought about — if not answered
- [One year later...what’s happening with Regionals and discards?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10285/) - In April 2014, GPO presented a draft policy (also known as an “SOD” or “Superintendent of Documents Public Policy Statement”) that would create a mechanism for Regional depository libraries to request permission to substitute specified tangible holdings for authenticated electronic holdings in FDsys. FGI has already responded in detail to this proposal (see “Why GPO’s
- [Library associations weigh in on GPO's proposed policy to allow Regionals to discard](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9118/) - [Update 12 September, 2014: I've added below links to the letters of the FDLP Regional Librarians group and of the Depository Library Council (DLC). I struck out my comment about GODORT being the only group comprised of govt information librarians. JRJ] I thought it'd be helpful to post the various letters in response to Government
- [Open Letter to GPO regarding the Regional Discard Policy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10666/) - A group of government information librarians have written an open letter to the GPO Superintendent of Documents asking questions regarding the implementation of the new regional discard policy. Below is the text of the letter. We will also post GPO's answers to these important questions here on FGI. Dear Superintendent of Documents Mary Alice Baish,
- [NYPL makes 187,000 digital items available in public domain collection](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10728/) - Wow I've been lost in this new public domain search from NY Public Library's NYPL Labs. And they've made the data and code available on github! Check it out for yourself. Go Public Domain! On January 6th, 2016, The New York Public Library made over 187K digital items in the public domain available for high
- [DOJ tests new data-gathering method to more accurately count deaths in police custody](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10721/) - In March of 2015, an official assessment of the Department of Justice statistical program that reports "arrest-related deaths" -- a program that has been in place since 2003 -- found that the program identified only between 59 and 69 percent of the estimated actual total of fatal interactions with police in 2011. Arrest-Related Deaths Program
- [State of the union 2016: tag cloud and non-.gov sites](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10719/) - President Obama's last State of the Union (SOTU) address was tonight. Below you can see the tag cloud of his speech (thanks TagCrowd!) as well as Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC)'s GOP response. There's plenty of analysis out there, so I won't deign to add my own. But I will point out a couple of things
- [What was the biggest threat to a free press in 2015? Government Secrecy.](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10715/) - Jonathan Peters, the press freedom correspondent for the Columbia Journalism Review and an attorney and an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Kansas, asks himself the question: "What was the most serious threat last year to a free press in the US?" His conclusion was that the biggest concern in 2015 was clearly
- [White House now on Snapchat](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10711/) - The White House has launched an "Official Story" on Snapchat to provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the Administration. The announcement (below) says, significantly, that "Tomorrow, our Official Story will take you behind the scenes of the White House's State of the Union preparations, with footage and angles you won’t find anywhere else." We're on Snapchat:
- [9th Circuit Court cares about citation rot!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10708/) - I learned something new and pretty cool today. Librarians at the 9th Circuit Court have been archiving citations in Court opinions since 2008 -- and the Internet Archive has been archiving the archived citations in the wayback machine! However, I'm not sure if the change in their process is a good thing or a bad
- [Download FRED Data Directly in Excel](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10700/) - I've always had a thing for FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data). And now they're providing a free excel add-in for 290,000 data series from various sources (e.g., BEA, BLS, Census, and OECD). Thanks St Louis Fed! The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Data (FRED) Add-In is free software that will significantly reduce the
- [Special Newsweek Edition, DECLASSIFIED,  Further Declassified](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10694/) - Newsweek magazine, has a special edition called "Declassified: Exposing the Secrets: Files Dossiers and Documents from the FBI, CIA, JSOC, White House, NASA, and more." It is "a curated list of the most noteworthy documents declassified in 2015." Although Newsweek was forced to cut out some of the background stories of these declassified documents (due
- [CISA is back. Act now! #StopCISA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10682/) - A secretly negotiated version of The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) has been slipped into the 2000+ page "omnibus" spending bill that Congress must pass to avoid a government shutdown. That massive bill will be voted on this THURSDAY! ALA and many others have been fighting this bill for years. The bill encourages private sector
- [FDLP biennial survey due tomorrow. Here's my comments. What are yours?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10669/) - If you're like me, you've waited until the last minute to submit your 2015 FDLP Biennial Survey. Since this is the season of sharing, I thought I'd post the comments I submitted with my library's survey. I'd love to hear what others commented. What issues and ideas were most on your minds? If you're able
- [A new collection of CRS Reports](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10673/) - A new web site is hosting publicly accessible Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports. The Washington Post quotes Antoine McGrath, who is collaborating with software programmers on the project, as saying that they scan about 100 sites for metadata in CRS studies and host those they find. The oldest one they have so far is from
- [New FCC.gov](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10663/) - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has launched its new website after a testing period. Introducing the New FCC.gov FCC Blog by David Kitzmiller, FCC Webmaster, and Deanna Stephens, FCC.Gov Project Manager. (December 10, 2015) The new site features a more responsive design, a new site navigation structure, and an improved search capability.
- [Making Federally Funded Educational Materials Open Access](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10661/) - The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is considering a rule change that would make the educational resources the Department funds a lot more accessible to educators and students—not just in the U.S., but around the world. Open Licensing Requirement for Direct Grant Programs Proposed Rule issued by the Department of Education. (Nov 3, 2015). Tell
- [Bill Statuses in XML format](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10659/) - GPO will beging making bill status information available in bulk through FDsys starting in early 2016. For sample files and user guide see github.com/usgpo/bill-status. Announcement: At the direction of the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, in support of the Legislative Branch Bulk Data Task Force, the Government Publishing (GPO), the Library of Congress (LOC),
- [My taxes = my info, right?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/551/) - 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
- [Information sharing and the National Plan](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10569/) - (Background here: http://freegovinfo.info/node/10285) At the 2015 Depository Library Council meeting on October 20th, Mary Alice Baish, Superintendent of Documents, informed the depository library community that in July, GPO had formally requested permission from the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP) to allow Regionals to discard documents in tangible formats that have been retained for seven years
- [New site for veterans](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10564/) - The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs quietly unveiled the beta version of Vets.gov, a new site eventually intended to give users single sign-on access to thousands of online veteran services. On Veterans Day, VA Quietly Unveils New 'Vets.gov', By Mohana Ravindranath NextGov (November 11, 2015). Currently, the site is a bare-bones framework of that vision.
- [Tracking political advertising spending](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10561/) - Everything you need to know about political ads, by Jenn Topper, Sunlight Foundation (Nov. 10, 2015). " Here’s what you need to know about political ads and the (lack of) disclosure around them."
- [DOJ blocks executive branch from reading Senate Torture Report](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10557/) - This is very frustrating to read about this winding saga about the Senate Torture Study. According to Techdirt, the Department of Justice is insisting that nobody in the executive branch has read or will read the Senate Intelligence Committee's torture study released last year. They seem to be saying that if they don't read it,
- [Full Text of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10519/) - The full text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (30 chapters, more than 230 PDF files, and more than 2,000 pages) is now available from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Trans-Pacific Partnership, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. [The link to the ustr.gov site was very slow this morning. Another copy of the TPP is
- [Campaign Financing Data Easier to Find at New Federal Election Commission Website](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10510/) - The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent regulatory agency that administers and enforces federal campaign finance laws. The FEC has jurisdiction over the financing of campaigns for the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, the Presidency and the Vice Presidency. New FEC beta website FEC Launches betaFEC Website FEC Press Release.
- [A compelling argument against the Google Books ruling](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10507/) - Here's a compelling piece that analyzes the recent Appellate Court decision in favor of the Google Book Project. The authors find that, contrary to the generally positive support from libraries for the outcome of the decision -- the Court decided that Google's book scanning amounted to a transformative act covered under Copyright law's fair use
- [Panel to discuss public access to CRS reports](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10501/) - The Congressional Transparency Caucus is hosting a panel discussion THIS THURSDAY! on public access to CRS reports. I'm so happy to see this movement on this critically important issue. Check it out, and definitely RSVP if you're in the DC area this thursday! And don't forget to add your voice to the growing call for
- [GPO announces enhancements to MetaLib](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10498/) - Hat tip to InfoDocket for noticing that Metalib, the Government Publishing Office's meta-search engine, has added several resources. These include a new MetaLib QuickSet called “Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)” and 8 new databases including the Department of Energy's "OpenNet," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Historical Maps and Charts, and the Catalog of the
- [Secret GAO Reports](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10486/) - Steven Aftergood says that "The Government Accountability Office this week quietly published a list of titles of its restricted reports that have not been publicly released because they contain classified information or controlled unclassified information." GAO Posts Titles of Restricted Reports by Steven Aftergood, Federation of American Scientists, Secrecy News (Oct.16, 2015). There are several
- [USA Trade Online now FREE to all](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10491/) - The Census Bureau announced that, on October 15, 2015, "access to USA Trade Online will be FREE to all customers. This transition will be transparent to current users and new users can sign up for free to access data for international trade." The instructions for depository libraries say that depositories "will no longer have IP
- [President Obama interviews Marilynne Robinson](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10479/) - Lunchtime Listen. Yes, you read that right: Listen to President Obama interview Marilynne Robinson, the author novels "Lila," "Home," "Gilead" (winner of the Pulitzer Prize), and "Housekeeping." The conversation was recorded in in Des Moines, Iowa, on September 14, 2015. You can listen to it via iTunes on the The New York Review of Books
- [GPO To Digitize The Federal Register 1936-1994](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10475/) - Press Release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 14, 2015 No. 15-20 GPO TO DIGITIZE TWO MILLION PAGES OF THE FEDERAL REGISTER WASHINGTON – The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) partners with the National Archives’ Office of the Federal Register (OFR) to make every issue of the Federal Register digitally available to the public. A total of
- [Tell the FCC what you think about its website](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10473/) - The Federal Communications Commission has a prototype of a new version of its website and is soliciting comments: Your Feedback is Building a Better FCC.gov, by: Dr. David A. Bray, FCC CIO, Official FCC Blog (October 9, 2015 - 11:00 AM). The prototype site. comment form.
- [Project Apollo Archive](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10464/) - All 12,588 photos taken during the Apollo missions are up on Flickr in high-res. Wow, endless hours of fascination if you're a space geek! The Project Apollo Archive was created in 1999 as a companion to my "Contact Light" web site...a personal retrospective of the era of the space race. A subsequent collaboration between the
- [Lots of enhancements to Congress.gov](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10459/) - Enhancements include a new series of "Two-Minute Tips" videos, a browsable list of Popular Titles and Short Titles of legislation, and indexing of Senate Executive Communications. For more information: List of Congress.gov Enhancements Now over 1,000,000 Items to Search on Congress.gov: Communications and More Added, by Andrew Weber, In Custodia Legis (October 7, 2015). Hat
- [How to use public records](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10454/) - This very nice "how-to" article provides an example of how "public records" are much more than the published record of governments. How public records can shed light on private prisons, by Beryl Lipton, Muckrock (October 6, 2015). The details of our prisons typically are and have been matters of public record, if one only knows
- [Supreme Court Website Addresses link-rot and content-drift](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10449/) - The Supreme Court has announced two important changes to its website. The Court will now highlight changes to slip opinions and the Court will now attempt to preserve web-based content cited in Court opinions. These website enhancements address two digital preservation problems: changes to content over time, known as "content-drift", and content being deleted or
- [Vanishing Canadian Government Data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10445/) - Records deleted, burned, tossed in Dumpsters. A Maclean’s investigation on the crisis in government data : Vanishing Canada: Why we’re all losers in Ottawa’s war on data by Anne Kingston, Maceans (September 18, 2015). "A months-long Maclean’s investigation, which includes interviews with dozens of academics, scientists, statisticians, economists and librarians, has found that the federal
- [The Obama Administration’s Addresses on National Security Law](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10436/) - A new book by Kenneth Anderson and Benjamin Wittes analyzes the Obama administration’s positions on national security law and how they have been disclosed through public speeches and address by administration officials. Speaking the Law: The Obama Administration’s Addresses on National Security Law, by Kenneth Anderson and Benjamin Wittes Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2015. Publisher’s
- [Government Shutdown Contingency Plans 2015](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10433/) - The Office of Management and Budget has links to how agencies are preparing for the possibility of a government shutdown: Agency Contingency Plans. See also: Government Shutdown? Some Federal IT Systems Would be Unplugged, Websites Go Offline, By Jack Moore, NextGov (September 24, 2015). And don't forget, FDLP libraries could collect instead of pointing. It
- [GPO & Federal Judiciary Provide Access To More Than One Million Federal Court Opinions](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10388/) - This is an important milestone! (It is important to note that this project has Court Opinions, and does not include everything in the notorious PACER system. See FDsys Court Opinions Project and PACER.) GPO Press Release: GPO & FEDERAL JUDICIARY HONORED FOR PROVIDING ACCESS TO MORE THAN ONE MILLION FEDERAL COURT OPINIONS [PDF] Excerpt: FOR
- [FGI presents at FAFLRT panel on open government at ALA Annual '15](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10156/) - I was honored to be part of a program at American Library Association's 2015 annual conference (hosted in my home town of SF!) set up by the Federal & Armed Forces Libraries Round Table (FAFLRT). The program, "Open Government: Current Trends and Practices Concerning FOIA, Open Access, and Other Post-Wiki-Leaks Issues" featured Anneliese Taylor, Assistant
- [President's Daily Briefs from Kennedy and Johnson Finally Released. FOIA FTW!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10328/) - Wow! It took 8 years, but a collection of 2,500 declassified President’s Daily Briefs (PDBs) from the Kennedy and Johnson administrations are now available. Now we'll see how easy (or difficult) it is to collect them all for the Stanford FOIA Web archive. I also hope the UCSB Presidency Project makes them available from their
- [Politwoops archive of politicians' deleted tweets uploaded to Internet Archive](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10323/) - In August, 2015, Twitter shut down the Politwoops service and its sister site Diplotwoops that tracked politicians' deleted tweets. Twitter revoked access to its API for all Politwoops sites in 30 countries around the world, citing terms of service violations. In a move to preserve all of those deleted tweets, Open State has uploaded its
- [Bernard A. Barton Jr.: New CIO of the Library of Congress](https://freegovinfo.info/?p=10317) - 8 Tough Questions for the New CIO of the Library of Congress, By Hallie Golden, NextGov (September 14, 2015). As the newly appointed chief information officer of the Library of Congress, Bernard A. Barton Jr. says excelling in the digital age is going to depend a lot on making smart predictions.
- [College Scorecard](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10312/) - College Scorecard is the new U.S. Department of Education website that provides detailed comparative information about colleges. (The Department has abandoned its earlier attempt to rate colleges.) The site includes both a user-friendly front end of statistics and graphs and a separate data site (College Scorecard Data) with data behind the College Scorecard, as well
- [Want the federal govt to do something? Start a kickstarter campaign](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10292/) - This is a strange and interesting twist of a story. About a week ago, a couple of graphic designers from NY City decided they wanted to crowdfund the republication of NASA's 1975 Graphic Standards Manual as a tribute to Designers Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn who originally created the manual -- and which was revoked
- [CIA Rebuttal to Senate Torture Report](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10301/) - A new, commercially-published book provides official responses from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to 2014 Senate Torture Report. REBUTTAL: The CIA Responds to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Study of Its Detention and Interrogation Program, Bill Harlow, Editor, U.S. Naval Institute. Sep 2015. 418 pp. Introduction and essays © 2015 Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute Contents:
- [Using Government Data to Create A Statistical Portrait of Government Student Loans](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10298/) - An interesting paper that uses government administrative data to analyze student loans. A crisis in student loans? How changes in the characteristics of borrowers and in the institutions they attended contributed to rising loan defaults, by Adam Looney and Constantine Yannelis, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. BPEA Conference Draft, September, 2015. This paper examines the
- [Harmonizing libraries and e-government by combining services and collections](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10269/) - To me, it is odd, or at least ironic, that the library government information community has been studying and debating the same issues about the digital future of the FDLP for almost 20 years, without any clear resolution. I was reminded of this today when I got a request for a copy of a very
- [50 years ago Ted Nelson introduced the word “hypertext”](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10261/) - Byron Reese interviews Ted Nelson about his presentation at the ACM 50 years ago and the introduction of the word "hypertext." 50 years ago today the word “hypertext” was introduced by Byron Reese, GigaOm (Aug. 24, 2015 - 1:59 AM PDT). On August 24, 1965 Ted Nelson used the word "hypertext" (which he coined) in
- [Open Access Book about Ted Nelson](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10254/) - Available as a free download in PDF and ePub formats: Intertwingled: The Work and Influence of Ted Nelson Editors: Douglas R. Dechow, Daniele C. Struppa ISBN: 978-3-319-16924-8 (Print) 978-3-319-16925-5 (Online). Among the contributors: Christine L. Borgman, Douglas R. Dechow, Brewster Kahle, Alan Kay, and Ted Nelson! From the introduction: On April 24, 2014, Chapman University
- [Bipartisan coalition urges Congress to make CRS reports available](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10245/) - A bipartisan coalition of 40 organizations and 91 private citizens urged Congress to make non-confidential CRS reports widely available to the public. The organizations signing the letter include AALL, ALA, ARL, and FGI. Letter to Chairman Blunt, Chairman Miller, Ranking Member Schumer, Ranking Member Brady, and Vice Chairman Harper (August 24, 2015). Congress Should Publish
- [No, Mr. Mayor. You may not copyright city council meeting videos.](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10248/) - Judge Rules That Inglewood, California Cannot Copyright Public Videos Slashdot (August 24, 2015). Recently a judge ruled in California that the city of Inglewood cannot hold copyrights of videos of public city council meetings which they published on their YouTube account and thus cannot sue individuals for copyright infringement for using them. In several YouTube
- [GPO announces availability of CFR for bulk download in XML](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10240/) - GPO announced today that the digital version of the Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR) is now available for bulk download in XML format. A 58 page User Guide (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR) XML User Guide (ECFR XML User Guide). U.S. Government Publishing Office, Federal Digital System, 8/24/2015), is available in PDF format. Press
- [Former CRS Researcher Calls for Public Access to CRS Reports](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10235/) - The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) asked Kevin Kosar, who was a researcher at the Congressional Research Service (CRS) for 11 years, to talk about the concerns often expressed by Hill staffers regarding making formal CRS reports public. Former CRS Researcher Calls for Public Access (August 19, 2015). Kosar gives an informed, insider perspective on
- [New FRUS volume: 1969–1976, Volume XXIII, Arab-Israeli Dispute, 1969–1972](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10232/) - Yay! A new volume of Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) has just been released. I'm assuming that GPO will be distributing this volume via the FDLP, but in the meantime, it's available as a PDF on the State Department site. I hope GPO grabs a copy, stores it and makes it available via
- [Some good news re: "link rot"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10227/) - Charlotte Stichter says that new reports from the Library of Congress Law Library’s Global Legal Research Directorate will soon have references that include a link to an archived version of the reference using perma.cc. The announcement appears on the blog of the Law Librarians of the Library of Congress, but please see also Herbert Van
- [White House Blog Redesigned](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10224/) - You might want to check out the changes to the White House Blog. It is now mobile-friendly and thankfully, has an RSS feed and RSS feeds for the President's and Vice President's schedules. How We Changed the White House Blog by Ashleigh Axios (August 13, 2015 at 12:45 PM ET).
- [For God’s Sake, Stop Digitizing Paper](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10214/) - A recent ALA publication reports on preservation activities in libraries and questions whether libraries are devoting too much of their limited resources to digitizing paper. This fits what we have long argued here at FGI that FDLP priorities should be on preserving the vast amount of born digital government information rather than on digitizing and
- [White House finally responds to Snowden petition. People's voice brushed off](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10201/) - 167,954 people who signed the White House petition to immediately give Edward Snowden a "full, free, and absolute pardon for any crimes he has committed or may have committed related to blowing the whistle on secret NSA surveillance programs" have just received the following response from the White House. Not only did it take over
- [FGI Fugitive Documents webinar now available on YouTube](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10199/) - Jim Jacobs and I gave a webinar in January, 2015 entitled “Community-Based Digital Collection Development of Born-Digital Government Information” for the “Help! I’m an Accidental Government Information Librarian” webinar series. You can find our notes and slides at freegovinfo.info/fugitives. And now you can find our presentation on YouTube! Thanks to Lynda Kellam and the Help!
- [Government information and #critlib](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10186/) - I was fortunate to be able to attend the 2015 #CritlibSF Unconference, hosted at the University of San Francisco’s Gleeson Library in conjunction with the American Library Association’s Annual Conference last month. While the discussion predominantly, although by no means exclusively, focused on teaching and learning within the academic library context, the event and broader conversations
- [State Of Georgia Sues Carl Malamud For Copyright Infringement For Publishing The State's Own Laws](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10192/) - I don't know how the state of Georgia got to this convoluted way of thinking, but they're suing Carl Malamud and public.resource.org for copyright infringement because he had the audacity to try and make states' laws freely and publicly accessible. Go ahead and read the law suit and see for yourself how twisted their legal
- [Ithaka report on the future of the FDLP released today](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2845/) - Hot off the presses and in time for the holidays, Ithaka S+R has just released its study on the FDLP in the 21st century: "Documents for a Digital Democracy: A Model for the Federal Depository Library Program in the 21st Century". Look for our analysis soon. We'd love to hear what others think of the report, so please feel free to leave comments. The Issues Identified Participating libraries in the FDLP, like many libraries, contend with a rapidly changing environment for information dissemination, access, and usage. The Program, while building infrastructure to adapt to the digital environment, has not addressed the core strategic dilemmas associated with this new environment: Many federal depository libraries no longer have the right incentives to remain in the Program, which may threaten the preservation of and access to the historical print collections. The historical collections are dramatically underutilized in relation to their potential value. Newly released digital government information is not adequately preserved. Discovery systems do not effectively serve user needs for seamless and immediate access. Without substantial structural change, the FDLP risks sliding further into irrelevance and the general public’s need for sustainable, no fee, permanent access to government information will be increasingly threatened. Recommendations Following a thorough examination of the Program’s current state, this report suggests a vision for the program: seamless, no fee access to government information for a range of potential users at their point of need and appropriate preservation of this material for future generations. To achieve such a vision, the FDLP community must address five key goals: Newly issued government information must be made freely available in digital form and must be preserved for the long-term. To provide this permanent public access for the historical collection, a significant program of retrospective digitization is required. Print will play a significantly reduced role for access by users to the historical collections, so some original print copies must continue to be preserved even though fewer depository library collections overall will be required. The print format will continue to have advantages for certain subsets of material types and user communities, so the Program must provide appropriate access to certain historical and new materials in print form, where appropriate via print on demand. Depository libraries must reemphasize their commitment to serving user needs for outreach, discovery, and access.
- [Final Report Now Available: "Future Direction of the FDLP: Modeling Initiative"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3414/) - (via INFOdocket.com) From an FDLP E-Mail: The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has received the final report from Ithaka S + R (Ithaka), who was contracted to develop practical and sustainable models for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). GPO appreciates the comments that were submitted by members of our community during Ithaka’s study of the FDLP. We plan to build on these comments as we continue our future visioning and modeling process. GPO has reproduced an archived version of the Ithaka study Web site in PDF format on the FDLP Desktop and has posted the previously released draft documents, public comments, and final modeling report to GPO. We look forward to obtaining comments and feedback from more participants in our depository library network. We plan to use these comments as part of the foundation to build on as we continue our future visioning and modeling process. The deadline for submission of comments is September 16, 2011. Comments submitted through this site will be made available on the FDLP Desktop in preparation for the Thursday, October 20, 2011 day-long discussion, "Creating Our Shared Vision: Roles and Opportunities in the FDLP." We also encourage you to join us for the Fall 2011 Federal Depository Library Conference and DLC Meeting. Read the Complete Report (PDF) All "Future Direction of the FDLP: Modeling Initiative" Files
- [FDLP Digitization Projects Registry is operational](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10174/) - Well, it's been almost a year, but the FDLP digitization registry is back online, complete with a fresh new look! via The Digitization Projects Registry is Now Available.
- [Should Congressional Research Service Reports Be Public? FGI says YES!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10172/) - It seems that public sentiment and Congressional will are finally coming together to give public access to Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports. Here's a new RollCall article "Should Congressional Research Service Reports Be Public?" which lays out the story quite well. Public access to CRS reports (Congress' think tank!) would be a boon. As Representatives
- [The FDLP Historical Collections](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10142/) - A recent question on the govdoc-l mailing list asked if GPO had ever officially defined the term “legacy collection” or “legacy document” and if the definition goes beyond something that has historical value or importance. I posted a short answer there. Here, I document and explain that brief response. The term was introduced by the
- [Freegovinfo receives 2015 GODORT "Documents to the People (DttP)" award](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10132/) - Last night, Daniel Cornwall and James R. Jacobs were honored to be on hand to receive the 2015 GODORT "Documents to the People (DttP)" award for Free Government Information. Free Government Information has been chosen as the recipient of the 2015 ProQuest/GODORT/ALA "Documents to the People" Award. This award is a tribute to an individual,
- [A librarian reacts to "A librarian reacts to wikileaks"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3178/) - [Update 2/18/11: The editor at the Center for Journalism Ethics has kindly agreed to reprint our response to Bill Sleeman on their site. The piece was slightly edited from the original. We greatly appreciate their efforts in providing wide ranging context to this critical issue.] Thanks to Bill Sleeman for his govdoc-l post and link to his op-ed piece "A Librarian Reacts to WikiLeaks." His parsing is thought-provoking, but incomplete. I'd like to add some context to Sleeman's op-ed because I think he conflates and ignores several issues surrounding Wikileaks the organization and the leaked US State Department cables themselves. Unfortunately, I can not submit a comment on the Center for Journalism Ethics site where he published his op-ed, but I post it here in the interest of open discussion. Sleeman ignores the information and focuses instead on WikiLeaks, Julian Assange and the actions of members of the American Library Association -- Al Kagan's American Libraries Magazine article as well as Larry Roman's comment/response offer a good review of the ALA Midwinter conference WikiLeaks dustup. Sleeman repeatedly suggests that we have only one choice: "embrace" WikiLeaks or reject it. This is a false choice and misdirection. In doing this, Sleeman has adopted the strategy being used by those who wish to suppress the information by distracting us from it and focusing instead on the messenger. Libraries should be focused on how to address the information needs of their users. Different libraries will have different answers to that question, which is as it should be. 1) Sleeman casts his piece as a minority opinion. However, if the preliminary data on my WikiLeaks survey hold true (and I hope those that haven't done so will take the survey ;-)), then Sleeman is not an "outlier" as he would have us believe. The documents community seems to be split 50/50 on whether or not it is important for libraries to collect and give access to the cables -- and only 3 libraries so far say that they've even cataloged the WikiLeaks cable site. When Sleeman says that the situation, "demands more careful parsing than the [liberal] library community has been willing to do," he is, in one stroke, mischaracterizing and demeaning his colleagues. 2) The cables are not a "dump" but are in fact being actively vetted and redacted by Wikileaks and the the news organizations with which WL is working (UK Guardian, der Spiegel, NY Times, El Pais, and Le Monde). Only a very small number have actually been released (3891 of 251,287 to date). Those cables, while technically classified, are now publicly available to anyone and analysis by journalists around the world continues to grow (see WikiRiver as well as the news organizations' sites linked to at the end of this piece). By ignoring the role of journalists and newspapers in the vetting and release of the cables, Sleeman tries to turn the issue into one of Assange vs. the world. I don't think Sleeman would suggest that we should ignore other leaked materials, but maybe he would? Does he object to any publication of leaked information in any newspaper, or is there something about this particular release that he finds objectionable? Does he oppose libraries containing any leaked information? He does not say. As Steven Aftergood wrote recently, "[T]he bulk of the Pentagon Papers, which were leaked in 1971 by Daniel Ellsberg, never formally underwent declassification review.... This means that every public and private library in the country that has a copy of the Papers is technically in possession of currently classified material." Would Sleeman say that we should remove all versions of the Pentagon Papers from our libraries -- including the 4,100 pages of the [w:Pentagon Papers] read into the record of the Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds by then Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK).? 3) There have always been leaks of government information, most often for political purposes or individual vendetta ([w:Pentagon Papers] and the [w:Plame affair] are but the most in/famous). There are (admittedly weak) laws on the books to protect whistle blowers but none really to protect military whistleblowers (hence PFC Bradley Manning, the alleged cable leaker, has been held without charge at Quantico Marine base since July, 2010). These cables are not "stolen" per se, but leaked information. Daniel Ellsberg, perhaps the most famous leaker of government secrets, has praised wikileaks and their work. 4) Researchers and the public are justly intrigued with this kind of information. The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series is one of libraries' most highly sought-after titles so it only makes sense that library users would want access to the cables and their cache of diplomatic information far in advance of any FRUS publication -- which is supposed to be "no more than 30 years after the event recorded" but which is currently far behind schedule in violation of the law (see Aftergood, "State Dept Series Falls Farther Behind Schedule"). These materials will certainly be sought-after by researchers and the public in the future. But who will ensure that they have that access if libraries do not? Sleeman uses the cliche of the information on the web being like "toothpaste from a tube," saying that, once information is "out there," it "isn't going back." But this cliche is only half of the story. While it is true that one cannot guarantee that information, once released, can be successfully erased, it is also true, and more importantly so, that one cannot guarantee the preservation or integrity of information without explicit effort. This has important ramifications for libraries as they address the needs of their users. In a year (or 10 years, or more...) when a researcher wants to see the WikiLeaks documents behind news stories and books, will the researcher have a place to go where those documents have been preserved and authenticated as unaltered from the WikiLeaks release of those documents? Or will documents have disappeared or become unreadable or altered over time because they lacked adequate curation? Will there be documents, but no way to know if they are the ones that were used by earlier researchers? When FRUS releases some of these cables, will researchers be able to compare them to the WikiLeaks versions to verify accuracy of earlier research? Libraries have a role to play in preserving information over time for their users. Sleeman would ignore these issues; he says, "I am not willing to embrace the many calls in the library community to harvest and preserve this material locally." To me that seems like a short-sighted response, inadequately justified with ad hominem rhetoric. 5) Wikileaks staff and volunteers are transparency activists. WikiLeaks is a not-for-profit media organisation. Our goal is to bring important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative, secure and anonymous way for sources to leak information to our journalists (our electronic drop box). One of our most important activities is to publish original source material alongside our news stories so readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth. We are a young organisation that has grown very quickly, relying on a network of dedicated volunteers around the globe. Since 2007, when the organisation was officially launched, WikiLeaks has worked to report on and publish important information. We also develop and adapt technologies to support these activities. WikiLeaks has sustained and triumphed against legal and political attacks designed to silence our publishing organisation, our journalists and our anonymous sources. The broader principles on which our work is based are the defence of freedom of speech and media publishing, the improvement of our common historical record and the support of the rights of all people to create new history. We derive these principles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In particular, Article 19 inspires the work of our journalists and other volunteers. It states that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. We agree, and we seek to uphold this and the other Articles of the Declaration. --WikiLeaks about page We cannot, of course, *know* the motivations of Assange or other WikiLeaks staff or those who leaked the documents any more than we can know the motivations behind other leaks or even the motivations behind the official release of documents in FRUS. Journalists and librarians can, however, document what we do know and provide that as context to any document or publication. As librarians, we do not "embrace the WikiLeaks initiative" when we point to it or even when we add the documents themselves to our collections. Libraries have information on all points of view created for all kinds of reasons. Part of what we do is document the record of society for others to use and evaluate. Our role as librarians is to select what is significant and give it context. (Part of that context is the bibliographic metadata that describes information and its source; part of the context is the rest of our collections that we build by subject and discipline.) Isn't it self-evident that the WikiLeaks material has become significant regardless of the motivation of those who leaked it? Perhaps a close analogy here is to the collections of emails of scientists studying climate change (which *were* in fact stolen, not leaked). In both cases, I can see different libraries making different decisions about including WikiLeaks or those emails in their collections. I would hope that libraries that chose to collect the emails would include the several official reports that exonerated the scientists from the wrong-doing that the thieves attempted to impute. In the case of WikiLeaks, I would hope that a library would include news reports, State Department publications, and robust metadata etc., giving additional context to the cables. 6) Unintended Consequences: There was a fascinating debate hosted by DemocracyNow in December, 2010 between Steven Aftergood and Glenn Greenwald in which Aftergood laid out many of the same arguments that Sleeman does about agencies becoming more restrictive because of the cable leak. However, I think Greenwald's arguments countering this are equally feasible. Again, however, Sleeman is misdirecting us from the issues facing libraries. Now that the information is available and has been widely used and quoted, libraries need to deal with the existence of the information. While it is interesting to think about whether or not the information should have been leaked and what the consequences of the leaks might be, those issues are unrelated to the issue of preservation of and access to that information. 7) Quality, Provenance, Authenticity: Sleeman says, "Yet many in the library community seem eager to point to, to acquire, and to preserve this content without any of the usual assurances regarding quality or origin that we would otherwise require when making a collection development decision." The State Department has not claimed that any of these were invented, modified, falsified or otherwise not authentic. If anything, the official response has implied that the cables are indeed authentic. In the digital age, it is *particularly* important that libraries document the how and where and who of acquisitions so that users can evaluate them accurately. It would be wrong for libraries to say "here are cables released by the State Department" but it is right to say, "here are cables released by WikiLeaks and claimed to be leaked from the state department." That is an accurate description of their origin. Related to this, let's be clear: no librarian is suggesting that we should raid the State Department of all its cables. Instead, many librarians are saying that, given the prominence, public availability, and apparent authenticity of this material, and, given that reputable news organizations have published the cables as well as articles based on these materials, these are legitimate materials for us to consider providing to our users. One option that libraries have in a situation like this is to select and acquire digital files and preserve them without making them publicly available yet. Think of this as preserving with an embargo -- something that many libraries' special collections units do on a regular basis. This ensures that the materials are preserved, but allows the library to put off the decision to make them available until more information on their authenticity and provenance and legal status is available. Preservation does not happen by accident. Preserving the materials now for possible future release is both prudent and cautious. 8) Preservation: Sleeman does not address the preservation of these materials. Perhaps he hopes that, even though the toothpaste is out of the tube, it will slowly wither away and get lost. As noted above, I think it is important that the recently released WikiLeaks information be preserved for future scholars. The fact of the matter is that someone will have to preserve this information if it is to remain accessible. As noted above, preservation does not happen by accident. That means the key question we should be asking is: Who will preserve it? I am not suggesting that every library should collect these materials. Many libraries will find these materials out of scope for their collections. The strength of a community of libraries with many different collections is being able to make preservation decisions based on the needs of our users. If we rely on others (other organizations, other libraries, other individuals) to preserve material that is important to our users, we may find that we are losing important information (for a similar case in point see "While BBC Wants To Kill Off A Bunch Of Websites, Geeks Quickly Archive Them"). If we rely on a very small number of huge digital repositories, we may find ourselves without an adequate voice in their preservation decisions. By building our own digital infrastructure, we put ourselves in control of decisions that affect our user communities. That, in my opinion, is what we should be doing. With that infrastructure in place, we should make decisions about WikiLeaks based on the needs of our users -- not based on our like or dislike of Julian Assange. For readers who want an overview of the issues, I would recommend these additional links: CQ Researcher has published an paper that covers the wikileaks issue: Government Secrecy: Does greater openness threaten national security?. By Alex Kingsbury. February 11, 2011 Nuanced response from the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) NY Times cable archive Guardian cable archive der Spiegel cable archive CableSearch search interface of cables as they're released. By the European Centre of Computer Assisted Research. WikiRebels - The Documentary: in-depth documentary on WikiLeaks and the people behind it.
- [Happy 800th birthday Magna Carta](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10118/) - Happy 800th birthday [[Magna Carta]] the "Great Charter" agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215, and the basis for constitutions around the world. but that was 800 years ago. How does this relate to today you ask? Check out Historian Peter Linebaugh's interview on DemocracyNow about the
- [It’s Time to Publish CRS Reports](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10116/) - We have long advocated for public access to reports from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), Congress' think tank. But CRS reports are little known and difficult to find because they are not distributed to FDLP libraries or made public -- I harvest them up from sites around the 'net that post them when they can,
- [DOTD: Recovering from identity theft](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10106/) - The Federal Trade Commission web site IdentityTheft.gov is today's Document of the Day. Recovering from identity theft is easier with a plan. IdentityTheft.gov is the federal government’s one-stop resource for identity theft victims. The site provides streamlined checklists and sample letters to guide you through the recovery process. "IdentityTheft.gov, a new website, offers step-by-step checklists
- [FED study says many in debt, at risk, and cannot retire](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10101/) - Document of the Day. The results of a survey conducted on behalf of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System have been reported in the news recently. Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking Federal Reserve Board issues Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households FRB: Press Release (May 27, 2015). Report on
- [Dodging the memory hole](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10087/) - Abbey Potter’s comments about preserving digital news are also very relevant to the preservation of government information. Potter is the Program Officer with the the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). In her post on The Signal blog, she elaborates on her closing keynote address at the Dodging the Memory Hole II: An
- [Current Awareness for Statistical Information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10077/) - Two of the most useful current awareness tools I use to learn about new reports and developments are InfoDocket by Gary Price Full Text Reports by Gary Price and Shirl Kennedy. I only recently learned that they have another site that announces statistically-focused reports: StatFountain "A Sister Blog to FullTextReports" The announcement about StatFountain says:
- [New Data Tool for Trade and Investment Stats for Countries](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10074/) - The Department of Commerce announced a new data tool--International Trade and Investment Country Facts Application--on the Bureau of Economic Analysis website that gives users a snapshot of statistics on trade and investment between the United States and another country by simply clicking on a world map. BEA’s New Data Tool Provides Fast Access to Trade
- [Thoughts on the National Collection (DttP, spring 2015)](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10068/) - A few weeks ago, I posted on FGI my part of a collaborative feature article in the Spring 2015 issue of Documents to the People (DttP) (What are we to keep? thoughts on the National Collection). The other writers (Shari Laster, Aimée C. Quinn, and Barbie Selby) have given me permission to post their segments
- [Only 15% of Congressional Websites Are Ready for HTTPS](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10063/) - A Sunlight Foundation analysis found only 15 percent of congressional websites are ready for HTTPS. Sunlight analysis reveals only 15 percent of congressional websites are HTTPS ready by Tim Ball, Sunlight Foundation (May 26, 2015). In this article we will describe the methodology of the survey and present the survey results. We will also offer
- [More updates to Congress.gov](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10060/) - Congress.gov Continues..., by Andrew Weber In Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress (May 28, 2015). ...improvements have been made to search (results, command line and advanced), alerts, browse, and accessibility. The Federalist Papers have remained a perennially popular item on THOMAS with nearly a million page views over the last two years. Thanks to a
- [QOTD: Ellen Ullman "Close to the machine"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10058/) - Happy friday! Here's something to think about on this last day of the week. I'd like to think that computers are neutral, a tool like any other, a hammer that can build a house or smash a skull. But there is something in the system itself, in the formal logic of programs and data, that
- [Earthquakes, Megaquakes, and the Movies](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10052/) - The summer's first big blockbuster movie "San Andreas" is out this friday. So this is a good time to get some facts about earthquakes by checking out the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program. This is a great site to go to for facts, earthquake monitoring (there's an app for that!), USGS publications and data as well
- [Libraries could outlast the internet ... IF ...](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10049/) - This article is making the social media rounds so many of you have no doubt seen it -- Libraries could outlast the internet, head of British Library says - Telegraph. While I completely agree with Mr Keating, the director of the British Library, he only defined libraries in terms of vagaries like "trust" and "traditional
- [@POTUS](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10040/) - Introducing @POTUS: President Obama's Twitter Account. Alex Wall, The White House Blog (May 18, 2015). Today, with a tweet from the Oval Office, President Obama launched @POTUS, the official Twitter account of the President of the United States. Other Twitter accounts you might want to know about: The White House: @WhiteHouse Vice President Joe Biden:
- [In act of cognitive dissonance, House Renews Ban on public access to CRS Reports](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10037/) - In a remarkable example of ironic short-sightedness, the House Appropriations Committee again banned public access and dissemination of publications from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) according to Secrecy News' Steven Aftergood, "House Renews Ban on CRS Publication of Its Reports." I find this particularly frustrating in light of the House recently holding its fourth annual
- [The race to preserve disappearing data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10034/) - Here's a good piece in the Boston Globe, "The race to preserve disappearing data". While primarily focusing on the film industry, it also mentions link rot, disappearing government information in the form of Supreme Court decisions and other issues on which government information librarians should be working. I've said it often and I'll say it
- [Appeals court ruling on the NSA collection of phone records](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10027/) - UPDATED (5/8/2015) Concurring opinion added. News of the recent ruling by a federal appeals court that the National Security Agency's collection of millions of Americans' phone records violates the Patriot Act is widely available. Below are the links to a couple of good accounts of the ruling and the ruling itself. N.S.A. Phone Data Collection
- [USDA restricting access to 7,584 fruit paintings](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10002/) - Here's another story of a digitization effort that's not been made publicly available. USDA's National Agricultural Library hosts the Pomological Watercolor Collection, which contains 7,584 historical -- and beautiful! -- agricultural watercolor paintings of different varieties of fruits and nuts, commissioned between 1886 and 1942. Through a grant from an environmental non-profit called The Ceres
- [Not Your Grandmother's Librarian](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10018/) - The Cover story of The Nation this weeks is about librarians battling for privacy. Librarians Versus the NSA, by Zoë Carpenter, The Nation (May 6, 2015, the May 25, 2015 edition). Amy Sonnie, a librarian and activist in Oakland, told me that there’s a debate within the profession about whether librarianship is, or should be,
- [Chronology of Disappearing Government Information, 1998-2002](https://freegovinfo.info/node/7766/) - This document was compiled by Barbara Miller for ALA/GODORT Education Committee With special assistance of Karrie Peterson and includes data collected through May 8, 2002. Chronology of Disappearing Government Information (May 8, 2002), Compiled by Barbara Miller for ALA/GODORT Education Committee With special assistance of Karrie Peterson. [UPDATE May 7, 2015: I've upload a copy
- [Latest FOIA News](https://freegovinfo.info/node/10010/) - via LIS-GISIG/gov-info.tumblr.com CRS: CRS: Freedom of Information Act Legislation in the 114th Congress: Issue Summary and Side-by-Side Analysis CRS: The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): Background, Legislation, and Policy Issues CBO Gov Doc: H.R. 653, FOIA Act “H.R. 653 would amend the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). FOIA generally allows any person to obtain records
- [NOAA image puzzler and the "fugitive of the day"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9975/) - NOAA's Earth Observatory does an image puzzler of the month where they post Landsat 8 images from their Operational Land Imager (OLI) satellite. April's image turned out to be a twofer: a very cool image of South Korean seaweed cultivation AND in the citation was a fugitive document "Seaweed Cultivation of Korea" published by NOAA
- [FBI replies to Stingray FOIA request with 5,000 blank pages](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9968/) - This is an unbelievable story about the FBI being complete jerks about the FOIA requests they've received from MuckRock in regards to fake cellphone towers called "Stingrays" which are used to "gather identity/location information" on everyone that passes by them -- which btw I had no idea these things were real! MuckRock received almost 5000
- [Survey says most Americans not yet keen on e-government services](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9961/) - A new survey says that less than half of American adults who use the Internet at least once a week want the federal government to dive deeper into digital service delivery. Survey: Most Americans Just Not That Into Uncle Sam's Digital Services, By Hallie Golden, NextGov (April 28, 2015). The survey, by Forrester Research, also
- [What Are We To Keep? (FAQ)](https://freegovinfo.info/dttp) - This document is meant to accompany the article, "What are we to Keep?" by James R. Jacobs, Documents to the People (Spring 2015) p 13-19. FAQ What is a Preservation Copy? Research that was prompted by JSTOR's desire to determine how to guarantee that all of the printed material within its journals would remain available
- [What are we to keep? thoughts on the National Collection (DttP Spring 2015 feature article)](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9936/) - The Spring 2015 issue of Documents to the People (DttP) just arrived at my door. The feature article in this issue is titled "Thoughts on the National Collection" and was collaboratively written by myself, James R. Jacobs, along with Shari Laster, Aimee C. Quinn, and Barbie Selby. I’m posting my segment titled "What Are We
- [LLIS.gov going away and moving to HSDL.org and FEMA.gov](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9927/) - Are you pointing to documents at LLIS.gov? Those links appear to be broken. LLIS.gov (which points to llis.dhs.gov) has had a generic "Site under maintenance" page since at least December 2014. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Lessons Learned Information Sharing (LLIS) program's LLIS.gov website will cease independent operations and consolidate its content
- [Focusing on the essentials at DLC](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9878/) - In anticipation of this week's Depository Library Council meeting, FGI suggests a focus on the biggest challenges facing long-term preservation and access. The scope of the challenges we face is large and clear. The quantity of government information that is “born-digital” each year is literally orders of magnitude greater than the quantity of government publications
- [There are alternatives. We have to take them.](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9921/) - Another excellent post from Barbara Fister: Rent Control. Inside Higher Education (Apr 27, 2015). Although Fister is writing about copyrighted information, much of what she says pertains to public domain government information if we continue down the road we are on of "partnering" with the private sector and promoting "digital collections" that we neither acquire
- [House Judiciary Committee Web Page Labeled "Hilariously Terrible"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9872/) - This is snarky fun. Brenda Barron on the Elegant Themes website recently wrote about Bad Web Design: A Look At The Most Hilariously Terrible Websites From Around The Web. She tags a lot of really bad, even painfully bad, web sites. Although she describes the House Judiciary Committee web site as "appropriate" for the US
- [Government Health Web Sites Expose Personal Data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9859/) - A new article in Communications of the ACM by Timothy Libert, a doctoral student in the Annenberg School for Communication, demonstrates that web sites – including government web sites such as CDC.gov and Healthcare.gov – pass personal health information to companies that are not subject to regulation or oversight. Libert, Tim. “Privacy Implications of Health
- [Peek at Space Pix](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9801/) - Software Engineering Patrik Göthe has a nice little project called PeekSpace in which he curates free·to·use space photography -- much of it from NASA. As he says, there are plenty of free images of space on the web, but they are scattered in "an unaccessible sea of quantity and flash-slide shows." So, Patrick has gone
- [Take Action to Support Library of Congress and GPO Funding](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9849/) - The American Association of Law Libraries' Government Relations Committee (GRC) Access to Information Subcommittee has just put out an urgent call for action. We at FGI would echo this call and ask our readers to TAKE ACTION NOW to get Congress to adequately fund the Library of Congress and the Government Publishing Office (GPO)! DO
- [Google moves some .gov sites to page 2](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9844/) - Here Are the Agency Websites Google Doesn’t Think are Mobile Friendly, By Hallie Golden NextGov (April 22, 2015). Google’s newly implemented policy to adjust mobile search rankings based on a website’s mobile friendliness could leave some federal websites on a Google search engine’s dreaded second page -- at least when users search from a smartphone.
- [The demise of the Statistical Abstract and other critical Census titles](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3214/) - If you've been on govdoc-l over the last couple of days, you've no doubt read about the demise of the US Census' Statistical Abstract of the United States, published every year since 1878 and one of the most heavily used items in libraries across the US. According to the Department of Commerce's 2012 Congressional Budget Justification document (see pp 82-92), the entire Statistical Compendia Branch as well as the Federal Financial Statistics Program of the US Census is slated to be defunded. Not only will the Statistical Abstract no longer be published, but it also means the elimination of ALL titles produced by that branch (State and Metropolitan Area Data Book, County and City Data Book, Consolidated Federal Funds Report (CFFR), Federal Aid to States (FAS) etc.). Please write/phone/email/fax your representatives NOW and let them know how critical these publications are to an informed citizenry and to your daily library work. Congress.org has a handy page that will allow you to write all of your representatives at once. Please also forward this message to any library listservs to which you subscribe and send to your friends and family. UPDATE 3/15/11: In reading further, this looks to be a decision by Census to shift funds to a new program that will use new ways to collect and disseminate data. But Census still seems to be putting the StatAb cart before the new data dissemination horse here. Census Bureau will first kill StatAb etc and *then* initiate a pilot project to see how this new method of disseminating data will work. The new program will not be in place for 1-2 years and in the meantime the American public will not have access to the easy to use and handy Statistical Abstract.
- [Help save the Statistical Abstract](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3219/) - There has been a lot of discussion and suggestions for action on GOVDOC-L and various library listservs and ALA Connect about the pending demise of the Census Bureau's Statistical Compendia Branch and along with it the elimination of the Statistical Abstract of the United States (aka Stat Abs) and all other titles produced by that branch (State and Metropolitan Area Data Book, County and City Data Book, USA Counties, Quick Facts). Here's the US Census Bureau's budget estimates for 2012 (PDF). Librarians around the country are beginning to mobilize. Alesia McManus, the Library Director at Howard Community College in Columbia, MD, has created a Facebook group “Save the US Statistical Abstract” to try to help spread the word and share information. ALA Washington Office has just announced a Legislative Action Alert opposing the defunding of the Statistical Compendia Branch. Lastly, below is a sample letter that I hope all of our readers will send/email/fax to their Senators and Congressmen -- many thanks to Starr Hoffman at the University of North Texas, Hailey Mooney at Michigan State University, and Kevin McLure at Chicago-Kent College of Law for getting the letter rolling! Feel free to copy and/or edit the letter to suit and forward this post far and wide. Here's an easy way to find the contact information of your Congressional delegation: TO YOUR SENATOR: The Honorable (full name) (Room #) (Name) Senate Office Building United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator ___________: TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVE: The Honorable (full name) (Room #) (Name) House Office Building United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative __________: Paragraph 1: Why you are writing and who you are. List your "credentials." (If you want a response, you must include your name and address, even when using email.) My name is __________, and I’m a librarian at INSTITUTION which has served the government information needs of the constituents of your Congressional district and state since DATE LIBRARY BECAME A DEPOSITORY. I’m writing because I and many other librarians are deeply concerned that the U.S. Census Bureau's Budget Estimates for Fiscal Year 2012 calls for the termination of the Statistical Compendia Branch which would mean the elimination of the United States Statistical Abstract and all titles produced by that branch (State and Metropolitan Area Data Book, County and City Data Book, USA Counties, Quick Facts). The library community is deeply upset at the thought of losing access to this important program and urges you to take action to stop this program change. Paragraph 2: more details about the situation. The Statistical Abstract of the United States, published annually since 1878, is a key publication for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), which provides free, public access to government information. Both the print and online versions of the “Stat Abs,” as many librarians affectionately refer to it, are on the FDLP Essential Titles list. It is the first place that many librarians, researchers, students and your constituents(!) look for statistical information, because it compiles a vast amount of information, some of it unpublished and not available anywhere else. The Statistical Abstract also provides a citation for the original source for each table, acting as a guidebook to a huge array of diverse government statistics. The Stat Abs (as well as all of the titles published by the Statistical Compendia Branch!) is a staple of reference librarians and the public for its ease of use, comprehensive content, and as a guidebook to federal statistical sources. These long published titles -- and the federal depositories that distribute it to the American public -- are not an earmark, but are critical to the provision of social, economic, and political indicators to the American public and greatly benefit every American in every Congressional district. Without it, librarians, the public and your constituents(!) will waste much valuable time looking for statistics in multiple places and compiling longitudinal data. Paragraph 3: Close by requesting the action you want taken: a vote for or against a bill, or change in general policy. If a certain bill is involved, cite the correct title or number whenever possible. Please urge the Department of Commerce to reinstate the budget for the Census Bureau's Statistical Compendia Branch and the essential, valuable titles that the Branch provides to the public. Many thanks for your time and your service. Sincerely, YOUR NAME YOUR POSITION YOUR INSTITUTION INSTITUTION/CONTACT INFO References: Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP): http://fdlp.gov FDLP Essential Titles: http://snipurl.com/essential-titles US Census Bureau budget estimate 2012: http://snipurl.com/census-budget-estimate-2012
- [Aaron’s Law is back in Congress](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9830/) - Companion bipartisan bills have been introduced in the House and Senate to amend the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The legislation was inspired by the late Internet innovator and activist Aaron Swartz, who faced up to 35 years in prison for an act of civil disobedience. Senator Wyden said: “Violating a smartphone app’s terms
- [Commerce Dept. Expands Data Access](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9826/) - The Commerce Department has announced a redesigned section of its website to better integrate its catalog of its more than 40,000 publicly available data sets into Commerce.gov via Data.Commerce.Gov. Commerce Announces Redesigned Website, Furthering Commitment to Expand Data Access U.S. Department of Commerce, Blog (April 20, 2015). Commerce Data Hub. The announcement says: Data.Commerce.Gov is
- [May 1 is PACER Protest Day!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9821/) - May 1 Named National Day of PACER Protest, by George H. Pike Information Today NewsBreaks (April 21, 2015). Advocates for free access to legal information on the internet have proposed May 1 as the National Day of PACER Protest to encourage the federal courts to remove cost barriers to a wealth of information from the
- [Wait! Don't Digitize and Discard! A White Paper on ALA COL Discussion Issue #1a](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3961/) - [UPDATE 6/27: COL's final report is now available online. We've added a link to it below along with the draft report] We here at FGI are all for greater access to government information and have long supported and worked toward a fully digital FDLP. When discussing the future of the FDLP, we believe it is important to create policy based on thorough fact-based analysis, to learn from FDLP history and not repeat mistakes which in the past led to benign neglect of documents collections -- many of which were borne out of trying to handle government documents collections on the cheap. For example, lack of adequate cataloging, one of our biggest current problems today, is a direct result of libraries not investing sufficiently in describing FDLP collections.
- [Do zombies care about digital preservation?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2806/) - I guess this is the day of big thoughts :-) “How secure is our civilization’s accumulated knowledge?” This is the question mulled over by Richard Heinberg in his essay Our Evanescent Culture and the Awesome Duty of Librarians. “Ultimately,” Heinberg writes, the entire project of digitized cultural preservation depends on one thing: electricity. As soon as the power goes off, access to the Internet goes down. CDs and DVDs become meaningless plastic disks; e-books become inscrutable and useless; digital archives become as illegible as cuneiform tablets — or more so. Altogether, digitization represents a huge bet on society’s ability to keep the lights on forever . . . . It’s ironic to think that the cave paintings of Lascaux may be far more durable than the photos from the Hubble space telescope. Altogether, if the lights were to go out now, in just a century or two the vast majority of our recently recorded knowledge would be gone or inaccessible. This isn't just an idle thought experiment. With GPO, FDLP libraries, Google, Internet Archive etc actively engaged in and/or planning for massive digitization of the historic record of the US govt. Matt Cardin of The Teeming Brain expounds on Heinberg's essay and makes some good points in "Zombies, Digital Media, and Cultural Preservation in the New Dark Age". [Thanks for the tweet about this ArchivesNext!]
- [Official New FCC Net Neutrality Rules To Be Published Soon](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9721/) - Update: published! Have you been wondering where the FCC's Net Neutrality rules are? News reports this week say that The FCC sent its net neutrality rules to the Federal Register, but publishing schedules mean that it will be "a number of days" before they appear. FCC sends net neutrality rules to Federal Register, sets stage
- [Official New FCC Net Neutrality Rules Published](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9778/) - Document of the day: Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet; Final Rule Federal Register Vol. 80 Monday, No. 70 (April 13, 2015) Part II, Federal Communications Commission, 47 CFR Parts 1, 8, and 20. [Official PDF version at FDsys.] SUMMARY: In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) establishes rules to protect and promote
- [More than 1,000 Government Domain Names Terminated](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9762/) - The government transparency website MuckRock has posted a list of all ".gov" domain names that have been terminated (including the reasons for termination) within the last ten years. The list was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the General Services Administration. Terminated .gov Domain Names. Muckrock. The Dot-Gov Rejects: The 1,000
- [GPO: Designer of Government Websites](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9755/) - The Government Publishing Office announced yesterday that it has designed the Department of Commerce’s new Web site. GPO Designs New Department Of Commerce Website. GPO News Release (Apr 8, 2015). GPO designer Jon Raedeke collaborated with Commerce’s Chief Information Officer’s team on this project. GPO was responsible for designing the user-friendly, mobile-optimized Web site that
- [Government Agencies Tweet @ Twitter](https://freegovinfo.info/node/1678/) - While updating my Twitter account recently, I noticed that womenshealth.gov created their own Twitter account and added me to their network. Kudos to the government agencies who are jumping on the Web 2.0 bandwagon and getting their information out to the community! That got me wondering what other government agencies have created Twitter accounts, so I did some hunting and found a previous FGI blog entry and an article from CNET News stating that NASA wants to tackle Web 2.0 initiatives in order to "save itself from turning into a dinosaur in the Internet age". It took awhile, but I finally found the official NASA Twitter account, which I stumbled upon via the NASA Edge website and their Twitter page. The U.S. Department of State created a dipnote Twitter account for alerting users to new posts on their DIPNOTE Blog. Many non-profit organizations, such as the American Red Cross, created "tweet" alerts during the recent tornado outbreaks in the south. The Sunlight Foundation is "tweeting" public laws as they are signed. And of course, FGI is on Twitter as well! Even Presidential candidates like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton update their Twitter accounts. I can't find one for John McCain, but it looks like Mike Huckabee joined the Twitter bandwagon too. If you find any other government agencies using Twitter, please post a comment to let everyone know. [Editor's note 6/5/09: I deleted the link to Ron Paul's twitter account as it was not actually from Ron Paul. Thanks Erin for alerting us!]
- [Watch out for fake government websites](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9749/) - Brian Krebs reports: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is warning that individuals sympathetic to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (ISIS) are mass-defacing Websites using known vulnerabilities in WordPress. The FBI also issued an alert advising that criminals are hosting fraudulent government Web sites in a bid to collect personal and financial information
- [John Oliver talks about Government Surveillance and Section 215 of USAPA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9745/) - With the vote on reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act coming up on June 1, leave it to John Oliver to have the most thorough mainstream examination of govt surveillance and the implications of the USA [[PATRIOT Act]]. Plus he does a great interview *in Russia* with Edward Snowden (warning: Oliver is a little NSFW). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEVlyP4_11M
- [Want to be a fugitive hunter?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9477/) - (Editor's note: I originally posted this to the GODORT ALA Connect site. I'm not sure if that is publicly available so I'm reposting here on FGI. We'll be discussing this and other issues of digital collection development next wednesday February 11, 2015 at 9am PST/12 Noon EST on IRC (irc.freenode.net) channel #FDLP.) How would you
- [GAO report on Library of Congress](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9727/) - The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report last week that criticized management of information technology at the Library of Congress. Strong Leadership Needed to Address Serious Information Technology Management Weaknesses, U.S. Government Accountability Office. GAO–15–315 (Mar 31, 2015). Here is a roundup of some of the news and commentary about the report: America’s ‘national
- [Budget cut means likely closure of Vermont's state law library](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9714/) - A Vermont journalism website reports that cuts to the Vermont Department of Libraries will likely result in the closure of the state law library. The State Librarian says that The law library is “going to disappear.” If it is closed, Vermont would be one of the few in the country without a state law library.
- [Public "papers" of the President?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9694/) - Now that Congress has officially changed GPO’s name from Government Printing Office to Government Publishing Office, (GPO Observes 154th Birthday With New Name, New Logo), perhaps it is time to rethink not just the name, but the function of the Public papers of the Presidents of the United States and the related publications, the Daily
- [NSF YouTube channel](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9688/) - "Document" of the Day: National Science Foundation YouTube channel. "NSF is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense. NSF funds a significant proportion of all federally supported basic research conducted by America's colleges and
- [LoC: Women’s History on Pinterest](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9682/) - "March is designated as Women’s History Month and this year the National Women’s History Project has selected “Weaving the Stories of Women’s Lives” as the theme. To help commemorate Women’s History Month, the Library of Congress has created a Pinterest Board that offers a visual celebration of the diverse stories of women in the United
- [Congress.gov updated](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9679/) - Treaties, Text, and Timely Updates – Congress.gov Spring Cleaning, by Andrew Weber, In Custodia Legis (Library of Congress Law Librarians blog) (March 25, 2015). Since introducing Congress.gov in September 2012, we have continued to add the databases from THOMAS to the new system. We launched with legislation, followed soon thereafter by the Congressional Record, Committee
- [Census Reduces Data for Mid-Sized Places](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9672/) - Here is a story about how diminishing Census data will affect rural areas in the United States. The story describes the effects of the Census Bureau's cut to the American Community Survey. It says that, for nearly a third of U.S. counties it will mean "getting a murkier picture of their people and economies." The
- [U.S. Census Bureau launches Instagram account](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9669/) - As D.B. Hebbard at Talking New Media says, this is "a sure sign the either 1) everyone is doing it, or 2) Instagram will be the next My Space." u.s.censusbureau at instagram
- [Lunchtime Listen: Future Crimes](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9662/) - Lunchtime Listen: Book Discussion on Future Crimes, C-SPAN, Book-TV (February 25, 2015). Marc Goodman talks about his book, Future crimes: Everything is connected, everyone is vulnerable, and what we can do about it (New York : Doubleday, 2015), about how criminals, corporations, and governments use technology to disrupt the lives of people around the world.
- [Data and Goliath](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9651/) - If you don't keep up with privacy issues, this is the book you should read to catch up. Data and Goliath : the Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World by Bruce Schneier, New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, [2015] ©2015. And here are a couple of quick overviews of
- [DttP letter to the editor re digital preservation of government information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9462/) - Jim and I recently wrote a letter to the editor to the GODORT journal Documents to the People (DttP) (published in the Winter 2015 issue) entitled "Digital preservation deserves better coverage." We post it here to FGI in the hopes that it will "clarify some of the issues and provide a more accurate and more
- [The Rise of the Chief Data Officer](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9648/) - More and more federal government agencies are getting a "chief data officer" (CDO). NextGov interviewed five recently appointed agency CDOs. These are very brief overviews of the vast amount of data being managed by the government (the CDO for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services notes that they are adding about a billion records
- [Administration sets record for withholding government files](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9642/) - The Obama administration set a record again for censoring government files or outright denying access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press. The analysis of new FOIA data released by U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday, covered all requests
- [Government Web Sites Analytics](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9632/) - The web site analytics.usa.gov, which is run by the General Services Administration, provides real time web site analytics for a selection of federal government web sites. From "about this site": This data provides a window into how people are interacting with the government online. The data comes from a unified Google Analytics account for U.S.
- [Senate Republican's Open Letter to Iran AND Iranian Response](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9620/) - 1. Senate Letter: March 9, 2015 An Open Letter to the Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran: It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system. Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution-the
- [DOJ Gov Doc: Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department [March 4, 2015]](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9609/) - Report Summary: ...Ferguson’s law enforcement practices are shaped by the City’s focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs. This emphasis on revenue has compromised the institutional character of Ferguson’s police department, contributing to a pattern of unconstitutional policing, and has also shaped its municipal court, leading to procedures that raise due process concerns
- [DOTD: Propaganda Posters at NARA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9614/) - Document of the Day: The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has some propaganda posters from the the U.S. Information Agency online. Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, ca. 1950 - ca. 1965. NARA. Record Group 306: Records of the U.S. Information Agency, 1900 - 2003. The Publications Division and
- [GPO Observes 154th Birthday With New Name, New Logo](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9602/) - GPO is observing its 154th anniversary with a new logo. Here is the press release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 4, 2015 No. 15-04 GPO OBSERVES 154th BIRTHDAY WITH NEW NAME, NEW LOGO WASHINGTON – The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) marks its 154th anniversary of opening for business today. Since March 4, 1861, GPO has
- [Docs of the week: Ferguson Grand Jury, 100 years of INS annual reports, and the historic Moynihan Report](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9593/) - Here at Stanford libraries, my colleague Kris Kasianovitz and I are busy putting context to the *massive* haystack that is the Internet -- and we could use some help (want to be a lostdocs collector?!)! Below are just a few of the documents we've collected in the last week, stored in our Stanford Digital Repository
- ["An alarmingly casual indifference to accuracy and authenticity.” What we know about digital surrogates](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9572/) - In a new article in Portal, Diana Kichuk examines the reliability and accuracy of digital text extracted from printed books in five digital libraries: the Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg, the HathiTrust, Google Books, and the Digital Public Library of America. She focuses particularly on the accuracy and utility of the digital text for reading in
- [Beyond the Numbers](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9568/) - Document of the day: Beyond the Numbers at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The wonderful Scout Report a the University of Wisconsin-Madison, highlighted this gem in its most recent newsletter. The Scout's description says it all: For readers who love stats and facts, Beyond the Numbers, which is published biweekly by the Bureau of Labor
- [Data, Data, Data.](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9562/) - As a data librarian since the mid-1980s, I have watched the field expand and bourgeon with a sense of giddy delight. A good friend who has been a data librarian longer than I have once said he would retire when children started saying that wanted to grow up to be data librarians. Well, that time
- [Research data lost to the sands of time](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8521/) - Here's an interesting article, not on link rot (a topic FGI has been tracking for some time), but on *data rot*. In a recent article in Current Biology, researchers examined the availability of data from 516 studies between 2 and 22 years old. They found the following: that the odds of a data set being
- [Introducing the Federal Web Archiving Working Group](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9559/) - Interesting and informative post by our friend, Michael Neubert, a Supervisory Digital Projects Specialist at the Library of Congress: Introducing the Federal Web Archiving Working Group, by Michael Neubert, The Signal digital preservation blog of the Library of Congress (February 23, 2015). Michael comments on the huge amount of born-digital federal government information that is
- [Government Information? You're Soaking in It!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9531/) - [UPDATE #1: Christian James tweeted that besides the National Agricultural Library, we should also credit USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and their National Nutrient Database. So big thanks to USDA-ARS!] Many Americans don't think they use government information, but they're wrong. Many people think that the private sector meets their information needs just fine and
- [Video of the sun marks 5th year anniversary of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9519/) - This is just too beautiful not to share. NASA marks the 5-year anniversary of their Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) with this video showing amazingly pulsing mass explosions, solar flares, sunspots, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and the like. SDO provides 13 full-sun images every 10 seconds, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That's 2,600
- [Another study of link rot and content drift](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9499/) - A new paper on Link Rot and Content Drift gives new details on the extent of the problem. Klein, Martin, Herbert Van de Sompel, Robert Sanderson, Harihar Shankar, Lyudmila Balakireva, Ke Zhou, and Richard Tobin. “Scholarly Context Not Found: One in Five Articles Suffers from Reference Rot.” PLoS ONE 9, no. 12 (December 26, 2014):
- [FCC Chair Tom Wheeler: "How We Will Preserve Net Neutrality"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9495/) - Behold the Power of Participation; Regulation comments make a difference. FCC Chair Tom Wheeler writing in Wired After more than a decade of debate and a record-setting proceeding that attracted nearly 4 million public comments, the time to settle the Net Neutrality question has arrived. This week, I will circulate to the members of the
- [Jessamyn West:  Never Trust A Corporation to Do a Librarian's Job](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9493/) - Jessamyn West, Never Trust A Corporation to Do a Librarian's Job (via lifeguardlibrarian.tumblr.com) “We were having our own doubts, of course. How could you not? The Google Books project seemed to be letting itself go. Things any librarian would notice: bad scans; faulty metadata; narrowing the scope of public domain; having machines do jobs that
- [Legislation Email Alerts on Congress.gov](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9486/) - Here's good news from Andrew Weber, Legislative Information Systems Manager at the Law Library of Congress. Congress.gov now has alerts for Members of Congress, Legislation and Congressional Record! Moving from a 20-year-old system to our new, modern Congress.gov platform has many advantages. One of these is that, starting today, email alerts are available on Congress.gov.
- [Census Bureau to drop 3-Year estimates from American Community Survey (ACS)](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9484/) - It seems as if the Census bureau is dying a slow death of a thousand cuts. This is just the latest cut (and by the way, did anyone notice that this Census press release actually comes from the site "content.govdelivery.com"?!). This seems like a good time to remind folks to read our earlier response to
- [Announcing February Digital collection development coffee klatch and IRC howto](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9481/) - Just a heads up that the February virtual coffee klatch will be held on IRC channel #FDLP next Wednesday February 11 at 9am PST / 12 noon EST. We’ll discuss the fugitives collection project that was announced at GODORT Federal Documents Task Force and any other issues you want to bring up connected to digital
- [DOE's OpenNet database of declassified documents](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9474/) - ON a recent Govdoc-l thread about searching for technical reports (which I *love* as a member of the TRAIL network!), someone mentioned the OpenNet database. I hadn't heard of this resource, so went searching. Turns out that OpenNet is a database of declassified documents and records from the Department of Energy, very handy for technical
- [Warmest Year Ever](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9459/) - Document of the Day. According to NOAA (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), "The year 2014 was the warmest year across global land and ocean surfaces since records began in 1880." NOAA National Climatic Data Center, State of the Climate: Global Analysis for Annual 2014, published online December 2014. http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2014/13 This website has Maps and
- ["What the Web said yesterday" and IRC chat on digital collection development](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9452/) - The New Yorker has an interesting piece by Jill Lapore, "What the Web Said Yesterday" which explores the issue of internet preservation and highlights the important work being done by the Internet Archive. Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist at Google, says we need “digital vellum” or the “twenty-first century will become an informational black hole.”
- [More on Outreach - When is a door more than a door?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2400/) - One of my favorite low-tech ways to get users at my library interested in the vast arena of government information available online is to feature different electronic items on my office door. I've just put up a display with some highlights from American Memory's collections about Abraham Lincoln. My previous display was on teaching tools related to Saturn from the Cassini mission, and prior to that, I featured educational materials about the food pyramid from USDA. I like these displays because they take almost no effort to assemble (I look for items that will print well and will hook the interest of a casual audience - teaching tools are great for this), and because they're in a location where nothing else competes for attention. These items are clearly "from the internet", and yet they are high-quality materials that could be of use to our library stakeholders, both in their academic and personal lives. I don't expect to build a legion of government information enthusiasts, but what I hope to do is interest some of my many daily passers-by in a tiny slice of what's available, in the hopes that they will do some exploration on their own and perhaps someday become interested in exactly how much is available, and why it's available, and who works to keep it available. Is it working? I have no way of knowing directly, but the chance that it might is worth the time to locate the resources and the few sheets of paper to print it out. Besides, it makes my office door that much more interesting.
- [State Agency Databases Project Activity Report 1/15/2015](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9447/) - Welcome to the first State Agency Databases Project report of 2015! ORPHAN - Nebraska At the start of each new year we click on the "history" tab of each state page and check when it was last updated. If it hasn't been updated during the previous calendar year, we let that volunteer go and put
- [Webinar on fugitive documents: notes and links](https://freegovinfo.info/fugitives) - These are notes and links and resources mentioned in our webinar on fugitive government documents that Jim and I presented for the "Help! I'm an Accidental Government Information Librarian" webinar series: "Community-Based Digital Collection Development of Born-Digital Government Information" [link to recording of webinar] by James A. Jacobs and James R. Jacobs. (Jan. 12, 2015).
- [Carl Malamud proposes a National Day of PACER Protest](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9434/) - Carl Malamud of public.resource.org and champion of freeing government information, has posted a proposal for "Law Day" -- a national day of protest against PACER policies. Yo! Your Honor! A Response to the Chief Justice Carl Malamud "A National Strategy of Litigation, Supplication, and Agitation". Boing Boing (Jan 11, 2015). May 1 Proposed as a
- ["Against the grain: Govt Information at SUL": Stanford Library Advisory Council presentation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8642/) - Yesterday, my colleague Kris Kasianovitz and I were lucky enough to be invited to give a presentation to my library's advisory council about our work with govt information at Stanford libraries (Kris unfortunately had to be in LA for a family event, but we prepared together and made a fun little video of her "in
- [State Agency Databases Project: 2014 Statistics](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9414/) - At the beginning of each year, I (Daniel) compile yearly statistics for the pages of the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. Here are a few highlights from 2014. State Pages We had five states top 10,000 visits a year, led by Missouri with 22,069 visits. 1. Missouri (Annie Moots)
- [NOAA resources for teaching climate](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9400/) - NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, maintains the website Climate.gov as a source of timely and authoritative scientific data and information about climate. The goal of the site is "to promote public understanding of climate science and climate-related events, to make our data products and services easy to access and use, to provide climate-related
- [New Digital Posters from NASA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9384/) - Most long-time govdocs librarians are fond of government produced posters. They are unique and useful in many ways. (If you're unfamiliar with government posters, have a look at the Work Projects Administration (WPA) Poster Collection at the Library of Congress.) Now NASA has created posters it calls an Exoplanet Travel Series based on the new
- [New features at Census](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9382/) - The Census Burear reports that it has improved its search engine and is providing a new version of "QuickFacts." Improving Your Access to U.S. Census Bureau Data: Two New Features on Census.gov, John H. Thompson. U.S. Census Bureau. Director's Blog (January 6, 2015). Recently, we rolled out two exciting new features on Census.gov — a
- [Webinar on "fugitive" documents, January 12. Register Now!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9380/) - We hope you will join FGI folks James R. Jacobs and James A. Jacobs for a "Help! I’m an Accidental Government Information Librarian" webinar on Monday, January 12 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on the topic of "fugitive" documents! Please RSVP for the Session by January 12 at 10:00 am using this link:
- [Twenty Years of THOMAS](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9378/) - Andrew Weber, Legislative Information Systems Manager at the Law Library of Congress, writes about the history of THOMAS, which is now Congress.gov. Twenty Years of THOMAS, by Andrew Weber, In Custodia Legis, blog of the Law Library of Congress (January 5, 2015).
- [How Congress's dysfunction has degraded the CRS](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9376/) - Here is a fascinating story about "How Congress's dysfunction has degraded its own in-house think tank," told by Kevin Kosar, an analyst who quit his job last October as a researcher at the Congressional Research Service. Kosar, Kevin R. 2015. Why I Quit the Congressional Research Service. Washington Monthly (January/February 2015). Self-inflating, score-settling tell-alls are
- [Supreme Court Will Bypass PACER, Put Its Filings Online For Free](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9369/) - Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts announced in his year-end report on the state of the federal judiciary that The Supreme Court is developing an "electronic filing system" similar to PACER, which, once made public in 2016, will make all filings at the Court available to the legal community and the public on the Court’s
- [Turning the Torture Report Into a Book](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9364/) - It takes care to turn a good paper book into a good digital book. But it also takes care to turn a lousy digital book into a good paper book! The New Yorker has a story about how Melville House is doing just that, publishing the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture. But remember fine
- [Increasing the Reach of Census Bureau Data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9362/) - A reminder of some of the ways the Census Bureau is using to promote and facilitate use of its wealth of data. Increasing the Reach of Census Bureau Data. By Raul Cisneros, director, Center for New Media and Promotion and Rebecca Blash, chief, Center for Enterprise Dissemination Services and Consumer Innovation (CEDSCI), U.S. Census Bureau.
- [State Agency Databases Activity Report: 12/21/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9360/) - With the quarterly link check ongoing, we continue to see changes to the following pages at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases . (links are to revisions page, click on “page” tab to see regular page): Alabama - Paula Webb California - Joel Rane Delaware - John Stevenson Louisiana - Rita Franks Minnesota - Paul J McDonough Nevada
- [Senate to publish bulk data in XML](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9356/) - Big News! Senate Joins House In Publishing Legislative Information In Modern Formats, by Daniel Schuman. Congressional Data Coalition (December 18, 2014). There's big news from today’s Legislative Branch Bulk Data Task Force meeting. The United States Senate announced it would begin publishing text and summary information for Senate legislation, going back to the 113th Congress,
- [What makes a "fugitive document" a fugitive?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9352/) - First off, I'd like to thank GPO (now the Government Publishing Office!) for posting about this Historic Fugitive Document Available through the CGP. I'd like to give a little context and parse out what makes a fugitive document -- a document that is within scope of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) but for whatever
- [GPO Is Now The Government Publishing Office](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9350/) - Press Release from GPO GPO Is Now The Government Publishing Office FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 17, 2014 No. 14-27 GPO IS NOW THE GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE WASHINGTON – An agency whose mission has been producing, publishing, and recording our Nation’s history has made some history of its own. Section 1301 of H.R. 83, the legislation
- [Senate Torture Report: the Senate Speaks](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9348/) - Our friend Daniel Schuman from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) (nee Sunlight) has put together a helpful ebook "Senate Torture Report: The Senate Speaks" (archived copy as ePub, PDF, full text, etc.). The ebook pulls together the speeches on the floor of the Senate of several senators, including the Intelligence Committee Chair
- [State Agency Databases Project Activity Report 12/14/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9342/) - With the quarterly link check underway, we've seen significant changes to the following pages at the State Agency Databases Project athttp://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases over the past two weeks. (links are to revisions page, click on “page” tab to see regular page): California - Joel Rane Kansas - Pam Crawford Maryland - Siu Min Yu Minnesota - Paul J McDonough Missouri -
- [Four-part series by Washington Examiner examining the state of inspectors general](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9335/) - Thanks to Sabrina Pacifici at BeSpacific for posting about this Four-part series by the Washington Examiner examining and illuminating the work and current state of inspectors general. Inspectors General are little-known independent agencies of the United States federal government and are charged with identifying, auditing, and investigating fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement within the parent
- [Senate *finally* releases study on CIA aka the "torture report"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9322/) - Yesterday the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released its "Study of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program - Foreword, Findings, and Conclusions, and Executive Summary." (BIG PDF!) The report is 525 pages, heavily redacted, and includes graphic details about the torture techniques used by the CIA. The study found that American torture was not
- [New WMD Report Card Released ](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2020/) - Yesterday, the Partnership for a Secure America released a new WMD Report Card. The report gives our defenses against a WMD terrorist attack as a grade "C," a slight upgrade from the 9/11 Public Discourse Project's 2005 grade of "D." Former 9/11 Commissioners Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-IN) and Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA) were present at the press conference. In related news... President Bush spoke this morning at the dedication of the Pentagon Memorial. The Flight 93 Memorial is underway; NPR has a story about visiting the site. And the memorial at the World Trade Center site is still under construction; Mayor Bloomberg demanded yesterday that it be completed by 2011.
- [DomeNation: TV show about the intersection of technology and politics](https://freegovinfo.info/node/1137/) - Jerome Armstrong of the progressive blog MyDD and conservative Republican David All have launched an Internet-based TV show about the intersection of technology and politics. David says, "We’ll cover the beat from our perspective as admitted-partisan political operatives." You can see it at youtube.com/user/domeNation Watch it now! The first one is only three minutes long.
- [Lunchtime listen: Jody DeRidder and the human side of digital preservation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9320/) - I was disappointed that I wasn't able to go to this year's Best Practices Exchange conference -- one of the best conferences for government information librarians, archivists and digital preservationists to share ideas and brainstorm about what works and what doesn't! -- so was glad that Kevin Driedger of the Preservation Imperative podcast posted his
- [Visiting Assistant Professor Uses Public Data to Transform How New Yorkers See Their City](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9316/) - Ben Wellington uses his popular I Quant NY blog to dig into public New York city data posted by city agencies. He digs deep into the the data to post about the city's filthiest fast-food chains, mapped out how half of Manhattan is within four blocks of a Starbucks and determined which neighborhoods boast the
- [Portland Newspaper Uses Census Data for Searchable Map](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9313/) - The Oregonian has collected some high-level data points for census tracts in the Portland metro area and used them to create an interactive searchable map of Portland. Census tracts boundaries are drawn to create areas with a population generally between 1,200 and 8,000, with a target of 4,000. Who lives in your Portland neighborhood? New
- [Usage-Based Pricing of Internet Service](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9310/) - Document of the Day U.S. Government Accountability Office. 2014. FCC Should Track the Application of Fixed Internet Usage-Based Pricing and Help Improve Consumer Education. Mark Goldstein, GAO–15–108: Published: Nov 24, 2014. Publicly Released: Dec 2, 2014. GAO found that mobile providers employ usage-based pricing (UBP) more commonly than fixed. Under UBP, providers can charge varying
- [Inspectors General Reports](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9306/) - One of the sources Daniel Schuman includes in his list of tools for Congressional Information deserves special mention. Oversight.io | Bringing into sight the US government's oversight community Most every piece of the US federal government has an office called the Inspector General (IG). An IG's job is to keep their part of the government
- [ Electronic Toolbox for Congressional Information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9304/) - Daniel Schuman, Policy Director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), has posted a list of very useful free digital tools that should be of use to "any self-respecting congressional staffer, Member of Congress, journalist, or public advocate." Daniel notes that "All are free, run on information published by Congress or cobbled
- [Chronology of data library and data centres](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9302/) - Do you have responsibilities for data or statistics in your library? It may come as a surprise to you, if you are new to managing research data, that social science data professionals have been managing, storing, preserving, delivering, and providing service for social science data for 40 years. The premier organization for social science data
- [PACER and EDGAR](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9299/) - The PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) database of judicial opinions, pleadings, motions and other papers continues to present a vexing public access issue. Brian Brodie, at the online news site Quartz (whose audience is “business people in the new global economy”), provides a good review of the issues around the current state of
- [Fiction: Postcard from an Un-neutral Net](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9293/) - I (Daniel), was part of National Novel Writing Month. Despite the name, you can pretty much write anything you want as long as you try to make 50,000 words during the month of November. I chose to write an anthology of short stories using randomly generated writing prompts. One of my stories turned out to
- [The League of Dangerous Mapmakers](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9290/) - The Republican Party is in control of both the House and Senate, and the redrawing of Congressional districts is one of the tools that led America to its current fate. The Atlantic follows Tom Hoffeler, a Republican consultant responsible for the bulk work of the redistricting strategy. Following the coincidence of the 2010 Census and
- [CIA and DHS want to delete almost all their emails](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9288/) - There are a couple of things that are troubling to me about this report: Agencies were asked to send proposals on management of email and CIA and DHS proposed to just delete them, regardless of their historical importance. The National Archives has already tentatively approved of the proposal The story goes on to note that
- [Search Congressional Press Releases](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9286/) - Derek Willis posted a brief announcement of a new service that will allow you to browse & search (titles only) congressional releases. An API is forthcoming. Statementer I wonder if any library will be smart enough to make use of the API to preserve these elusive (dare I say, "fugitive"?) documents?
- [The "Evolving" Congress](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9284/) - Here is a new CRS report on “The Evolving Congress.” It is a compendium of 22 reports that examine how and why Congress evolved over the previous decades to where it is today. Congressional Research Service. 2014. The Evolving Congress. Senate. Committee on Rules and Administration. Senate Committee Print 113–30 (“89–394”) (Y 4.R 86/2) Washington: Government Printing
- [Yosemite, fire, the legacy of John Muir and other Thanksgiving thoughts](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9281/) - I just ran across this Scientific American's Primate Diaries blog post, "Fire Over Ahwahnee: John Muir and the Decline of Yosemite" by Eric Michael Johnson. Anyone who's read Charles Mann's 1491 (great read btw!) knows that the indigenous peoples of the Americas from the forests of New England to the Amazon, rather than living in
- [CIA search: Down for two years and counting](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9272/) - Yesterday, when I was writing a post about The CIA’s Intelligence Officer’s Bookshelf, I was looking on CIA.gov for a link to all the occurences of this regular feature in the CIA’s magazine Studies in Intelligence. Naturally, I used the CIA’s own search box. I was a bit surprised to find that every search I
- [The CIA's Intelligence Officer's Bookshelf](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9269/) - One of my guilty pleasures of govdocs is the reading lists and other book lists that agencies post. I find it fascinating to see which books an agency lists – and which they omit. I only recently discovered one that has been around for a long time. It is the "Intelligence Officer's Bookshelf" – a
- [DOD Reading Lists](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3565/) - Have you ever checked out the reading lists of the armed forces? Interesting! Reading Lists Aim to Promote Personal, Professional Growth, By Donna Miles, American Forces Press Service (Nov. 22, 2011). [P]rofessional reading remains an important part of the military culture. Every service, most professional military schools and an increasing number of geographic and combatant commands offer up reading programs and reading lists as part of their professional development efforts. In fact, many have multiple reading lists, aimed at different groups within the military at different ranks and stages of their careers. "...What I discovered reading Hemingway, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Faulkner, Updike, Forester, McCarthy and countless other authors shaped my world view and honed my understanding of the most complex terrain in the world: the human heart." [Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, commander of U.S. European Command and NATO’s supreme allied commander for Europe] Hat tip to beSpacific!
- [The extraordinary growing impact of the history of science](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9265/) - In a recent paper published on arxiv.org entitled "On the Shoulders of Giants: The Growing Impact of Older Articles", the authors examined the citation arc over time of older scholarly articles and how that impact has changed over time and with increased digital access. They found that citations to older articles (and therefore their impact)
- [President Obama supports net neutrality. How about a truly public "public utility"?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9260/) - The news is all over the Internet: President Obama today made a strong statement in support of [[Net neutrality]], urging the FCC to adopt strict rules on net neutrality in order to assure a level Internet playing field and not allow Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to discriminate Internet traffic (news coverage here and here). Yes,
- [State Legislatures: the frat houses of democracy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9258/) - While most of us focus of tomorrow's midterm election and the control of the U.S. Senate, John Oliver is looking at the places where most laws are really made these days. And it's not in gridlocked Washington -- it's in the state legislatures. I'm really glad Oliver has raised this issue as well as the
- [Explore the oldest U.S. Website -- via the Stanford wayback machine!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9254/) - Who knew that the oldest US Website was a page from the Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC)? Now you can explore the evolution of that oldest Website via the Stanford Libraries Wayback Machine. We're now locally running an instance of the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Soon, all of our Web harvesting collections will also be available
- [History of immigration: Map of US immigrant populations in 1903](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9242/) - The Slate Vault today highlighted a "data-packed" map of American immigration in 1903 from the annual report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration. The Vault always posts interesting and beautiful maps, images etc. They also linked to anew-to-me site called Handsome Atlas that has some beautiful scans and visualizations of historic US atlases. GO and check
- [Supreme Court reenactments with dogs: so wrong but so right!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9240/) - John Oliver is doing great -- and hilarious -- journalistic work. In this segment, he not only takes on the serious issue of why the Supreme Court doesn't allow video cameras during oral arguments (Scalia's argument against cameras is just lame excuse given the way C-SPAN currently covers Congress), but gives other news outlets the
- [State Agency Databases Project Activity Report 10/12/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9233/) - This past week saw significant changes to the following pages at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. (links are to revisions page, click on “page” tab to see regular page): Delaware - John A. Stevenson New Jersey - Stephanie Bartz South Dakota - Brenda Hemmelman Wyoming - Karen Kitchens Delaware saw significant reorganization in
- [GAO Report: Voter ID laws reduce turnout more among African American and younger voters](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9230/) - A new report just released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) entitled "ELECTIONS: Issues Related to State Voter Identification Laws" (GAO-14-634) found that requiring voters to have special ID in order to vote makes voter turnout go down and this disproportionally effects young and minority voters. And you wonder why republicans in states like Wisconsin,
- [Samantha Bee answers a govdocs reference question](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9227/) - Did you ever have one of those reference questions that involves a government-collected statistic that you just know must exist, but you cannot find? We all have. Samantha Bee of the Daily show looks at GAO and CDC documents and even the National Sheriff’s Association. She interviews Nate Silver! But, she discovers, some data do
- [CRL to Digitize Endangered Foreign Government Publications](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9091/) - The Carnegie Corporation of New York has awarded the Center for Research Libraries funding to preserve and make available on the open web endangered government documentation from certain African and Persian Gulf region nations. The grant of $248,500 will enable digitization of official gazettes from those nations, which have been preserved over the past sixty years
- [Best State and Local Government Websites for 2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9221/) - Each year, Government Technology magazine and e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government sponsor the creation of a list of the best state and local government websites. This year a panel of last year’s winners, former government officials, and executives from the Center for Digital Government selected websites that tried new things, while remaining functional. They examine
- [CREW Recommends Updating House Information Rules](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9216/) - There are many excellent recommendations in the new report on improving transparency and accountability in the House of Representatives from CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington), the Sunlight Foundation, and the OpenGov Foundation. Press Release Recommendations for Updating House Rules for the 114th Congress [Full Report] (October 8, 2014). Some that may be
- [Jon Stewart updates "I'm just a bill" hilarity ensues](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9208/) - Once again, Jon Stewart accurately -- and hilariously -- describes how our US government works these days. Watch "How a bill becomes an ad". The Daily ShowGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook,Daily Show Video Archive
- [State Agency Databases Activity Report 10/5/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9211/) - This past week saw significant changes to the following pages at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. (links are to revisions page, click on “page” tab to see regular page): Colorado - Samantha Hager Georgia - Chris Sharpe Maryland - Siu Min Yu You can always view ALL changes made in the past seven days
- [Congress.gov: out of beta and with new enhancements](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9200/) - The Library of Congress launched Congress.gov in beta two years ago. A few days ago, they removed the beta label -- 3 years faster than gmail! There are many new enhancements with this update. Some of the new features include a new Resources section that provides an A-to-Z list of hundreds of links related to
- [Best Titles Ever! Landmark!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9195/) - Aimee Slater says that the Best Titles Ever! Tumbler posted its 100th Best Title today! It is attracting dozens of followers -- including some who are not in the government information librarian community, which is pretty awesome. BTE explores non-copyright government sources, particularly ones with titles that are funny, intriguing, interesting, convoluted or clever, or
- [Having a Plan "B"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9184/) - In early August, FGI reported on FDLP.gov being hacked as evidenced by a large cat looming over a night time cityscape. Subsequently the FDLP published an explanation dated August 19th why several FDLP websites were unavailable due to an ongoing internal security review. By unhappy coincidence, my library had just uploaded a digitization project description to
- [Must See Presentations on Vital Statistics and Immigration Statistics](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9186/) - These presentations from the September 12, 2014 Quarterly Meeting of COPAFS are must-sees for government information professionals. The theme for this meeting was "Coming, Going, Being Born and Dying: Immigration and Vital Statistics." The collection of these data and the publication and distribution of the data and the statistics derived from the data are complex,
- [Lunchtime listen: will we suffer from collective "Digital Amnesia?" Are we already?!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9173/) - "Digital Amnesia"! is a 45 min. video about the Internet Archive, the [[Library of Alexandria]], the longnow foundation, and the [[Royal Tropical Institute]], a Dutch government library that the government closed (all the books went to alexandria!). Some very nice sentiments here about the continuing importance of libraries to preserving both paper and digital information
- [NLM to change the way it archives its web pages](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9165/) - The National Library of Medicine (NLM) reports that it will begin using the Internet Archive's Archive-It Web archiving service to capture and preserve periodic snapshots of NLM Web resources. NLM to Broaden Its Institutional Web Site Archiving. Rees J., NLM Tech Bull. 2014 Sep-Oct;(400):e3. This is a change in policy. NLM says that it "will
- [Where Are We In The Net Neutrality Debate?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9161/) - A good overview: Where Are We In The Net Neutrality Debate?, by Kevin Taglang, Benton Foundation (September 19, 2014).
- [PACER to restore documents it took offline](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9153/) - The Washington Post reports that The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has a plan to restore online access to documents that were controversially removed in August from PACER, the online system for accessing public court records. "The Administrative Office is working to restore electronic access to these cases by converting the docket sheets in
- [State Agency Databases Activity Report 9/21/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9158/) - Hi All, It's been a long time since I've provided an update on activity at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. I thought I'd experiment with a new format for this report. Feel free to give me feedback on this or the previous format. You can always check on changes in the past seven days
- [Senator demands US courts recover 10 years of online public PACER records](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9148/) - This is an update to our post a few weeks ago PACER Removes Court Case Documents. It seems now that PACER has angered Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) to the point that he's written a letter to US District Judge John D. Bates, the director of the Administrative Office of the Courts (AO)
- [Coming Soon: Connect.gov](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9146/) - The federal government is experimenting with a technology that will allow users to register once to create a password and use that same ID at multiple sites. NextGov reports that "The vision is not expected to be fully realized until after 2020. But one part of the network is slated to debut as early as
- [Library of Congress racing to preserve vast CD collection](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9137/) - Here's a short piece from a recent CBS news broadcast about preserving the CD collection at the Library of Congress. It was so sad to see the example CD they showed was from the Census Bureau US Exports of Merchandise.
- [Contact the FCC and Congress. Tell them we need net neutrality for an equitable Internet](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9134/) - "The chairman’s defenders — the cable and phone companies themselves — would likely respond that the “slow” lanes would be pretty fast while the “fast” lanes could offer governments even more benefits. But don’t believe it. Our nation is already in the global slow lane." -- Slate.com See the spinning wheel of death? September 10
- [Welcome Sitting Bull College Library to the FDLP!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9126/) - Last week, GPO announced that Sitting Bull College Library had joined the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and would be the first digital-only member of the FDLP. Welcome Sitting Bull College to the FDLP! But one sentence piqued my interest in GPO's press release: "...opting to meet their community’s needs by developing an online Government
- [Crazy born digital content](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3665/) - One of the best things that could happen for digital preservation is for producers of digital content to understand that they need to produce preservable content. If producers and publishers created digital content in neutral, preservable formats, we would not have to spin our wheels with the Sisyphean task of constantly trying to fix un-preservable content with techniques such as emulation and format migration. For publishers (and of course this includes government agencies) to create preservable content, they would have to understand that their essential role in the information lifecyle includes creating information that is preservable -- not just instantaneously deliverable in the short-term. Although there are efforts to develop this understanding and to create appropriate formats and processes, most born-digital information seems to be generated with only the most short-term utility in mind. A lot of born digital content is badly-formed and uses non-standard, proprietary, and closed formats. All that brings me to this example of what looks to be shoddy content creation. 2011 U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Annual Report On Intellectual Property Enforcement. U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, March 2012. What is interesting about this publication? It has no periods at the ends of sentences. Really! No punctuation at all at the end of sentences, in fact. I searched for them and only found a few and those were all on page 51 in bullet-points. The publication does use periods in "U.S." and in URLs and in things like "version 3.0" but never at the end of sentences. (The appendices have periods, but, presumably, they were prepared separately and just pasted in.) Here is a sample from the Introduction (in this example, even "U.S." becomes "U S"): In June 2010, the Administration, through the IPEC‘s Joint Strategic Plan, emphasized the protection and enforcement of U S intellectual property rights These rights drive the economy, create jobs for American workers, promote innovation, and secure America’s position as the world’s leader for creativity and ingenuity The 2011 Annual Report provides an illustration of the coordinated efforts that the U S Government is undertaking to address the challenges of enforcing intellectual property of U S rightholders abroad, securing supply chains, pursuing sources of counterfeit and pirated goods, and meeting the challenges posed by emerging criminal trends such as the online sales of counterfeit pharmaceuticals, economic espionage, and targeted theft of trade secrets This is probably just some odd, unique production mistake. But that is the point: When an agency cannot even take the time to make sure its born digital text has periods at the end of sentences, how can we expect agencies to produce digital content that conforms to preservation technology requirements? There is a lot of work to be done before we can ensure the public that we can preserve digital government information! (Hat tip to Mike Masnick who, in a highly critical review of the report, says, with tongue in cheek, that the reason the report "seems to do away with the grammatical icon known as 'the period' at the end of sentences" might be that the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator found it "too expensive to license.")
- [Born-Digital U.S. Federal Government Information: Preservation and Access](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8451/) - The paper that I prepared under contract for the Center for Research Libraries is now available: Born-Digital U.S. Federal Government Information: Preservation and Access, March 2014. Prepared by James A. Jacobs for "Leviathan, the Center for Research Libraries Global Resources Collections Forum." [link updated] This is one of several background readings recommended by CRL for
- [Lunchtime Listen: Born Digital Government Information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8667/) - Back in April I gave a brief (18 minutes!) talk at the Center for Research Libraries Forum, Leviathan: Libraries and Government Information in the Era of Big Data. Here are the slides and the audio recording of that presentation: Government Records and Information: Real Risks and Potential Losses. The presentation gave me an opportunity to
- [Urgent appeal on GPO funding votes](https://freegovinfo.info/node/1200/) - Free Government Information endorses this "urgent appeal" posted on Govdoc-L yesterday. Thanks to Kevin McClure for keeping all of us informed: I want to draw your attention to important votes on GPO funding that are expected within days. And I want to make a particularly urgent appeal to those of you who live or work in a district represented by any of the members of the House or Senate Legislative Branch Subcommittees: HOUSE MAJORITY Chair: Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-20th) Barbara Lee (CA-9th) Tom Udall (NM-3rd) Michael Honda (CA-15th) Betty McCollum (MN-4th) C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger (MD-2nd) Dave Obey (WI-7th), Ex Officio MINORITY Ranking Member: Zach Wamp (TN-3rd) Ray LaHood (IL-18th) John T. Doolittle (CA-4th) Jerry Lewis (CA-41st), Ex Officio SENATE MAJORITY Chair: Mary Landrieu (LA) Richard Durbin (IL) Ben Nelson (NE) MINORITY Ranking Member: Wayne Allard (CO) Lamar Alexander (TN) These Subcommittees will soon vote on GPO's FY2008 funding request, and it will be crucial for them to hear from Depository Librarians and others who work with government information about the many ways that GPO products and services, in partnership with librarians, are used to meet the information needs of their constituents. This year's budget situation is extremely tight, but full funding of GPO's FY2008 appropriations request of $181.97 million is critical to the forward development of GPO's ambitious Future Digital System (FDSys) with which we are all familiar. The Subcommittees need to hear from us about critical programs that were not funded under the current budget year's continuing resolution, including $2 million for the legally mandated printing and distribution of the 2006 U.S. Code, and another $8 million under GPO's Salaries & Expenses appropriation for GPO's ongoing digital initiatives. GPO Access, currently in the midst of a major upgrade, needs full funding so that the thousands of citizens who use it each day have the most modern and fully functional information retrieval system possible at their disposal. And while digital access is a tremendous boon for most users, print distribution is still essential for those legal resources for which print remains the only official and authentic format. Most importantly, they need to hear our stories about how important a vibrant and vital GPO is to our ability as librarians to serve their constituents. GPO deserves enormous credit for its unprecedentedly rapid and dramatic transition from a primarily tangible-product publishing operation to a primarily digital one, but less than full funding threatens to slow that migration, leaving some elements of their plan to promote permanent public access to vital government information unfinished. Congress, which pressed GPO to make this transition, must now be encouraged to embrace it in a way that allows GPO to finish the job on time. Time is extremely short. Action is expected before Memorial Day; it could come any time. A phone call or fax would be the most timely and powerful way to make your case. House member contact information is available at http://www.house.gov/ ; the website of the Subcommittee on Legislative Branch is at http://appropriations.house.gov/Subcommittees/sub_leg.shtml . On the Senate side, contact information is at http://www.senate.gov and the subcomitte's website is http://appropriations.senate.gov/legislative.cfm. It's up to us to make sure the members of both subcommittees understand the value of the services they'll be voting on. If you need help in the wording of your phone call or fax, consider the points given below. By all means, feel free to adapt the wording to your library's particular needs and your own personal experience and point of view; a message that has a specific reference to your district or community is always the most meaningful. Although time does not permit sending by regular mail, if sending by fax you should include your representative's full Capitol Hill mailing address along with the fax number. SAMPLE MESSAGE The Honorable ______ {address} {fax no.} Dear (Representative/Senator) ______ , I am writing to urge you, as a member of the Subcommittee on Legislative Branch, to support the full FY2008 funding request of the U.S. Government Printing Office. GPO has made a powerful response to calls from Congress and other stakeholders to bring the dissemination of Federal government information into the 21st century. Now GPO needs the funding to ensure that none of the elements of this transformation are left unfinished. GPO's electronic initiatives are needed to replace obsolete technology and upgrade electronic services. The Salaires & Expenses request includes crucial funding to improve the GPO Access system, currently in the midst of a major upgrade, so that the thousands of citizens who use it each day have the most modern and fully functional information retrieval system possible at their disposal. This request will also enable GPO to catalog thousands of documents harvested from agency Web sites and develop authentic online publications. While digital dissemination has made many publications easier to find and use, print is still the most useful format for certain types of information and certain categories of users. Funding is needed to ensure that the 2006 U.S. Code and the essential congressional resources of the 110th Congress are published and distributed to depository libraries in a timely manner. And print is still essential in the legal community because print remains the only format that is both official and authentic. GPO's request for the revolving fund includes $10.5 million for the continuing development of the Future Digital System (FDSysy), which is essential to GPO's future. With your funding support to complete FDsys, the first public release will be next December. Full funding to support a vigorous GPO, working with its partners in the Federal Depository Library Program and all libraries which use government information, will help ensure that your constituents have easy, no-fee access to Federal government information, both current and historic. I urge you to fund fully GPO's FY 2008 budget request. Thank you very much. Sincerely, For more background on this issue, please see our posting where we highlighted testimony provided by Mary Alice Baish on behalf of AALL and SLA.
- [PACER Removes Court Case Documents](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9083/) - On August 10, 2014, The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which runs PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) abruptly announced that a bunch of cases would "no longer be available." See below for a copy of the announcement and the cases covered. PACER makes court papers available (for a fee) as well as
- [FCC "Open Internet" Rule will hurt e-government](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9102/) - What will happen to government information on the web if we lose the little net neutrality we still have? Marvin Ammori of Slate's Future Tense project, in partnership New America and Arizona State University, says that it will result in federal, city, and state government websites that run slowly and deliver errors. Nixing Net Neutrality
- [More on NSA's Google-like search engine to share data w agencies](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9104/) - Thanks Rachel for posting about the Intercept's new report about NSA's search engine of harvested data. I thought readers would be interested in this DemocracyNow interview with Ryan Gallagher, the Intercept reporter who wrote this story. A particularly chilling part of the interview was when Gallagher described how the Intercept is now off-limits for Federal
- [Docs Confirm NSA sharing data with  23 U.S. government agencies, via ICREACH search engine](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9092/) - original post @ LIS-GISIG According to Classified documents obtained by The Intercept’ s Ryan Gallagher, “The National Security Agency is secretly providing data to nearly two dozen U.S. government agencies with a “Google-like” search engine built to share more than 850 billion records about phone calls, emails, cellphone locations, and internet chats.” The documents provide
- [FOIA Reform Support Needed Now! Contact your Senator](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9069/) - Are you a supporter of the [Freedom of Information Act] (FOIA)? Of course you are. Well, there's a pretty solid FOIA bill introduced by Senators Leahy and Cornyn (S. 2520, the FOIA Improvement Act) coming out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill would create a presumption of access to government information, address some of
- [Where We Came From, State by State ](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9053/) - I declare this bulk data visualization day! NY Times Upshot blog today posted a cool visualization called Where We Came From, State by State. They charted how Americans have moved between states since 1900. The charts were compiled using Census microdata obtained from ipums.org at the University of Minnesota Population Center. Great state-by-state migration flows
- [xkcd comic now with 100% more NOAA weather data!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9032/) - Randall Monroe's xkcd comic has got to be one of my favorite comics on the 'net. It's smart, funny, quirky, and best of all, frequently data-driven and scientifically accurate! (I have both the Congress and money posters on my office wall!!) Check out the latest comic as a good example xkcd: Worst Hurricane. The coolest
- [Reflections on the end of a year and the beginning of a new year](https://freegovinfo.info/node/7910/) - James and I were both impressed to see that MLIS student Crystal Vicente posted a link on govdoc-l to her paper about the effects on government information of the government shutdown. It is great to see library students addressing the issues that confront the future of government information. We'd like to see more students
- [Hoduski and McKnelly on Regional Depositories and Title 44](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2215/) - A new paper by Bernadine E. Abbott Hoduski and Michele McKnelly addresses the proposal to revise Chapter 19 of Title 44 "to allow a more flexible structure" for Regional Depository Libraries. Does the Federal Depository Library Program Require Title 44 Revision to Improve Public Access to Government Information?, by Bernadine E. Abbott Hoduski and Michele McKnelly, December 2, 2008 The proposal was made in Regional Depository Libraries in the 21st Century: A Time for Change? (draft) A Report To The Joint Committee On Printing. Hoduski and McKnelly conclude that the proposal "will do more harm than good and alternatives that will improve public access should be considered."
- [4th edition of "On their own terms" govt information lexicon published](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2658/) - Susan Maret, professor in the School of Library & Information Science at San José State University and co-author of Government Secrecy: Classic and Contemporary Readings, gave us a heads up that the 4th edition of On Their Terms govt information lexicon has just been published. She kindly sent a PDF of the lexicon which we've attached below. Check it out, it's amazing the breadth of govt information described in the lexicon which represents ..."a virtual seed catalog to federal informationally-driven procedures, policies, and practices involving among other matters, the information life cycle, record keeping, ownership over information, collection and analysis of intelligence information, security classification categories and markings, censorship, citizen right-to-know, deception, propaganda, secrecy, technology, surveillance, threat, national security, and forms of warfare." and the introduction is quite a good read too!! Thanks for the heads-up Susan! (btw, if you're reading this, we'd love to invite you to be a guest blogger sometime on FGI. you know where to find us if you're interested :-)) Since the first edition in 2005, On Their on Terms has reported language that reflects the scope of U.S. information policy. Now in its fourth edition, the Lexicon features new terms that further chronicle the federal narrative of information and its relationship to national security, intelligence operations, and freedom of information, privacy, technology, and surveillance as well as types of war, institutionalized secrecy, and censorship. This fourth edition of the Lexicon emphasizes the historical aspects of U.S. information policy and associated programs in that it is a testament to the information politics of the Bush-Cheney years; there is also a look back to historical agency recordkeeping practices such as the U.S. Army’s computerized personalities database , serendipitously discovered in a 1972 congressional hearing on military surveillance of civilians1 and the 1970s DoD program Project Camelot , which has parallels with Project Minerva efforts to recruit academics.2 Including these programs alongside contemporary federal information initiatives and public policy critiques furthers the “history of ‘govermentality,’ ” an inquiry put forth by Michel Foucault (1994,1978: 219-222) that examines the “ensemble formed by the institutions, procedures, analyses, and reflections, the calculations and tactics that allow the exercise of this very specific albeit complex form of power.” This latter thought suggests an active, genealogical role for FOIA researchers, archivists, historians, information professionals, and public interest groups in not only rescuing lost histories but integrating findings into existing understanding of federal information practices. Throughout the Lexicon , links have been verified and replaced. However, in certain instances, Web pages and documents have been removed by the issuing federal agency. Considering the historical and archival importance of this information, links to the original source at the Wayback Machine is included.
- [FDLP.gov hacked -- cute but a little NSFW](https://freegovinfo.info/node/9014/) - I happened to surf over to the FDLP site today around 4:30pm and found the FDLP.gov had been hacked and taken over by SoWa BeZ OkA -- which translates from Polish into "Owl without an eye." The group seems to be a band of some kind, but I can't tell. But it wasn't just a
- [CLOCKSS passes TRAC audit, certified as trustworthy repository!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8974/) - Congratulations CLOCKSS!! The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) just released the findings of their TRAC audit of CLOCKSS (Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe (LOCKSS)). The CLOCKSS Archive is a private LOCKSS network, much like the LOCKSS-USDOCS archive. And what's more, according to David Rosenthal's blog post announcing the successful audit, CLOCKSS received the
- [John Oliver blasts public apathy over 'The Most Dangerous Things On Earth'](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8972/) - "Nuclear weapons are dangerous, mmmkay?" According to a recent CRS Report "U.S. Strategic Nuclear Forces: Background, Developments, and Issues" (RL33640) -- Thanks Steven Aftergood for posting this and many other reports from the Congressional Research Service! -- the United States has about 2000 deployed nuclear warheads (I forgive John Oliver for his incited number of
- [Letter in support of the NTIS](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8968/) - Things seem to be coming to a slow boil with the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). We wrote about Senate Bill 2206 the "Let Me Google That For You" Act on April 11, 2014, and again earlier this month to report about how the American Library Association and its Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) were
- [LIS-GISIG - CRS: Records in a Digital Environment: Background and Issues for Congress](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8950/) - via gov-info.tumblr.com Leaked by Secrecy News blogger Steven Aftergood ( @saftergood ) All federal departments and agencies create federal records “in connection with the transaction of public business.” The Federal Records Act, as amended (44 U.S.C. Chapters 21, 29, 31, and 33), requires executive branch departments and agencies to collect, retain, and preserve federalbrecords, which
- [DOTD: pocket-sized drones](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8958/) - Document of the day: Army researchers develop Cargo Pocket ISR, By Jeffrey Sisto, Natick Soldier RD&E Center, Public Affairs (July 21, 2014). Researchers at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center are developing a pocket-sized aerial surveillance device for Soldiers and small units operating in challenging ground environments.
- [A Failure to Archive](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8955/) - Read the CRS Report "Records in the Digital Environment" in conjunction with this recent report from the Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia "A Failure to Archive: Recommendations to Modernize Government Information Management". The report outlines the huge and growing problem that the BC government has on their hands. There was
- [Whitehouse.gov includes unique non-cookie tracker, conflicts with privacy policy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8947/) - ProPublica reported on new research by a team at KU Leuven and Princeton on canvas fingerprinting. [[Canvas fingerprinting]] allows websites to uniquely identify and track visitors without the use of browser cookies or other similar means. One of the most intrusive users of the technology is a company called AddThis, who are employing it in
- [Top Secret NSC Net Evaluation Subcommittee reports describe "Nuclear Stalemate" and terrible costs of nuclear war](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8942/) - Here's the National Security Archive's latest, Electronic Briefing Book No. 480 "Studies by Once Top Secret Government Entity Portrayed Terrible Costs of Nuclear War", part of their insane but fascinating Nuclear Vault which includes briefing books and declassified documents on the history of US nuclear policy. This one brings to light parts of several annual
- [The value in being a depository library ](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8925/) - [UPDATE 6:45PM 7/17/2014: I've had 2 other examples of document loss or potential loss emailed to me this afternoon. I've added ERIC and USGS in the comments. Readers are encouraged to leave other examples in the comments. Thanks! JRJ] In the govt information library community, the question of the value of being -- or remaining
- [The TSA’s Instagram Feed Is Terrifying and Totally Awesome](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8913/) - Wow, just ... wow. Check out TSA's instagram feed to see what people try to carry on airplanes these days! The feed is essentially a gallery of some of the craziest items people try to get past security checkpoints. There’s no shortage of material—the TSA claims an average of 40 firearms often loaded are seized
- [How NASA reinvented the tortilla, and other tales of food in space](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8909/) - "Houston, we have a tortilla problem." CNET's Daniel Terdiman visited the food lab at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, and wrote a fascinating piece with a related photo gallery. In the old days, NASA fed its astronauts plenty of military-grade MREs, or meals ready to eat. But over time, the agency determined that the
- [Digital Surrogate Seal of Approval: a Consumer-oriented Standard](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3912/) - "The Digital-Surrogate Seal of Approval: a Consumer-oriented Standard." James A. Jacobs, University of California San Diego and James R. Jacobs, Stanford University. D-Lib Magazine, March/April 2013, Volume 19, Number 3/4. Also available in the Stanford Digital Repository and the University of California Escholarship Repository. Abstract
- [Contact your representatives to save NTIS](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8901/) - Federal technical reports are a critical piece of the nation's scientific literature. But technical reports are in danger. We've been tracking on S.2206 the "Let me google that for you" Act which seeks to shut down the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) (here's the Bill text sponsored by Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn with 5 cosponsors
- [Here's all of the NSA revelations in one chart](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8858/) - We've been following [[Edward Snowden]] since his first leaks of NSA documents. But wow, this is quite the chart that ProPublica has put together. It's really something to see all of the leaks in this visual format. Thanks ProPublica! This is a plot of the NSA programs revealed in the past year according to whether
- [NARA does digital-deposit... but not to libraries.](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8849/) - Here at FGI, we are long time advocates of digital deposit: the deposit of born-digital government information into Federal Depository Libraries. We know this can be done, but, for a variety of increasingly unjustifiable reasons, neither FDLP libraries nor GPO have been eager to do it. We were intrigued, therefore, to see this story: US
- [Analysis of COL FDLP task force final report #alaac14](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8840/) - (Please note, if you'd prefer to read a PDF of this post, there's a "print" button at the bottom of the page) James A. Jacobs and James R. Jacobs, Free Government Information (FGI) On Monday, the ALA Committtee on Legislation's (COL) FDLP task force released its final Final Report and Recommendations. American Library Association. Committee
- [Aaron Swartz documentary "The Internet's Own Boy" is available for CC-licensed preorder](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8826/) - "The Internet's Own Boy," Brian Knappenberger's award-winning, acclaimed documentary about Aaron Swartz, will be in theaters around the country in the next few weeks and is also available to pre-order as a Creative Commons-licensed (CC-BY-NC-SA) video download. You can stream the movie for $7 from most platforms, and for $10, you can buy it from
- [Conference heads up: "Beyond the Numbers: Economics and Data for Information Professionals"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8707/) - This looks to be a highly interesting conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis this September 29-30, 2014 for anyone interested in historic economic data. Keynote speakers include Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google, and Neil Fantom, World Bank manager who leads their Open Data Initiative. St Louis Fed is doing such great
- [FOIA'd doc reveal narrowly averted 1961 Goldsboro Nuclear Accident](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8696/) - The National Security Archive yesterday published a new "Electronic Briefing Book" entitled "New Details on the 1961 Goldsboro Nuclear Accident" which details the 1961 nuclear weapons accident in Goldsboro, North Carolina as described by a recently declassified Sandia National Lab report. The report was originally declassified by a FOIA request by Eric Schlosser, who wrote
- [Document of the Day: Animal Congregations](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8695/) - USGS brings us Animal Congregations, or What Do You Call a Group of.....? by Dave Fellows. So you're stuck on 15 down (the collective name for a group of rhinos) in today's crossword puzzle or you are writing the definitive novel about 17th century England and you need to know what they called a group
- [State Agency Databases Activity Report 6/8/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8687/) - It was a somewhat active week for the volunteers at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases as we started up our June link-checking activity. FEATURED DATABASE Today's featured database is from Jenn Zuccaro, who maintains the Hawaii page: Hawaii State Archives Digital Collections - archives1.dags.hawaii.gov/gsdl/cgi-bin/library - Search digital collections of Hawaii State Archives, including Chinese,
- [Let's end gerrymandering: let the people draw the lines](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8684/) - [[Gerrymandering]] has long been a problem in American politics. Every 10 years, after the decennial census, Congressional districts are re-drawn to even out the population of every district (700,000 people / Congressional district). Alan Lowenthal, Representative for California's 47th congressional district, has introduced H.R. 2978: Let the People Draw the Lines Act of 2013 to
- [Frontline documentary: United States of Secrets](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8679/) - In case you missed it, PBS now has both parts of the Frontline Documentary "United States of Secrets" online. United States of Secrets. PBS. 2014. Part One - "The Program: How did the government come to spy on millions of Americans?" Part Two - "Privacy Lost: How Silicon Valley feeds the NSA's global dragnet."
- [GISIG - IMLS Webinar June 11: The IMLS [35,000] Museum Big Data File](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8676/) - FYI for those interested in Archives, preservation, reference, libraries and museums management, databases, Big Data, Digital Humanities, education funding, job opportunities, Primary Source curricula, repatriation, and totally neato stuff in general. IMLS Press Release IMLS Museum Universe Data File Webinar: June 11 Learn more about how the data file was created and how you can
- [Do agencies exclude search engines?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/287/) - Introduction Recently, a speaker at a conference said that Thomas, the Library of Congress site with extensive information about federal bills and legislation, excluded all search engines from indexing the site. Why, the speaker asked, would a government site wish to block search engines? While government agencies might, like most web sites, exclude search engines from parts of the site for benign reasons (such as blocking temporary pages, out-of-date pages, etc.) It seems counter-intuitive that anyone would want to block access to search engines since they tend to drive most traffic at most web sites. This prompted me to examine if and when and how government agencies are blocking search engines. I discovered that Thomas does not block all search engines after all -- but it only allows Google to fully index the site. That raises more questions than it answers. What follows is some background and findings and conclusions from a selective examination of what some agencies are doing. Background Search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN search, etc. build indexes of web pages by using software (called "robots" or "spiders") that browse (or "crawl") the web, finding web pages and the links on those pages, following the links they find to find more pages, and so forth. When the spidering software reaches a site, it is supposed to do a couple of things before proceeding. It is supposed to look for a special file named "robots.txt", read the rules in that file that tell it where it may go and where it may not go, and then obey those rules. The rules (called The Robots Exclusion Standard) allow the site to exclude or allow robots to visit particular parts of the site. This is a web convention, not a mandate, but all "well behaved" robots are supposed to follow these rules. The rules can exclude robots from a directory or a particular file or even exclude a particular type of file. They can also specify that one robot can get to one part of the site, while another cannot. (This is useful for site administrators that want to allow their own indexing software to index parts of the site that they don't want to be visible to the world, for example.) There are other ways to ask a search engine to refrain from indexing a page, but I don't cover those here. Some explanations of how the robots.txt files work are: A Standard for Robot Exclusion Robots. txt Tutorial Search Indexing Robots and Robots.txt I examined the robots.txt files at some dot-gov (.gov) sites. The following is a report on what I have found so far. I used google to identify files (google search for file robots.txt at site .gov) and examined a selection of the federal sites from that result. I invite others to let me know of other interesting exclusions. Findings It is not always easy to know the effects of a robots.txt file on a complex site. When the file is quite long and lists many directories that are themselves links to other parts of the site, for instance, it is possible that these are old links and spiders will find the information through another route. The EPA site is an example of this; it has 975 exclusions and, without following every one and navigating the site looking for the information in the exclusions, it is difficult to determine if the information is still findable by spiders. That said, here are the few sites that I examined that had some interesting features. Customs and Border Protection (visited 10/30/2005) Excludes all spiders except Google and the "gsa-crawler", which it allows everywhere. Department of Justice (visited 10/30/2005) Exclude indexing of its archive Department of Labor (visited 10/30/2005) Evidently excludes spiders from older press releases (e.g., /dol/media/press/archives.htm), decisions of the Employees' Compensation Appeals Board and the Benefits Review Board. Environmental Protection Agency (visited 10/30/2005) Has a lengthy robots.txt file that excludes all robots from parts of the site such as the state Binary Base Maps of the Exposure Assessment Models, a page on the Columbia Space Shuttle Accident, the section on Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking, the entire "Human Exposure Database System," parts of the site that require a password (e.g., "mercury-archive"), and much more. Thomas (visited 10/30/2005) Allows Google's robot complete access. Allows the "Ultraseek" robot any plain file, but excludes it from following any dynamic links (which is most of the site). Denies all other robots any access. USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station (visited 10/30/2005) Whole sections of publications in pdf format are excluded (e.g., "/pubs/rp/*.pdf" [recent publications]) Whitehouse (visited 10/30/2005) An extensive list of over 2000 exclusions. Most of these seem to be simply aimed at excluding robots from the "text" versions of web pages that are probably duplicates of other pages; if so, these have essentially no effect on indexing but are probably used to reduce the number of times spiders hit the site and save bandwidth. Interestingly, though, most of the other exclusions are for directories named "iraq" that do not exist. Excluding non-existing directories is neither necessary nor functional. Perhaps these are in place to save bandwidth by preventing spiders from hunting for information about Iraq rather than following actual links. Examples: /infocus/healthcare/iraq /infocus/internationaltrade/iraq Conclusions It appears that most agencies are either not using robots.txt files to excluded search engine robots, or are using the exclusion rules sparingly and appropriately. At least two government web sites (whitehouse.gov and epa.gov), and perhaps others, warrant further study because they have such lengthy robots.txt files or because the exclusions otherwise obscure their overall effect. Two other federal government web sites (customs.gov and thomas.loc.gov) have troubling exclusions of most search engines except Google.
- [Blogging the debates](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2037/) - You can tell we're coming down the home stretch of the 2008 presidential election as we're being bombarded with ads, and more information than we can read even if we'd aced the Evelyn Wood [w:Speed reading] course! Luckily, there are more and more sites popping up to help us sift through those info-mountains. A couple of weeks ago, we posted about some mapping tools based on publicly available polling data. now, VoterWatch has released the 2008 Presidential Debates Project. On September 26, the night of the first Presidential debate, Dick Morris, Cynthia McKinney and many others will provide commentary and perspective surrounding the debates. Best of all, they'll use the VoterWatch media player, to comment and blog within footage of the U.S. presidential debates. So, feel free to get your analysis from the paid presidential supporters in [w:spin alley] (which John Stewart aptly renamed "deception lane!"), OR check out the analysis from across the political spectrum from the likes of Brett Winterble of Covert Radio, Green Party Presidential Candidate, Cynthia McKinney, Political Author and Commentator, Dick Morris, Political Strategist, Sophia Nelson, Public Agenda, Reason Magazine, The Bob Barr for President Team, The Heritage Foundation, and VoteGopher.
- [Analysis of C-SPAN coverage of Congressional hearings](https://freegovinfo.info/node/1785/) - VoterWatch has done an interesting analysis and enumeration of which hearings C-SPAN has broadcast and which it has not. It found that C-SPAN covered 28% of all committee hearings held during the week of February 4-10, 2008. C-SPAN Analysis: What Are We Missing?, by Billy Hallowell, VoterWatch, April 4, 2008. Hallowell notes that: Since our primary interest is in creating a video record of what occurs in House and Senate meetings, access to footage is paramount. Unfortunately (and as many of you know), our government doesn’t offer adequate access to video, audio, and transcripts, as the quality and availability of these items greatly differ among committees. Since C-SPAN is the main hub for Congressional footage, we decided to examine one week of network coverage to see exactly what the C-SPAN channels are covering—and what they’re not. While we are not attempting to fault C-SPAN for missing hearings (after all, covering all of the committees is an arduous and expensive task), we think it’s important to understand what we’re not seeing. Documents librarians will want to know that Bernadine E. Abbott Hoduski is on the Board of VoterWatch and FGI's own Shinjoung Yeo is on the Advisory Board.
- [Congressional Committees - Secrecy and Delayed Transparency](https://freegovinfo.info/node/1405/) - Perla Ni of VoterWatch says, "We just did a survey of what transcripts/audio/video is available from Congressional Committees. What we've found is pretty sad. Here's the state of available video/audio/transcript for House and Senate committees." (Transparency of committee hearings - transcript/audio/video , Perla Ni, Open House Project group, Sep 4, 2007) Congressional Committees - Secrecy and Delayed Transparency "You'll notice how many committees for which there is no audio, no video nor transcript available. Including the Ethics committee, ironically. Also, for the ones that do post video, either it's not posted until months after or it's posted, but not archived so if you miss it, you've missed it." And Paul Blumenthal says, "Check out this study I did last year on this very topic. These two blog posts contain all my research from the 109th Congress." (reply Sep 5, 8:00 am) House Version: http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/node/1596 Senate Version: http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/node/1617
- [State Agency Databases Activity Report 5/25/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8649/) - It was a relatively quiet week for the volunteers at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. FEATURED DATABASE Today's featured database is from Jenn Zuccaro, who maintains the Hawaii page: Papakilo Database - www.papakilodatabase.com/main/main.php "The Office of Hawaiian Affairs' (OHA's) Papakilo Database, is the ongoing development of a cutting edge and comprehensive "Database of Databases" consisting
- [NASA releases eBook on communicating with aliens](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8646/) - NASA's just published "Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication" in MOBI, EPUB and PDF. I think I know how we're all spending this long memorial day weekend! Addressing a field that has been dominated by astronomers, physicists, engineers, and computer scientists, the contributors to this collection raise questions that may have been overlooked by physical
- [State Agency Databases Activity Report 5/18/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8638/) - It's been a quiet few weeks for the volunteers at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. FEATURED DATABASE Today's featured database is from Annie Moots, who maintains the Missouri page: "Know MO" Consumer Complaints - http://www.consumer.ago.mo.gov/Know_MO/ - Missouri consumers can check this database for complaints filed with the Missouri Attorney General's Office about individuals or
- [S. 2206 set to eliminate NTIS: fundamentally misunderstands the Internet @TomCoburn @McCaskillOffice](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8547/) - While I'm all for "streamlining the collection and distribution of government information" as the title of S. 2206 "Let Me Google That For You Act" and it's companion House bill H. R. 4382, doing away with the National Technical Information Service will do the opposite of that. As we noted in our analysis of the
- [Be the Bill: Legislative Explorer visualizes the legislative process](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8631/) - This is what open data can do. Check out Legislative Explorer, an interactive visualization that allows anyone to explore actual patterns of lawmaking in Congress, compare bills and resolutions introduced by Senators and Representatives and follow their progress from the beginning to the end of a two year Congress. You can filter by topic, type
- [FDsys milestone: one billion objects delivered](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8628/) - On March 26, a visitor at the Government Printing Office's Federal Digital System (FDsys) downloaded a Federal Register notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was the one billionth object retrieved through the site. GPO's FDsys: 1 billion items served and ready for more, By William Jackson, GCN (May 08, 2014).
- [Lunchtime listen: Net Neutrality in the US: Now What?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8625/) - [[Vi Hart]], best known for her amazingly clear mathematical videos on YouTube, has created this *must-see* video about [[Net Neutrality]], the principle that ISPs should treat all data on the internet equally, not discriminate or charge differentially -- or worse, block or throttle certain kinds of traffic like BitTorrent! The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is
- [Take part in virtual library legislative day](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8622/) - I've always been bummed that Depository Library Council meeting and conference usually doesn't take place during the annual library legislative day. But now we can all take part despite being thousands of miles away from Washington DC. We urge all our readers to take Part in Virtual Library Legislative Day. Email or call your representatives
- [State Agency Databases Activity Report 5/4/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8620/) - It was a slow week for the volunteers at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. FEATURED DATABASE Today's featured database is from Pam Crawford, who maintains the Kansas page: Kansas Road Conditions - http://511.ksdot.org/KanRoadPublic/Default.aspxDatabase of current road conditions is searchable by region. The resulting customized map shows current road conditions due to weather or road work.
- [State Agency Databases Activity Report 4/27/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8613/) - It was a typical week for the volunteers at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. FEATURED DATABASE Today's featured database is from Louise Buckley, who maintains the Virginia page: Historical Highway Marker Database - http://dhr.virginia.gov/HistoricMarkers/Account/Logon - Search by keyword, zip code, county or city, route number or name, or marker number. Results include marker name,
- [Examples of challenges of web-harvesting for digital preservation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8601/) - Have you ever wondered why preserving web-published information is a complex task? Here are three examples of what makes "web harvesting" a difficult and inexact method of digital preservation. Keystone XL Pipeline: Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) To preserve this page intact, one would have to collect a total of 13 urls: 7 images,
- [Temporal Context in Digital Preservation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8603/) - Temporal context is an important and much overlooked aspect of preservation. Users of preserved information need a way of using that information in its original context. Many born-digital documents are not isolated and complete in themselves, but are part of a network of documents. Providing temporal context means preserving the context of a document at
- [Check out the @RadReference anti-surveillance zine ](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8594/) - Hey, check out the new, hot-off-the-presses Radical Reference anti-surveillance zine! It's chock full of information to keep individuals and libraries safe in our ubiquitous surveillance world. It's under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA license so feel free to print and hand them out in your library. Ever since the events of September 11th, something
- [2 upcoming events for docs librarians: CRL's Leviathan & GODORT panel @ #GPODLC14](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8590/) - We just wanted to give everyone a heads-up about two upcoming events of import for documents librarians. This thursday and friday (april 24-25, 2014) in Chicago is "Leviathan," the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) Spring forum on government information. There will be much discussion and agenda-setting for CRL member libraries about how to continue to
- [State Agency Databases Activity Report 4/20/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8586/) - It was a slow week for the volunteers at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. SOME STATE DATA SETS AND APPS AVAILABLE FROM DATA.GOV While not in scope for our project, we wanted to note the presence of a States section at data.gov. This page links to state produced data sets, apps, state data
- [State Agency Databases Activity Report 4/13/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8580/) - It was a typical week for the volunteers at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. FEATURED DATABASE Today's featured database is from Marilyn Von Seggern, who maintains the Washington page: Washington State Fiscal Information http://www.fiscal.wa.gov/ - A state law passed in 2008 required creation of a website that would make state revenue and expenditure data
- [This week in FGI blogging history: Jacobs & Jacobs interview; DSSOA; OpenSecrets goes OpenData; GovTrack](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8574/) - Borrowing from BoingBoing, one of our favorite blogs, we're instituting a new series "this week in FGI blogging history" where we'll go back in the FGI vault to see what we were writing about 1 year ago, 5 years ago, and 9 years ago (November will be our 10 year anniversary!). Enjoy and let us
- [#nlw14 FLDP Edition Day 7: New Mexico State Library](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8572/) - We conclude our Federal Depository Library themed celebration of National Library Week with the 2005 winner of the Government Printing Office's Library of the Year Award. Here's the citation from the award page: New Mexico State Library Named 2005 Federal Depository Library of the Year The U.S. Government Printing Office is proud to present to New Mexico State Library the 2005
- [#nlw14 FDLP Edition Day 6: Benton Harbor Public Library](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8569/) - Today our Federal Depository Library themed celebration of National Library Week focuses on the 2006 winner of the Government Printing Office's Library of the Year Award. Here's the citation from the award page: Benton Harbor Public Library Named 2006 Federal Depository Library of the Year The U.S. Government Printing Office has selected Michigan's Benton Harbor Public Library as the 2006 Federal
- [#nlw14 FDLP Edition Day 5:  Middendorf-Kredell Branch Library](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8565/) - Today our Federal Depository Library themed celebration of National Library Week focuses on the 2007 winner of the Government Printing Office's Library of the Year Award. Here's the citation from the award page: Middendorf-Kredell Branch Library Named 2007 Federal Depository Library of the Year Middendorf-Kredell Branch Library, in O'Fallon, Missouri, has been named the 2007 Federal Depository Library of the Year.
- [#nlw14 FDLP Edition Day 4: Law Library for San Bernadino County](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8563/) - Today our Federal Depository Library themed celebration of National Library Week focuses on the 2008 winner of the Government Printing Office's Library of the Year Award. Here's the citation from the award page: Law Library for San Bernadino County Named 2008 Federal Depository Library of the Year The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) is pleased to announce the Law Library for
- [#nlw14 FDLP Edition Day 1: Newark, Olin and Buffalo](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8555/) - First up in our Federal Depository Library themed celebration of National Library Week are the 2012 winners of the Government Printing Office's Library of the Year Award. Here's the citation from the award page: 2012 Federal Depository Libraries of the Year For the first time, the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) honored three extraordinary Federal
- [#nlw14 FDLP Edition Day 2: Johnson County Library](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8558/) - Today our Federal Depository Library themed celebration of National Library Week focuses on the 2010 winner of the Government Printing Office's Library of the Year Award. Here's the citation from the award page: Johnson County Library Named 2010 Federal Depository Library of the Year The Johnson County Library of Overland Park, Kansas was named the 2010 Federal Depository Library of the
- [#nlw14 FDLP Edition Day 3: Oklahoma Department of Libraries](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8561/) - Today our Federal Depository Library themed celebration of National Library Week focuses on the 2009 winner of the Government Printing Office's Library of the Year Award. Here's the citation from the award page: Oklahoma Department of Libraries Named 2009 Federal Depository Library of the Year The Oklahoma Department of Libraries (ODL) was named the 2009 Federal Depository Library of the Year
- [National Library Week - FDLP Edition #nlw2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8553/) - Happy National Library Week! April 13 - 19, 2014 is National Library Week (NLW), a time to celebrate and honor libraries. Because we at FGI celebrate Federal Depository Libraries as key links in preserving the nation's information products and serving as guides to the awe-inspiring mass of publications and data the feds make available, we'll spend
- [Errol Morris' "Unknown Known" -- Rumsfeld and the psychopathology of war](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8531/) - I've seen bits of Errol Morris' new documentary [[The Unknown Known]] on the career of former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. This is an important piece for our understanding of US' recent history and a stark reminder about the adage that "1 person making a difference" can actually cut both ways. Errol Morris, Oscar-winning
- [Big Step for Public Access to Legislation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8527/) - Daniel Schuman reports: "Earlier today, the House of Representatives' Appropriations Committee made a major move towards improving public access to legislative information. In layman's terms, the committee said that by the beginning of the next Congress information about the disposition of bills—where they are in the legislative process and who authored or co-sponsored the legislation—will
- [State Agency Databases Activity Report 4/6/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8518/) - It was a busy week for the volunteers at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. FEATURED DATABASE Today’s featured database is from Susanne Caro who maintains the Montana page: Montana Field Guides http://fieldguide.mt.gov/default.aspx “These guides and this website are a collaborative effort between the Montana Natural Heritage Program and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The Animal Field
- [State Agency Databases Activity Report March 30, 1014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8494/) - It was a busy week for the volunteers at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. NO MORE ORPHANS! In the past week, Mississippi was adopted by Aimee Slater of Brooklyn College and Virginia was adopted by Louise Buckley of University of New Hampshire. In the past we have had requests for pages on US
- [Photographs and images from the government](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8511/) - Government "documents" come in all shapes and sizes and formats. I have never delved much into images available from government agencies, but there are a lot and it is increasingly easy to find collections of them. The current (April 4, 2014 -- Volume 20, Number 13) edition of The Scout Report, for example, describes the
- [Public Printer Names New Members to Depository Library Council](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8504/) - Congratulations to our FGI colleague Daniel Cornwall, as well as to David Cismowski -- for his 2nd tour of duty no less! -- Rich Gause, Scott Matheson, and Teri Taylor for being named to the Depository Library Council! The five new DLC members for the June 1, 2014 – May 31, 2017 term are: David
- [Lunchtime listen: Barbara Fister keynote at Library Technology Conference 2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8488/) - Barbara Fister starts out her keynote — at a library technology conference no less — by saying “it’s not about technology…the work you do really is about understanding people and how they connect to one another and how they share ideas. The way we think about our purpose shapes what we do.” and she was
- [Spy Chief James Clapper Wins Rosemary Award](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8485/) - What's the opposite of "prestigious?" The National Security Archive today named DNI James Clapper as this year's Rosemary Award winner. The award -- named for Rosemary Woods, Richard Nixon's secretary who erased 18 1/2 minutes of audio tape key to the Watergate investigation -- is awarded each year for worst open government performance. The National
- [State Agency Databases Activity Report March 23, 2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8480/) - It was an active week for the volunteers at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. Activity was focused on fixing links as part of our quarterly link checking process. NEW VOLUNTEERS I'm happy to announce that Liz Paulus is returning as the Oregon volunteer. She will be leading a small group of Oregon librarians
- [Your chance to tell White House your thoughts on big data, privacy and surveillance](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8473/) - Here’s an opportunity to let the White House know your opinions on data gathering, transforming technologies and privacy issues. ============== From: The White House [info@messages.whitehouse.gov] Sent: Friday, March 21, 2014 2:00 PM Subject: The President’s review of big data and privacy Friday, March 21, 2014 The President’s review of big data and privacy In January, President
- [Best. Titles. Ever. Better with Tumblr!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8448/) - A few weeks ago I (Daniel) was approached by Aimee Slater, a government documents reference assistant with the Brooklyn College Library. She and her boss really enjoyed the Best. Titles Ever. page and Flickr photo group that were populated with funny, bizarre and intriguing titles found by documents librarians around the country. Aimee asked if
- [OSTP releases new directive to improve the management of and access to scientific collections](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8446/) - Today, the US White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a directive to federal agencies that own or support scientific collections calling for improved management and access to these collections. Here's the directive text (PDF). Scientific collections are assemblies of physical objects that are valuable for research and education—including drilling cores from
- [ALA off target in giving Madison Award to Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8442/) - I'm in 2 minds about this year's James Madison Award given annually by the American Library Association to "honor individuals or groups who have championed, protected and promoted public access to government information and the public’s right to know at the national level." Last year's award was given to computer programer and internet activist [[Aaron
- [Happy Sunshine Week! Congressional Data Coalition, open data, and public records ](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8437/) - Happy Sunshine Week 2014! This is the week every year when open government activists and organizations, journalists, libraries, teachers and others interested in the public’s right to know promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information and [[FOIA]]. Check out the Sunshine Week events happening all this week! As a
- [The Government Makes the Internet Better](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8434/) - Kevin Taglang of the Benton Foundation outlines the findings of a recent GAO report, Federal Broadband Deployment Programs and Small Business, and concludes that The Government Makes the Internet Better. The Government Makes the Internet Better, by Kevin Taglang, Benton Foundation Blog (March 14, 2014) Although it did not garner much coverage, an independent, nonpartisan
- [State Agency Databases Project Activity Report: 3/16/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8426/) - There is a lot of activity to report at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. Partly because I took at three week reporting break, but mostly because our volunteers have been extremely busy fixing links and adding new databases. NEW VOLUNTEER As promised, Rhode Island has been adopted! Many thanks to Stacy R. Williams
- [Happy Birthday Web!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8422/) - On March 12, 1989, Tim Berners-Lee published Information Management: A Proposal and, soon, the first web server was running on a NeXT workstation. So, Happy Birthday to the Web! I'm guessing some FGI readers were not librarians (or born) 25 years ago, so return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear and see
- [Zach Galifianakis interviews President Obama Between two ferns](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8420/) - President Barack Obama sits down with Zach Galifianakis for his most memorable interview yet.
- [Best titles ever!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/552/) - 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 Bat Bombers. By C.V. Glines. Air Force magazine, October 1990 Vol. 73, No. 10. "After the bats set fire to a hangar and a general's car, the Army Air Forces had seen enough of the experiment." 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. Disposition of Useless Papers in American Consular Offices August 22, 1921. US Serial Set 67th Congress 1st Session Senate Report no 271 [Y 1.1/2:Serial]. This title was found and tweeted about by Ezra Klein and Aaron Swartz on 1/3/2011. Find in a depository library 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. It's always been dumb--now it's illegal too! anabolic steroids pose serious health risks to users (Poster). Washington, D.C. : Demand Reduction Section, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, [1991?] Find in a library (WorldCat) 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. (11/24/08 update: link to text STILL doesn't work but there's a PDF available of the committee print). 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 Space handbook : a war fighter's guide to space / prepared by Michael J. Muolo ; compiled by Richard A. Hand ; edited by Richard A. Hand, Bonnie Houchen, Lou Larson. [D 301.26/6-8:SP 1/2]. Find in an FDLP library. Document also available online and as a PDF from FGI. "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 This is Ann ... she drinks blood! prepared and distributed by Army Orientation Course, Special Service Division Army Service Forces, War Dept. Unattributed illustrations by Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss). Find in a library (WorldCat). Publisher: Washington, D.C. : Special Service Division, Army Service Forces, War Dept. : U.S. G.P.O., 1943. 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?a href= the ironic acronym of the title, http://www.flickr.com/photos/10325651@N00/198050294/ahttp://static.flickr.com/64/198463301_7de3b72beb_s.jpgimg src=img src=http://www.flickr.com/photos/alaskanlibrarian/209582945/in/pool-besttitlesever/
- [Best Titles Ever! The Video](https://freegovinfo.info/node/788/) - What do you get when you take some of the documents world's "best titles ever!" and mix it with some podsafe audio? You get Best Titles Ever!: The Video: Of course, since I only used thirteen titles, there are many more "best evers" that could be mixed around into other videos or other products that can be used to take document awareness into non traditional places. This posting is related to proof of concept video I posted earlier this week. Both videos were inspired by a YouTube commercial for Fulton County Public Library that I also noted earlier.
- [A comment on government contracts and harvesting](https://freegovinfo.info/node/1799/) - Over the past week, there have been some good conversations about government contracts to digitize government information and the National Archives decision to not conduct a web harvest or snapshot at the end of the current Administration. There is good news and bad news. The good news The good news is that NARA's decision was not nearly as bad as it appeared to be when it was first announced in a memo on March 27, 2008, which was circulated only to Federal records officers (see: The National Archives Is Quietly Destroying Millions of Documents). In a thoughtful post on its web site (National Archives and Records Administration Web Harvest Background Information, April 15, 2008, NARA; pdf version available), NARA outlines in detail the reasons why it would not conduct an end of administration web snapshot or harvest of Executive Branch websites nor require agencies to do so. The reasons, I think, are sound and in keeping with NARA's commitment to preserving information of historical value. In addition, the NARA memo of April 15 makes explicit the fact that its decision and memo of March 27 do not apply to Presidential records or to records of the Congress. It says that "NARA will continue to conduct a web harvest of Congressional web sites" and that NARA "will also receive a snapshot of the White House website" noting that "Unlike Federal agencies governed by the Federal Records Act, the White House is governed by the Presidential Records Act, under which all Presidential records are treated as permanent and transferred to NARA for preservation at a Presidential Library." The NARA "Background Information" document is also, I think, worth reading for its clear description of the shortcomings of web harvests in general. I think it is very useful for us to be reminded of these shortcomings to the extent that we believe we can rely on them as an adequate form of preservation. In more good news, the NARA/TGN contract is not as bad as it could have been. I mentioned this in my earlier post here (The NARA/TGN contract as a bad precedent) and similar comments have been made in the useful and interesting thread over at ArchivesNext (NARA latest digitization agreement: One archivist's perspective). Merrilee Proffitt, of RLG, says in a comment there that the NARA model for contracts with third parties "actually comes out looking pretty good" when compared to the criteria described in the RLG paper Good Terms - Improving Commercial-Noncommercial Partnerships for Mass Digitization (by Peter B. Kaufman and Jeff Ubois, D-Lib Magazine, November/December 2007, Volume 13 Number 11/12). The bad news The bad news, as James pointed out this morning, is that the GAO contract for digitizing is very bad indeed (GAO *did* sell exclusive access to legislative history to Thomson West). Quoting Carl Malamud, James notes that GAO gets access to the digitized data but does not get a copy of its own; the rest of the government doesn't even get access to the data. The public is left with the option of going to GAO headquarters and paying 20 cents per page to copy paper! As Carl says, "This is one of those deals where the public domain got sold off." This morning there was more bad news. Kate at ArchivesNext reports that the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has a new report Record Chaos: The Deplorable State of Electronic Record Keeping in the Federal Government, that concludes "that the federal government is severely mismanaging its electronic records." CREW also says that a House Committee proposal to amend federal record keeping laws "is anemic and fails to make the substantial changes necessary to bring the federal government into the 21st century." And even the good news is tempered by the fact that we have less than we could and are a long way from an even an adequate system of permanent preservation of digital information or a long-term solution to digitizing non-digital information. We will have to hope that the White House will deliver a snapshot of the White House web site and that the snapshot will be accurate and complete. The behavior of the White House with regard to electronic records and email does not make us optimistic. The NARA/TGN deal is better than the GAO/Thomson deal, but still leaves much to be desired and, as pointed out even by defenders of the deal, it is unlikely that we will ever have free, open, networked access to the digital information that TGN digitizes. That means the real effect of the deal is to privatize the information. Comment For me, the biggest disappointment in these latest developments is that librarians and archivists seem to be too willing to accept "good enough" and not willing enough to argue harder for "better." There are lots of people who have good reason to argue for less access, more fees, less privacy, and more control of information, but librarians and archivists should not be among them. I believe that we should not spend time making the case for the private sector; it is fully capable of making its own case. We should spend our time fighting for free, full, open, public access, usability of information, and long term preservation. The primary mission of private sector companies is to make money, not to serve the public. They may serve the public as a by-product of making money, but no for-profit company will go to its owners and say "we are going to do the best thing for public access" without the qualification "that will make us money." Unfortunately "making money" often conflicts with public access. Politicians (and some bureaucrats) will argue for greater control of government information; some will argue for secrecy of government information on the one hand and privacy-invading policies on the other. Most government agencies do not have information access or long term preservation of their information as a primary mission and the exceptions are notable (e.g. LOC, NARA). In contrast, the primary mission of many libraries and archives is to provide free public open access with long term preservation and usability. While others may have some of those pieces as secondary goals, few if any have them all. For many libraries and archives these goals are not just their primary mission but their defining characteristic. While digitization and digital preservation are neither easy nor inexpensive, that doesn't mean that we have to pay any and all costs for them. The digital era should be making it possible to provide better access without giving up free use and reuse, without giving up open access, without turning over control to those whose primary mission is something other than free, open, public access and long term preservation. But increasingly we see a combination of politics and economics leaving us with contracts that trump copyright and fair use, with "access" being negotiated at almost any cost (including loss of control), with DRM technologies that prohibit easy (or any) reuse, and with privacy protections being deprecated or even ignored. Even in the case of the NARA/TGN contract that is legally "better" than the GAO/Thomson contract, we are left with the effect of two-tiers of access and network access being essentially privatized and fee-based. I believe that librarians and archivists should be pushing the boundaries and insisting for more and better, not accepting some benefits by negotiating away the big benefits we could be getting in the digital age. This is particularly important for government information that is in the public domain. If we can't make this work for public information that is not copyrighted, how will we be able to do so for information that is? I'm not arguing for a perfect, ideal world that is impractical to achieve. I am suggesting that we should fight for everything we can get. We should celebrate when we make inroads with a contract (like NARA/TGN) that is better than the others (like GAO/Thomson) but we should do so by committing to doing better next time. We should not accept this as "good enough" -- because it is not and we can do better next time. In fact, every time we accept a less-than-perfect deal as "good enough," we make it a little harder to make a better deal next time. We lower the bar if we accept "good enough" and stop trying to achieve better. We should not take the time to convince ourselves or the public that this is as good as we can get; we should take that time to admit to the limitations and trade offs and to commit to doing better next time. There is lots written these days about "the future of libraries" and "the role of libraries in the digital age" and many people openly wonder if there is a place for libraries at all. I think there are several places where libraries have a unique role to play in society and the areas of digitization and digital access and preservation are important ones. We need to make the case for the public; for free, open, public access; for long-term preservation and usability; for public accountability in the control of information; for reader privacy. Librarians and archivists have a unique role in doing that. In doing so, we will face an uphill battle and trade offs, but we should never lose sight of our unique role in society. We should never cheapen our professions by making the case for less (there are plenty of people to do that). We should always make the case for more. We will not always succeed and we will have to make trade offs. But we should always do so in the context of staking out a territory that is different from the private sector and those who are willing to get less. We should stand up for rights that others are not willing to fight for. We must fight for it when there are so many forces aligned against free, open access. I'd like to see us emulate Carl Malamud and CREW and Brewster Kahle more and do less of making excuses for TGN and Thomson.
- [National Atlas: Another Victim of Austerity](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8409/) - Crossposted from the Writer's Guide to Government Information blog. The National Atlas from the US Geological Survey has so much of possible interest to fiction writers that it actually has FOUR entries in the Writer’s Guide to Government Information: National Atlas National Atlas Biology National Atlas Climate National Atlas Geology All this is going away on September
- [FOIA highlighted in Maddow's Best New Thing in the World!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8405/) - I'm an admitted [[FOIA]] geek. So it was really cool to see Rachel Maddow highlight the positive changes coming to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process. The House passed UNANIMOUSLY(!) 410 - 0 H.R.1211 FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act of 2014 co-sponsored by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.)
- [GISIG: NARA launches Open Data Portal](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8402/) - via LIS-GISIG blog (gov-info.tumblr.com) They're looking for suggestions; there are many ways to participate! via Doug Ward in National Archives (NARA) Information Services and Meredith Stewart in the NARA Office of Innovation. The Open Data Policy seeks to expand the number of government data assets that are open and available to the public. Those data
- [More Cuts at Census ](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8391/) - Steve Beleu, Regional Librarian for Federal Govt. Information Oklahoma State Data Center Coordinating Agency, recently alerted the documents community to another set of cuts at the Census Bureau: 1. Curtail the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW). The QCEW program provides national, State, metropolitan statistical area, and county data on monthly employment and
- [The ProPublica Data Store](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8386/) - ProPublica, the independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest, announced today the launching of "the ProPublica Data Store." Introducing the ProPublica Data Store, by Scott Klein and Ryann Grochowski Jones, ProPublica (Feb. 26, 2014). The ProPublica Data Store. The store includes links to open government data and links to raw, as-is
- [Lunchtime listen: Numbers Stations from 99% Invisible](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8384/) - 99% Invisible is one of my favorite podcasts. You never know what you're going to get, but I guarantee you'll look at the world differently after every listen! The Numbers Stations show -- and its companion show "Youarelistening.to" combined in the same podcast -- is particularly intriguing. Even better is that there are people like
- [Free Government eBooks Now Available From GPO](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8373/) - The Government Printing Office (GPO) announced today that it is now making eBooks available in the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP). Catalog records include descriptive information, as well as Persistent Uniform Resource Locators (PURLs) and the ebooks are available in .mobi, (Kindle) .epub (most other eBook readers) formats as well as other formats such
- [Re-Imagining Government: Affordable Banking](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8361/) - The Center for Effective Government weighs in on the recent report by the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General that recommends that the US Post Office should "provide non-bank financial services to those whose needs are not being met by the traditional financial sector." Re-Imagining Government: Affordable Banking, by Scott Klinger, Center for Effective
- [PLOS' New Data Policy: Public Access to Data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8356/) - Today the Public Library of Science (PLOS) revised its already-strong data policy. As of March 3, 2014, authors in all PLOS journals will be required to provide a Data Availability Statement. Additionally, all underlying data must be publicly available in 1 of 3 places: the body of the manuscript, in the supporting information, or in
- [State Databases Activity Report: 2/23/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8353/) - Here's a roundup of the last two week's activity at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases: NEW VOLUNTEER Audrey Hall, longtime volunteer for the Ohio page recently retired. Happily she recruited Kirstin Krumsee to take her place! Please join me in thanking Audrey for a job well done and thanking Kristin for joining our
- [LOC: Orphan Works and Mass Digitization; Request for Additional Comments and Announcement of Public Roundtables](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8349/) - So, if you could set U.S. Copyright policy, what would you do? Don't tell me you haven't thought about it... :) Now's our chance! Federal Register & Copyright Office, Library of Congress via GISIG The U.S. Copyright Office will host public roundtable discussions and seeks further comments on potential legislative solutions for orphan works and
- [Fed Transcripts: Financial Crisis of 2008](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8345/) - Today the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System released transcripts of eight scheduled meetings and six emergency sessions of its Federal Open Market Committee during the 2008 financial crisis. (The Fed delays release of such transcripts for five years.) FOMC: Transcripts and Other Historical Materials, 2008, Federal Open Market Committee. A Chronicle
- [GISIG: Cabinet agencies release full inventory lists of their public data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8343/) - Happy Open Data Day indeed! Sunlight Foundation Blog, via GISIG Just in time for Open Data Day, your Uncle Sam — aided and abetted by developers here at Sunlight — is giving you a present. It has taken weeks, but it appears that all Cabinet agencies have released complete machine-readable lists of their public data holdings, in
- [How Government Data Is Fueling a New Economy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8339/) - NextGov, the online technology newsletter from the same media company that publishes The Atlantic magazine and National Journal, is launching a new project to profile companies and nonprofits that are building their businesses with government data. The first two companies are Panjiva, which pays to get U.S. customs data overnighted on CD-ROMs because the data
- [Beta version of redesigned census.gov](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8333/) - The U.S. Census Bureau today released a beta version of its new census.gov website. With a new look and topic-based navigation, the redesigned site is intended to provide easier access to statistics on America's people, places and economy. Census Bureau Provides Preview of Redesigned Census.gov [press release] beta.census.gov
- [GISIG's Docs o' the Day: Keystone XL pipeline Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8277/) - reposted from gov-info.tumblr.com On May 4, 2012, the Department of State received a new application from TransCanada Corp. for a proposed pipeline [The Keystone XL] that would run from the Canadian border to connect to a pipeline in Steele City, Nebraska. The Department’s responsibility, under Executive Order 13337, is to determine if granting a permit
- [Transcript & Video of POTUS NSA Reform Speech ](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8146/) - via Washington Post [Reproduced in its entirety] January 17, 2013 PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much, please have a seat. At the dawn of our Republic, a small, secret surveillance committee, born out of the Sons of Liberty, was established in Boston. And the group’s members included Paul Revere.
- [GISIG: POTUS Gov Doc: Executive Order -- Minimum Wage for Contractors](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8311/) - via gov-info.tumblr.com Executive Order — Minimum Wage for Contractors By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act, 40 U.S.C. 101 et seq., and in order to promote economy and efficiency in procurement by contracting with
- [Want to learn about the world's largest climate data archive? Attend this webinar 2/26/14](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8307/) - The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) is a gold mine of weather and climate data. Land-based, marine, model, radar, weather balloon, satellite, and paleoclimatic are just a few of the types of datasets available. Want to learn more? Attend this webinar (which is actually the first in a 3-part series of webinars!) on Wednesday February 26, 2014 at
- [State Agency Databases Project Activity Report 2/9/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8302/) - The last week has been mostly quiet at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases, although we adopted out three more states! FEATURED DATABASE Today's featured database was provided by Michael Tatonetti, our volunteer for New York: New Yorkers Volunteer (http://www.newyorkersvolunteer.ny.gov) - Created by the New York State Commission on National & Community Service, this database allows
- [NASA images of California drought](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8295/) - Despite the welcome storm in San Francisco this weekend, my state is experiencing its worst drought in 100 years. Check out NASA's imagery to learn more. The drought is so bad, NASA satellites can see it from space. On Jan. 18th, 2014—just one day after California governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency—NASA’s Terra
- [New Link Rot report from Chesapeake](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3687/) - For the past five years, the Georgetown Law Library and the Chesapeake Digital Preservation Group have been doing doing studies on "link rot." This year, they discovered that "link rot has increased to 37.7 percent within five years." "Link Rot" and Legal Resources on the Web: A 2012 Analysis by the Chesapeake Digital Preservation Group. Georgetown Law Library Finds 38 Percent of Online Documents Disappear from Web Pages Within Five Years, press release, Georgetown University (April 25, 2012). The Chesapeake group gathers information from the web and preserves it for their users and each year they study how many of the URLs from which they originally gathered information "no longer provide access to the content that was originally selected, captured, and archived by the Chesapeake Group." This study is particularly relevant to government information specialists because more than 90% of their sample URLs were from state governments (state.[state code].us), organizations (.org), and government (.gov) the top-level domains. For "dot-gov" domains (URLs ending in ".gov") the studies have shown cumulative link rot of: 10% in 2008 13% in 2009 25% in 2010 31% in 2011 36% in 2012 Cumulative link rot of state government URLs (.state.__.us) were almost as bad: 10.8% in 2008 15.8% in 2009 32.1% in 2010 30.4% in 2011, and 33.8% in 2012. The total cumulative link rot for all URLs was 37.7% in 2012. Another way of looking at this is that, of the documents the Chesapeake Project has preserved, only only 62.3% were still available at their original URL as of the 2012 study. This year's report includes two samples of URLs. The first sample includes 579 URLs that Chesapeake captured during 2007 and 2008. They use this sample to examine how link rot changes over time. The second sample is a new and represents the full content of the Chesapeake archive at the time the study was conducted. Using this second, broader sample the study reports a link rot rate of 25.9%. For libraries that rely on pointing to URLs rather than preserving information in their own digital libraries, the new report from the Chesapeake Project provides sobering, factual data on the reliability of that strategy.
- [ALA Washington Office writes to DNI urging continuation of World News Connection](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8283/) - The library and research world heaved a collective sigh of disbelief and disappointment when the National Technical Information Service abruptly announced late last year that World News Connection (nee [[Foreign Broadcast Information Service]]) would cease operation on December 31, 2013. There were many letters requesting that the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) -- which runs the
- [Bill summaries in XML](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8279/) - GPO and the Library of Congress are now making summaries of House bills available in XML format for bulk data download from GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys). FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 4, 2014 No. 14-03 GPO AND LOC INCREASE TRANSPARENCY TO CONGRESSIONAL INFORMATION HOUSE BILL SUMMARIES NOW AVAILABLE IN XML FORMAT WASHINGTON - The U.S.
- [The Post Office as Bank for the Unserved](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8274/) - Doc of the day: Providing Non-Bank Financial Services for the Underserved, U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, Report Number:RARC-WP-14-007 (January 27, 2014) [pdf. 33 pages]. Millions of Americans do not have a bank account, or use costly services like payday loans and check cashing exchanges just to make ends meet. The entire underserved population
- [State Agency Databases Activity Report 2/2/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8271/) - The last two weeks have been mostly quiet at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. I blame ALA Midwinter and the start of the Spring Semester in many places. FEATURED DATABASE Today's featured database was provided by Jennifer Robble and Ellen Richardson, our volunteers for Massachusetts: Massachusetts Community Health Information Profile (MassCHIP) (http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/researcher/community-health/masschip/) Provides community level
- [Pete Seeger](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8254/) - In memory of a great American. Pete Seeger who helped create the modern American folk music movement and co-wrote some of its most enduring songs died on Monday at the age of 94. In this performance of "This Land is Your Land," performed at the "We Are One" Presidential Inaugural Concert on January 19, 2009,
- [QOTD: Barbara Fister](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8264/) - Quote of the day: Barbara Fister: In an age of austerity, survival is the name of the game, but it's a rigged game and a distraction from what we're here for. It's how we ended up with a precarious faculty, a rented library, and indentured students. We need to focus further out, more broadly on
- [Internet Archive's Wayback Machine now includes auto-nominate feature](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8262/) - I'm a long-time supporter of the Internet Archive and user of the IA's wayback machine. I've even got the wayback machine bookmarklet installed on all of my browsers -- and highly recommend all of our readers doing so as well! I just went to check the wayback machine for a site that was 404 and
- [Book lists...](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8257/) - I think it fascinating that government agencies create "reading lists" of recommended books. The Ninth Circuit Library of the United States Courts has a list called Understanding Freedom's Heritage: How to Keep and Defend Liberty by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy(!). It is described as being prepared for young people and "includes some acknowledged classics and
- [UK colonial files are still secret](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8247/) - Robert Gildea, Professor of Modern History at University of Oxford, has this comment about the movement to get the UK's Foreign Office to release a massive archive of public documents in The Conversation, an independent source of news and views from the academic and research community. Public interest demands the release of hidden colonial files,
- [QOTD: Richard Pearce-Moses ](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8239/) - Quote of the day: "The 'what' and the 'why' of our jobs remain the same: We must still select, acquire, organize, provide access and preserve our collections. But 'how' we do that changes." -- Richard Pearce-Moses, currently director of College of Information & Mathematical Sciences at Clayton State University, formerly deputy director for technology and
- [Information is not a Service, Service is not Information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8224/) - John Shuler and his colleagues comment on the effects of the recent government shutdown on information access in this GIQ editorial: E-government without government, John A. Shuler, Paul T. Jaeger, and John Carlo Bertot. Government Information Quarterly (In Press, Corrected Proof) DOI: 10.1016/j.giq.2013.11.004 [subscriber access required]. The authors rightly point out that the shutdown caused an
- [HTML for California statutes: Collaborate?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3331/) - Ari Hershowitz, who runs Tabulaw (software tools for legal work), has converted California's statutes into structured html, with most internal references now hyperlinked (calaw.tabulaw.com), and has written about the process of doing this on his blog: How to Convert All Files in a Directory: CA Legislation. How to Convert Citations to Hyperlinks: CA Laws. How to: Convert Sections Into Hyperlink Targets. How to convert Text to HTML: Using txt2html Perl Module. California Laws: Converting Plain Text to HTML. California Law: Recovering Meaning and Metadata with RegEx. As he notes in his blog posts, California at least makes all of its codes available for FTP download (not all states do even this), but there are a lot of "challenges in recovering meaningful structural information (titles, paragraphs)." It takes many steps to add structure to plain text documents, to add back in the metadata that the Section's original drafters intended, to help a reader understand and navigate the law. He wonders why governments don't distribute documents with this structural/semantic information included. PDFs may look pretty to the eye, but they are not easily "understood" by software. If governments distributed documents that were "machine actionable" -- that is, marked up with tags that denoted the structure of the documents and the meaning of the text, it would be easier to create indexes, link documents with other documents, and so forth. In an email yesterday, Ari asks if there are others who would like to work with him on making California law more usable: ...tracking of bills or proposed legislation becomes more meaningful if it can be compared to existing legislation. Please get in touch if you are interested in brainstorming or working with me to connect proposed legislation to the existing statutes to create a "legislative diff", or related improvements. Even better would be thoughts on how we can get California's legislature to include this metadata in the original drafts of bills. See www.tabulaw.com if you'd like to get in touch with Ari.
- [QOTD: Google on lots of copies keeping stuff safe](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8213/) - QOTD: Google agrees that "Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe." Though Google at one time tried to offer customers the ability to store their data in one location in response to requests, it does not offer that feature now because it determined it was illogical, the person said. Google decided data is more secure if
- [NSA, you know, for kids!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8204/) - Doc of the day! The NSA's website for kids! I hope someone carefully preserves this. I imagine it will be an important cultural artifact some day when we look back at the National Security Agency and the recent revelations about its spying on everyone. And don't forget: "Crypto Cat®, Decipher Dog®, Rosetta Stone®, Slate®, Joules™,
- [Readers or Consumers? Citizens or Customers?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8200/) - Are users of government information citizens or "customers"? What would Ranganathan say? Barbara Fister addresses the topic of library attitudes to their communities in her newest post on InsideHigherEd Books Are For Use, by Barbara Fister, Inside Higher Ed. Library Babel Fish (January 23, 2014). I have argued that as we increased access to information
- [Private Sector Use of Government Data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8191/) - The Governance Lab (The GovLab) at New York University is compiling a list of just "open data companies" -- companies powered at least in part by open government data. The GovLab @ NYU Releases Preview of the First Comprehensive Study of Companies Using Open Government Data, by Laura Manley GovLab Blog NYU, (December 17, 2013).
- [Map of Vaccine-Preventable Outbreaks](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8184/) - This time-series animated map of vaccine-preventable outbreaks world-wide from the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations plots global outbreaks of measles, mumps, whooping cough, polio, rubella, and other diseases that are easily preventable by inexpensive and effective vaccines. The data behind the map are downloadable as a comma-separated-value (.csv) file. Vaccine-preventable outbreaks,
- [PCEA Gov Doc: The American Voting Experience: Report & Recommendations of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8159/) - via LIS-GISIG - gov-info.tumblr.com supportthevoter.gov The Presidential Commission on Election Administration was established by Executive Order on March 28, 2013. Its mission is to identify best practices in election administration and to make recommendations to improve the voting experience. The Commission's key recommendations call for: Modernization of the registration process through continued expansion of online
- [Privacy And Civil Liberties Oversight Board releases report on NSA bulk telephone records program](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8174/) - The Privacy And Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) has released its report on the National Security Agency's program of collecting bulk phone call records. Thirteen U.S. Senators asked the PCLOB to investigate two NSA programs (referred to as section 215 and 702 of the USA PATRIOT Act) and the operation of the FISA court. The
- [USGS and Tribes Work Together to Gain Water Knowledge](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8163/) - Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey are working closely with Tribal leaders around the country to address water availability and water quality issues on Tribal lands. Beyond the practical use of water data, the article below describes how water on Tribal lands often has a significant place in a Tribe's cultural heritage. Some information on
- [State Dep't Gov Doc: Overview of Temporary Suspension of Certain U.S. Sanctions Pursuant to the Initial Understanding Between the P5+1 and Iran](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8155/) - via GISIG/ gov-info.tumblr.com U.S. State Department On November 24, 2013, the United States and its partners in the P5+1 reached an initial understanding with Iran that halts progress on its nuclear program and rolls it back in key respects. As outlined in a Joint Plan of Action (JPOA), this initial understanding includes the first meaningful
- [Help redesign clerk.house.gov](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8153/) - The Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives is asking for the public's help in redesigning clerk.house.gov. Please take this brief survey and let them know what's absolutely critical for their new site. I hope you'll put a good word in for long-term digital preservation, open non-DRM'd bulk data, and ongoing deposit
- [State Agency Databases Project Activity Report 1/19/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8149/) - Last week was sorta quiet at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. FEATURED DATABASE Today's featured database was provided by John Stevenson, our volunteer for Delaware. It provides material to ponder in response to the question, "Are Delaware's vanity plates really the ugliest in the nation?" as reported by Delaware Online. Delaware Vanity Plate Search
- [Defend Net Neutrality: Sign White House Petition](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8141/) - We recently received the following White House petition by e-mail and hope you will sign it: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/restore-net-neutrality-directing-fcc-classify-internet-providers-common-carriers/5CWS1M4P we petition the Obama administration to: Restore Net Neutrality By Directing the FCC to Classify Internet Providers as "Common Carriers" On January 14, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that struck down
- [Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8136/) - Document of the day: the Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean by The Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA). The yearbook is available as a free PDF download and free Excel files. See also Statistical databases and indicators of Latin America and the Caribbean. The Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean
- [Basic statistical literacy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8086/) - If you want a quick and easy understanding of some basic concepts about data collection and use of statistics, check out this brief excerpt of Charles Wheelan’s book, Naked Statistics. Garbage In, Garbage Out Or, How to Lie with Bad Data. Charles Wheelan. "From batting averages and political polls to Schlitz ads and medical research,
- [UK Academics consider legal action to force Foreign Office to release public records](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8132/) - The Guardian reports that historians describe "a scandalous act of concealment" underlines the need for a major overhaul of the system for declassification of government papers as public records. Academics consider legal action to force Foreign Office to release public records, by Ian Cobain, The Guardian (Jan 13, 2014) Leading historians are calling on the
- [Redaction Classics](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8126/) - Propublica maintains examples of redacted documents with short descriptions. These include state and local documents as well as federal documents. As Zamora and Shaw note, despite the Obama administration's promise of greater openness, its "take on transparency can be rather opaque. And as local reporters know, state governments are often even worse." One example, a
- [Malamud to propose an Edicts of Government Amendment](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8071/) - [UPDATE 1/14/14: the hearing including Carl Malamud's testimony is now available vis CSPAN. JRJ] Carl Malamud will be testifying at the House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Scope of Copyright Protection On Tuesday, January 14, 2014 at 10AM. Hi testimony will be on the subject of Edicts of Government, including copyright assertions over state laws and federally-mandated public
- [Pinterest and Libraries](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8098/) - The value of social media to libraries probably depends on the library, who its users are, and how they use the library. One would guess that a strong library presence in social media can, at the very least, aid in the visibility of the library. With that in mind, here is an interesting story about
- [Open Government Prospects in 2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8093/) - The current issue of Government Matters, the newsletter of the Center for Effective Government, has an article that discusses the six big open government issues of 2014: Freedom of Information Act, Surveillance/NSA, Preventing Chemical Disasters, Reining in Controlled Unclassified Information, Fracking Bans and Legal Challenges, and Agency Open Government Plans. In addition the article give
- [Bush Hits the Delete Button](https://freegovinfo.info/node/1740/) - Bush Hits the Delete Button: Public information the administration doesn't want you to see, by Paul Kiel, Utne Reader, March-April 2008. Since 2006 ... the investigative website TPMmuckraker.com [has] been keeping a running tally of the diminishing access to government information. Reporter Steve Benen got the list started over at his own blog, the Carpetbagger Report. Then his fellow Muckrakers joined in by trawling the news and--as is the website's custom--tapping the collective wisdom of their readers to cobble together a dossier on an administration that has, as deputy editor Paul Kiel writes, "discontinued annual reports, classified normally public data, de-funded studies, quieted underlings, and generally done whatever was necessary to keep bad information under wraps." Here, Utne Reader presents an excerpted (but not redacted) version of the list Kiel continues to compile. [Bush Admin: What You Don't Know Can't Hurt Us, 2007 Version By Paul Kiel - November 23, 2007.]
- [Sunlight Foundation Congress App: Great App Put to Immediate use](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8081/) - We recently became aware of a new(ish) app from the Sunlight Foundation. It is the Congress App and is available for both iOS and Android. We think anyone who is interested in keeping tabs on Congress and who owns a smartphone ought to download this app. I (Daniel) have the Android version, which is divided
- [Inexpensive courses in "data journalism"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8076/) - This may be of interest to those government information specialists who also have an interest in or responsibility for data. Dave Stanton, creator of For Journalism is developing inexpensive online courses in data science, statistics, mapping, charting, and in using specific tools such as Ruby on Rails and Python. Although explicitly aimed at journalists, the
- [Report on Wasteful Spending by the Federal Government speciously targets NTIS](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8075/) - I was over at Sabrina Pacifici's ever-informative bespacific.com blog (subscribe, you'll be glad you did!) to read about e-govt and public access during the last government shutdown and happened to see another post about Senator Tom Coburn's (R-OKLA) latest "Report on Wasteful Spending by the Federal Government." While I haven't read the "report" in its entirety,
- [State Agency Databases Activity Report 1/12/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8067/) - Last week was busy at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. FEATURED DATABASE Today’s featured database was suggested by Annie Moots, the volunteer for Missouri: Missouri Appellate Courts and Missouri Supreme Court Opinions (http://www.courts.mo.gov/page.jsp?id=12086&dist=Opinions) This database contains the full-text opinions, including concurring and dissenting opinions, of the Missouri Eastern, Western, and Southern Districts Courts of Appeals
- [Writer's Guide to Government Information: Creative Promotion](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8056/) - I (Daniel) have a dream of making government information relevant to people's lives regardless of walk of life. I think it is a dream many government information specialists/documents librarians share. In making government information relevant to people we need to answer the question in their minds - "What's in it for me?" If we can answer that
- [UK's Conservative party deletes archive of speeches from internet](https://freegovinfo.info/node/4022/) - The Guardian wrote yesterday, "Conservative party deletes archive of speeches from internet." The Conservative Party has attempted to delete from their website -- as well as from the Internet Archive! -- all their speeches and press releases online from the past 10 years, including one in which David Cameron promises to use the Internet to make politicians 'more accountable'. This is troubling news, but something as old as politicians -- see for example ALA's long-running serial "Less access to less information by and about the US government" which ran from 1981 - 1998. But it should also come as yet another warning to librarians and archivists of the dire need to harvest and preserve government information and store content off of .gov servers. The party has removed the archive from its public website, erasing records of speeches and press releases from 2000 until May 2010. The effect will be to remove any speeches and articles during the Tories' modernisation period, including its commitment to spend the same as a Labour government. The Labour MP Sheila Gilmore accused the party of a cynical stunt, adding: "It will take more than David Cameron pressing delete to make people forget about his broken promises and failure to stand up for anyone beyond a privileged few." In a remarkable step the party has also blocked access to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, a US-based library that captures webpages for future generations, using a software robot that directs search engines not to access the pages.
- [COL's FDLP Task Force Survey and FGI's responses](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8030/) - [updated 4pm 1/7/14. I clarified a couple of statements. JRJ] Last summer, the ALA Committee on Legislation (COL), Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) Task Force released its FDLP report and recommendations. In response, FGI wrote a white paper "Wait! Don’t Digitize and Discard! A White Paper on ALA COL Discussion Issue #1a". While agreeing with
- [GPO 2014 Strategic Plan](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8048/) - The Government Printing Office has released its 2014 Strategic Plan along with an "Accomplishments Report." GPO Strategic Plan, FY2014-2018 Fy 2013 Strategic Plan Accomplishments Report, (October 2013). Press Release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 8, 2014 No. 14-01 GPO EMPHASIZES CONTINUING IMPROVEMENTS IN 2014 STRATEGIC PLAN WASHINGTON - The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has released
- [Digest Of Education Statistics](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8039/) - Doc of the Day. The Digest Of Education Statistics is a classic government document. The newest edition, 2012, came out on Dec 31, 2013. It is a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American education from prekindergarten through graduate school. It has been issued annually since 1962 except for combined editions for
- [State Agency Databases Activity Report 1/5/2014](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8016/) - 2013 ended with a good amount of activity at the State Agency Databases Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. As we start a new year, I wanted to introduce a new feature into these reports - the Featured Database. The other volunteers and I will offer one database each week we think is especially worthwhile. FEATURED DATABASE Today's featured
- [Minnesota librarians push to curb NSA snooping](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8009/) - “With mass collection of private data, whether library records or cellphone activity, the decision on privacy has been taken away from the individual. The potential harm comes from not knowing what has been collected or how it will be used.” Great quote from Kirsten Clark, our own Regional FDLP Librarian at the University of Minnesota.
- [Canadian libricide: Harper government dumps centuries of irreplaceable environmental archives](https://freegovinfo.info/node/8004/) - This is absolutely tragic. In 2012, when Canada's Harper government announced that it would close down national archive sites around the country, they promised that anything that was discarded or sold would be digitized first. However, reporting coming out of Canada now is finding that, along with the closure of some of the world's finest
- [Restless America: 2012 US migration flows based on ACS data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/7997/) - Chris Walker at Vizynary created a fascinating interactive graphic of migration patterns within the United States based on US Census Bureau's 2012 American Community Survey migration estimates. The visualization is a circle cut up into arcs, the light-colored pieces along the edge of the circle, each one representing a state. The arcs are connected to
- [Government Link Rot](https://freegovinfo.info/node/7972/) - Over the holidays, we switched FGI to new CMS software and a new theme and, in the process, installed some new back-end tools allowing us to do things like easily check for broken links. FGI went online in November 2004, so we have a little more than 9 years of outgoing links. Of those, 2676
- [Some assumptions about government documents](https://freegovinfo.info/node/7993/) - Riffing off of Barbara Fister's "Some assumptions about libraries" in which she lists her insights and reflections on the purpose and nature of academic libraries, we thought we'd list our assumptions about government information collections and services, which can be seen as addenda or corollaries to Fister's library assumptions: 1) Government documents are the cornerstone
- [Link Rot up to 51% for .gov domains](https://freegovinfo.info/node/7974/) - New Link Rot report from Chesapeake. For the past six years, the Georgetown Law Library and the Chesapeake Digital Preservation Group have been doing doing studies on "Link Rot and Legal Resources on the Web." The newest report, for 2013, says that 51% of .gov URLs selected in 2007-2008 are broken. For a larger sample
- [Some Assumptions about Libraries](https://freegovinfo.info/node/7967/) - I always enjoy reading Barbara Fister's Library Babel Fish blog over at Inside Higher Ed. She always has insightful, thoughtful ideas and reflections about libraries that come from front-line experience as a college librarian. This is why we list her in our blogroll even though she rarely writes about government information. Her column yesterday had
- [Disintermediation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3290/) - Joseph J. Esposito, an independent management consultant to for-profit and not-for-profit clients, has written a nice post at the Scholarly Kitchen about disintermediation: Disintermediation and Its Discontents: Publishers, Libraries, and the Value Chain, by Joseph Esposito, Scholarly Kitchen (April 18, 2011). In this piece, Joe describes the "value chain" in scholarly publishing in which each link in the value chain adds something to the process: the author creates value by originating an idea and content; the publisher adds value through editorial selection, refinement, production, and marketing; and so forth. Libraries, too, contribute to the value chain: Libraries are selective; they help guide readers to materials of higher quality. Libraries have purchasing power, which saves money for readers. Libraries provide a suite of tools for organizing publications and helping readers find what they are looking for. Libraries provide so much value that most people want them to be bigger. Disintermediation occurs when one link in the chain is bypassed. This can be caused by the link losing value, but it can happen for other reasons and can result in destroying the value provided by that link. How does this relate to the FDLP and government information? As we've noted here and here and elsewhere before, users of government information no longer need to go through FDLP libraries to get government information. And, as many others (including Ithaka S+R) have noted, FDLP libraries no longer have a monopoly on free government information, have no "purchasing power" advantage, and so do not save readers money. That particular value of libraries in the information value chain no longer exists and that results in government information users bypassing libraries for their government information needs. Some (including Ithaka S+R) have concluded from this that libraries can rely on online access to government information stored on government-controlled web servers and create a service-only model of libraries without collections. But this view overlooks the other important values that libraries add to the value chain. These include libraries' selection of materials of interest to particular user communities, their tools for organizing information to make it easier to discover, their tools for making information easier to use, and their commitments to freedom to read, user privacy, and long-term free public access to information. It also overlooks the ability that libraries have (but which government agencies for the most part do not have) to build collections that combine government information with non-government information. In short, it overlooks the importance of digital library collections. Joe makes another good point that is equally relevant to FDLP libraries: that, when we see a link in the value chain being bypassed, we should be asking what effect management decisions had in making that link lose its value. [D]isintermediation lends itself to a version of technological determinism. Because the Internet makes it possible for an author to have a direct connection to a reader, therefore, it is assumed, authors inevitably will connect directly to readers. This ignores the role of human agency. ...[D]isintermediation, in other words, is an outcome; but the input is management strategy. Rather than talking about disintermediation, we really should be talking about the things that affect management decision-making and strategy and to take control of them. Thus, shouldn't we be asking, If users are bypassing libraries for their government information needs, what decisions are libraries making that make the library of less value to the user? In some cases users may not be aware of value lost. If governments fail to preserve all the information that users need, users will not be aware of this until they find information missing -- at which point it will be too late. In other cases, users may find that getting some information easily (e.g., using google to search the web and find some possibly-relevant government information) is better than using primitive hard-to-use library tools to find some possibly-more-relevant government information. Librarians may say that users "should" use libraries and they'd find "better" information if they did; but making that argument will not attract users. Providing better services will. If we look at what services users do use, we will see that they tend to be services built on top of digital collections. ProQuest, for example, does not build indexes that point to government web servers; it collects digital information and builds services on top of that. In short, libraries could create new value in the government information life-cycle by building robust services on top of rich digital collections (FDLP: Services and Collections ). Or, as Joe says, [I] think of it as the creation of a new value chain, with the stress being given to the new value that is created.
- [Digital #FDLP: Louisiana GODORT keynote address](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3661/) - [UPDATE 3/25/12: for those of you on ipads/iphones (which don't play well with flash), I've attached the PDF version below. JRJ] I just got back from Shreveport, LA (and boy are my arms tired :-)). I was honored to be invited as the keynote speaker at the Spring 2012 meeting of the Louisiana Government Documents Round Table (LA GODORT) during the 2012 LA Library Association annual conference. We had a great conversation about the future of government information and the FDLP -- and I reminded everyone to submit their FDLP library forecast survey!! I showed a few case studies describing ways that librarians could build digital govt documents collections (including Everyday Electronic Materials (EEMs), LOCKSS-USDOCS, and Archive-it). Thanks again to Miriam Childs, Stephanie Braunstein and the rest of the LA GODORTers for a wonderful time! Digital FDLP Louisiana GODORT 2012 slides+notes View more documents from James Jacobs
- [The Future of the FDLP: From Conversation to Confrontation. link and comments](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3578/) - The Future of the FDLP: From Conversation to Confrontation, By Jim Jacobs and Melody Kelly Library Journal "Backtalk" (Dec 13, 2011). Recent discussions about the state of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and the responsibilities of regional depository libraries have morphed from a conversation into a politicized confrontation. Sadly, this threatens to negatively affect not just depository libraries but all libraries and users who rely on a robust FDLP for long-term free access to government information....
- [GPO, LOCKSS, IP Authentication, and the future of FDLP -- more clarification needed](https://freegovinfo.info/node/1064/) - If you have not had a chance to read the message from Joseph P. Paskoski (Clarification on GPO LOCKSS report), I encourage you to do so. It does indeed help clarify GPO's intentions in ways that, I believe, seriously endanger long-term, free, public access to government information. For those confused by the recent thread about GPO, LOCKSS, and IP authentication, allow me to try to summarize what we now know: GPO is not "advocating" use of IP authentication for LOCKSS. On the other hand, GPO is considering "an exclusive service for depository libraries" and is recommending exploring "other user authentication options" to implement such a system. Further, GPO is only willing to "consider" (not guarantee) making content available without user authentication. This is evidently true of FDsys as well as any use of LOCKSS. To me, this means that GPO is, indeed, planning a two-tier system of digital distribution: one exclusively for depository libraries (and, presumably, free) and, by implication, a second system presumably for the general public and based on cost recovery. For this to work, GPO would have to do two things. First, it would have to restrict what FDLP libraries can do with the content they receive, either through technological locks or limitations, or licensing restrictions (including restrictions on re-distribution). Second, if GPO offered any content to the general public for free, it would have to offer similarly technologically dumbed-down, less-than-fully-functional, non-reusable content -- much the way Amazon offers one-page-at-a-time viewing of books as a teaser to get you to purchase the entire book. (For more on this see Why does GPO want to use IP Authentication?) This model seems clear: distribution to depository libraries for free, but with limitations on use, location, and so forth; and distribution to the general public for a fee. This sounds like an implementation of what GPO's strategic vision promised: a commitment to "free and ready public access to" government information "in partnership with Federal Depository libraries" while maintaining a separate, fee-based channel to meet its commitment to "distribute, on a cost recovery basis, copies of printed and electronic documents and other government information products to the general public," [emphasis added] (A strategic vision for the 21st century). Why is this a threat to long-term, free, public access to government information? Imagine what such a system would look like to your users: They could use the net to get what they need, but they may have to pay or use a dumbed-down version. Or they could go offline, go to their library and use a "free" version, which would also have DRM or licensing restrictions, or both. This is a far cry from DLC's underlying assumption that "much of the access to federal information resources is available 24/7 on the Internet" (Knowledge Will Forever Govern" A Vision Statement For Federal Depository Libraries In The 21st Century). What this sounds like to me is a revival of the GPO bookstore concept for the digital age with the (fee-based) bookstore as the primary means of access to most government information and the go-to-the-library-building FDLP as the "free" path. This puts libraries and free access as second-tiers, non-networked alternatives for users. It would mean that libraries would be unable to participate in the open and free flow and re-use of government information (Web 2.0, Semantic Web, etc.). It is a vision of government information closer to Jack Valenti's vision of movie distribution than to Jefferson or Madison's visions of government information. Imagine what this would mean to FDLP libraries and their ability to preserve access to information. Would systems like LOCKSS even be permitted? Or would locked-down-with-DRM or technologically-dumbed-down free versions made available to libraries be technically (or by license) un-preseravable? I may be misinterpreting GPO's statements and I hope I am. I would welcome hearing further clarifications from GPO including that it does not intend to use DRM and that it does not intend to restrict what FDLP libraries or others can do with free content. I would welcome hearing from GPO that it does not intend to provide dumbed-down or technologically locked or functionally-disabled content for free while providing fully-functional content for a fee. I invite GPO to commit itself to open, free, reusable, preservable, distributable, unencumbered, fully-functional government information. I urge DLC to insist on digital distribution so that FDLP libraries can be fully functional online partners in the organization and preservation of government information and not by-standers who hope GPO will get funding to do so. GPO could also show its good faith by continuing to study LOCKSS as one (not the exclusive) method of preservation and not just a method for distribution. The project could be expanded to include more than just e-journals. GPO could evaluate automated harvesting using tools that automatically create new directory structures and actively seek ways to help other depository libraries participate (e.g., reviewing automated harvesting). Perhaps there can be some discussion of these issues at DLC. Until we get further clarification, we'll all be left wondering.
- [GPO LOCKSS Report: Why does GPO want to use IP Authentication?](https://freegovinfo.info/node/1057/) - GPO's report (GPO LOCKSS Pilot: Final Analysis, Government Printing Office, April 12, 2007), which analyzes the LOCKSS technology and announces GPO's findings and "future recommendations" on using LOCKSS, refers repeatedly to use of IP Authentication*. The document does not, however, discuss the need for IP authentication either in the pilot or in possible future implementations of LOCKSS for government information. Since LOCKSS does not require IP Authentication, this raises interesting questions. While it is reasonable to assume that GPO wanted to limit access to the documents it was using for the LOCKSS pilot project to those who were participating in the project, it is not clear why GPO would consider IP Authentication necessary for a live implementation of LOCKSS. But the report clearly states as an "Outstanding Issue": IP authentication for over 1260 depositories would be cumbersome, and may not be cost effective in relation to the benefit received. (page 6) And, later, the report stresses the costs of IP Authentication: LOCKSS technology in itself appears to be relatively cost efficient as a distribution mechanism. Costs appear to be a bigger issue in relation to staff time required to ... administer IP authentication. (page 11) Since the report does not explain why it would want to use IP Authentication for LOCKSS, we can only speculate why it includes it as a cost. Here are my speculations. I pose them as questions and would welcome answers from GPO. Is GPO planning to set up a special distribution system for depository libraries only? This would make sense if GPO wants to use this special distribution channel to meet its commitment to "free and ready public access to" government information "in partnership with Federal Depository libraries" while maintaining a separate, fee-based channel to meet its commitment to "distribute, on a cost recovery basis, copies of printed and electronic documents and other government information products to the general public," [emphasis added] (A strategic vision for the 21st century). For this to work, GPO would have to restrict what FDLP libraries can do with the content they receive, either through technological locks or limitations, or licensing restrictions. We have already seen a precursor to the use of licensing restricitions with the Library of Congress Subject Headings (See: GPO details onerous restrictions on digital materials). This seems to me the most likely reason for the inclusion of IP authentication in the report because it fits in well with the contradictory missions noted above of providing information for free and for a fee and with GPO's previous experience with this very contradiction. (Years ago, when GPO tried to charge for GPO Access, it tried to limit free use of it to those physically inside depository libraries. When that failed because libraries made the same content available on the net, GPO was forced to go to a model of making "it free to the general public." But, as Bruce James said, "This cannot continue." [See Summary, 2003 Fall Meeting Depository Library Council.]) The new model seems clear: "Free" to depository libraries, but with limitations on use, location, and so forth; and "Fee" to the general public. Is GPO planning a separate, FDLP-only distribution channel as a way of providing "authentication" of content? This would fit in well with GPO's consistently stated intention of being a "single authoritative resource" for digital Federal documents (A Strategic Vision). Information distributed through such a limited access channel could come with a special cachet of "being deposited" and FDLP libraries and no one else would be able to claim a special authenticity to such distribution. I do not think that it would be either necessary or wise to limit "authenticity" in this way, but, perhaps someone at GPO is thinking along those lines? Did those who wrote the report fail to consult policy makers within GPO and make a faulty assumption that GPO wants IP Authentication? This would indicate either that the report is incomplete or badly done. Did those who wrote the report fail to understand the technology they were describing and think IP Authentication was necessary to implement LOCKSS? This would also indicate that the report, and perhaps the entire evaluation process, was flawed badly. Is IP Authentication just a red-herring intended to confuse the issue, raise the theoretical costs of implementation, and provide evidence for GPO's conclusion that LOCKSS won't work for GPO? This would indicate that GPO, which in its own words only took on the pilot project after receiving "requests from research institutions, universities, depository libraries, and other Federal Government agencies to investigate using LOCKSS", never considered LOCKSS as a viable alternative. Indeed the report makes this fairly clear when it says that it "agreed" to the pilot project to test the LOCKSS technology "...as a potential precursor to GPO’s Future Digital System (FDsys)." [emphasis added] None of these speculations are encouraging. They lead me to conclusions that do not augur well for free public access to public information. Again, I would welcome a response from GPO. * In a library environment, "IP Authentication" normally refers to a process that allows access to licensed content. For example, the library subscribes to a journal collection or database and pays the vendor fees that allow certain computers (e.g. all those on a campus) to have access to that content. The library sends the addresses of those computers ("IP addresses") to the publisher. The publisher maintains a service that allows any request from one of those machines to get content. For more information, see Offering remote access to restricted resources by Marshall Breeding, Information Today, Volume 18 Number 18 (May 2001) p52-53. Depository libraries can use IP Authentication to allow two and only two machines to have access to STAT-USA. (See "STAT-USA Offers Depositories IP Authentication Access" in Administrative Notes Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program Vol. 27, no. 03-04 GP 3.16/3-2:27/03-04 March 15/April 15, 2006.)
- [What really happened with Google Premium Video -- Part Two: Why Google Video story should scare you](https://freegovinfo.info/node/1376/) - In Part One we examined how Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies and proprietary software allowed Google to make it impossible for users to watch videos that they had bought from Google even though they had downloaded the video files onto their own computers. In this part we examine why this story is important for government information specialists and Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) librarians. There are two connections between this story about commercial content -- like TV shows being sold for profit -- and non-copyrighted government information that is supposed to be freely available: First, the government may want to restrict access to information and may welcome tools that make this easier. Certainly with the removal of government information from the web, the re-classification of previously declassified information, and the removal of information that was once available in the National Archives, government agencies have demonstrated an increasing willingness to control access to information -- even after its release to the public. (See "More Information" below for links to stories about these events.) We are seeing the evolution of this most publicly with the Foreign Relations of the United States series. In 2001, the CIA wanted to cease distribution of a volume that was already printed and sent to depository libraries but, in the end, the volumes were distributed because "Destroying them would be a huge public relations disaster for the U.S. government.... Book burning is definitely not a politically correct thing to do." (State Dept Mulls "Book Burning", Secrecy News, September 21, 2001). By 2006, we saw an example of the next stage in this evolutionary process of control of public information: long delays in the release of documents as an attempt to avoid the embarrassing situation of recalling documents. A volume had been nearly ready for publication for over seven years, but intelligence screeners would not permit the release because of a handful of documents (Controversial FRUS volume release -- with a caveat...). This leads us to ask how long it will be before the government starts "releasing" documents that they can "recall" technologically without the embarrassing problem of gathering books and burning them -- without even having to notify FDLP librarians and asking them to withdraw something. And, in the Google Video premium service story, we can see a real-life example of existing technology that allows this to be done. Second, whether the government intends to restrict access to its information or not, policies change, budgets constrict, and intentions evolve. As Daniel pointed out "...Google didn't start up the service with the intention of shutting it down..." Nevertheless, in the end, they did shut it down. In addition, when the government relies on commercial tools for digital information distribution, those tools can impose the rules for distribution and use of information that the government cannot change. We have seen how government cannot always afford to do things in an open way and is forced by costs to do things that restrict access (e.g., FEMA requires Internet Explorer and What the Copyright Office / Internet Explorer rule tells us about government information and GPO's Budget and Priorities). Lawrence Lessig has documented the process of how technology can all too easily supersede good intentions and even the law in Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. How hypothetical is this? So far, we have been pretty lucky that the government has not explicitly implemented these kinds of technological information control. But we have seen precursors. In 2004, The Government Printing Office (GPO) released its own annual report using a proprietary reader that requires registration, includes DRM, and has built in "audit controls" (Annual Report 2004 Zinio Interactive Version (Registration Required) -> Get the GPO 2004 Annual Report in digital form now!). Most recently, we have seen GPO use proprietary software with the "call home" feature to authenticate documents in its Authenticated Public and Private Laws, Beta Release. With this system "Users must be connected to the Internet in order to have the ability to validate a digital signature on a PDF document." While the document is still readable if a user is not connected to the Internet, the user cannot validate the document. While the document is readable using software other than Adobe Acrobat or Reader version 7 or later, validation does not work without this proprietary software. In summary, Google video used proprietary software with phone-home DRM to deny access to files that users had legally paid for and downloaded. GPO has used and is using proprietary software for distribution of government information and it is using DRM "phone home" features in its attempt to technologically "authenticate" government documents. While GPO certainly is not claiming that it wants to withdraw access to distributed publications, the technology is there for it to do so and it is experimenting with it. Think of the Google Video premium service story as a useful cautionary tale -- a warning of how information can be withdrawn even if digital files were deposited with FDLP libraries or downloaded by conscientious librarians and digital preservation projects. This is something that government information specialists, FDLP librarians, and citizens should be watching closely. I urge you to write your Congressional delegation and the copyright office and suggest an explicit government document exemption to the DMCA. And write GPO and ask for an explicit, written policy rejecting the use of DRM and proprietary software and proprietary formats. More information Homefront Confidential Prepared by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, SIXTH EDITION, September 2005, "How the War on Terrorism Affects Access to Information and the Public's Right to Know" Chronology of Disappearing Government Information (Data collected through May 8, 2002) Compiled by Barbara Miller for ALA/GODORT Education Committee With special assistance of Karrie Peterson Secret reclassification of US documents by Michele McGinnis, (2006-02-21) Secret Agreement Reveals Covert Program to Hide Reclassification from Public by James R. Jacobs (2006-04-20) The Technical is Political by James A. Jacobs and Karrie Peterson, Of Significance... 3(1) 2001, p.25-35. Association of Public Data Users. (Full text PDF file)
- [What really happened with Google Premium Video -- Part one: DRM killed the files](https://freegovinfo.info/node/1375/) - As Daniel pointed out on Tuesday (Another Example of Access Bad, Ownership Good), when Google shut down its premium video service on August 15, it was able to prevent customers who had bought and paid for videos from Google from ever watching those videos again. But there is a bit more to the story -- and it has implications for how government information is distributed. In this, Part One of a two part look at the issues, we examine how Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies and proprietary software allowed Google to make it impossible for users to watch videos that they had bought from Google even though they had downloaded the video files onto their own computers. In Part Two we examine why this story is important for government information specialists and Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) librarians. While it wasn't obvious from the initial news stories about this, Google used DRM and proprietary software to deny access to files users had paid for and downloaded. Although the Government Printing Office (GPO) has not used identical techniques, it has experimented with similar ones and has never explicitly rejected use of techniques that could provide government a way to deny access to information even if users have copies of files on their own computers. More on that below. Google's premium video-purchase-and-download service overlapped with with Google's YouTube-like service, Google Video, which offers streaming video without charge and some free downloads. But in early 2006, Google announced a service as part of Google Video that would allow users to pay to rent or buy certain videos (such as NBA basketball games and TV shows such as CSI) and it is that service that changed this week and those videos that people purchased that they no longer can watch. YouTube and Google Video use "streaming" video technology so that you watch the stream of video as it comes to you. It is also possible to download videos in some cases. But the Google premium video service allowed users to pay for videos, download them, keep the video files, and watch them without streaming or re-streaming the content. Customers had the files on their own computers and could copy them and put them on different machines as if they really did "own" them. But there was a catch. Actually, there were three catches. First, users of this service had to download and install the proprietary "Google Player" software. (The software was originally downloadable from http://video.google.com/playerdownload but even the Google cache of that page disappeared this week.) It served a similar function to Windows Media Player or Quicktime or other media players, but it used its own proprietary format (".gvi"). Only the Google Player could play Google Videos. Second, you could watch the proprietary format using the proprietary player only if you were connected to the internet and authenticated yourself as the purchaser. Since the Google Player was the only player that could read the files one purchased, users were locked-in to the DRM of authentication-over-the-internet (sometimes called the "phone home" feature). So, even if you paid for a video and "owned" the file you downloaded, you couldn't watch it unless Google allowed you to do so -- every time you watched it. This week Google simply turned off the ability for users to authenticate. Presumably, this is the way the Google rental service operated from the start: after 24 hours, you no longer had permission to view the file you downloaded. It turned out that the "purchase" program was just a temporary service as well. This is why The Guardian described the situation this way: Google handed opponents of digital rights management (DRM) a huge weapon this week when it announced that DRM-protected videos bought from its online video store will no longer work, and that customers will not be reimbursed. -- Kiss goodbye to your DRM-protected Google Video clips, by Charles Arthur The Guardian, August 16 2007 And that brings us to the third catch: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Although there are hacks, work-arounds, and other technical tricks that allow one to circumvent the Google phone-home DRM, they are against the law. Again, The Guardian saw the implication of this for libraries: But the fact that thousands of purchased files will cease working will give pause to organisations charged with creating public archives of published information - such as the British Library and, in the US, the Library of Congress. The latter in particular was anyway considering whether any redrafting is needed on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA): the idea of offering a loophole to circumvent DRM on products that no longer work properly was rejected in its last consideration. Google's decision might lead to a reversal in thinking. There is more about this story and its implications for FDLP libraries in Part Two. More information: Google Video robs customers of the videos they "own", BoingBoing August 10, 2007 Google Video service to go black by Dawn C. Chmielewski and Alex Pham Los Angeles Times, August 11, 2007 Google's permanent video sales less-than-permanent by Cade Metz, The Register, August 11, 2007 Google Video DRM: Why is Hollywood more important than users? by Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing, February 14, 2006 More On Google Copy Protection by Mike Masnick, TechDirt, Mon, Jan 9th 2006 Google's Copy Protection: Supplying The Tools For Others To Be Evil by Mike Masnick, TechDirt, Fri, Jan 6th 2006 Google Video (beta) by Troy Dreier, CNet, 2/7/06 Google Video Player Terms and Conditions Google Video Good Uses for DRM Jimmy Palmer, DRM Blog (September 2. 2005) [good description of "phone home" DRM]
- [GPO LOCKSS Report: Mistakes and Irrelevancies](https://freegovinfo.info/node/1056/) - As I mentioned a few days ago, the final analysis report of the GPO LOCKSS Pilot Project is now available on GPO Access at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/lockss/index.html. The comments that follow are based on analysis by Jim A. Jacobs and Daniel Cornwall. The most disappointing thing about the report isn't so much that GPO rejects LOCKSS as a distribution mechanism, but its reasons for doing so. The 19 page report doesn't read as much like an evaluation of software than as a document defending a previously made decision on the basis of mere assertions, many of which have nothing to do with LOCKSS itself. We believe the biggest problems with this report fall into two categories; 1) statements about LOCKSS that appeared to be based on a lack of understanding about how LOCKSS works and 2) negative statements made that have little connection to LOCKSS. Under the second class of problems is one so big that Jim will provide a separate posting on this issue. This is the issue of IP authentication. GPO repeats the non-scalability of IP authentication as a major stumbling block to using LOCKSS as a distribution channel. The report never explains why IP authentication is so important to GPO and that will be the subject of Jim's posting. So, what else is wrong with this report? Let's start with some statements about LOCKSS that as a participant in LOCKSS both as publisher and library simply don't make sense. Page 12 - LOCKSS may have format migration issues similar to CD-ROMs and other tangible electronic media in depository libraries. I'm not positive I really know what this means, but if they're talking about LOCKSS hardware, that's no more of an issue than having computers in libraries at all. LOCKSS caches are just regular computers as the report itself says. Because content is duplicated on other LOCKSS caches, migrating hardware is as simple as buying a new computer, installing LOCKSS, picking your content and sitting back as content is reloaded from other caches. If GPO is referring to file format migration, LOCKSS researchers have been working on that issue since 2005 and have come up with a promising approach. Page 12 - Explore options for making content available from a single site that would allow LOCKSS libraries and non-LOCKSS libraries to access content from the same source. This would eliminate duplication of effort required to make content available to both groups of libraries. If you check out any of the nonrestricted materials available through LOCKSS, whether it is Alaska State Documents or BioMed Central Journals, all content available through LOCKSS is already available to non-LOCKSS users from the same interface. No duplication of effort is needed. Simply have the content available in some kind of human-intuitive archive units, and people and LOCKSS caches alike are happy. Unless GPO has plans for restricting public domain government information, this just isn't an issue. Page 12-13 - However, formatting the content to enable LOCKSS use could require more clicks than the current model for non-LOCKSS users to access the content. All LOCKSS needs are issue dates organized by year or some other suitable Archival Unit. Seems to me that is how most journals are laid out. No more clicks would be involved. GPO could have bolstered it's case by providing an example, but I just can't think of one. Page 11 - If LOCKSS were to become the only distribution method for e-journals distributed to the FDLP, all depositories would have to join the LOCKSS Alliance. No. Only libraries wishing to build local digital collections and pursuing preservation through multiple copies. Otherwise the model of access instead of custody will continue to operate. Making content available through LOCKSS is a matter of providing a publisher manifest page and writing a LOCKSS plugin. LOCKSS doesn't restrict your content any more than you already do. No library would be forced into LOCKSS unless GPO chose to make it a requirement. Finally, there is the unspoken issue that indicates a lack of understanding about LOCKSS. GPO consistently refers to LOCKSS as a system of distribution, but never mentions its preservation value. LOCKSS has proved itself since 1999 in the area of commercial journals. I would think that any evenhanded evaluation of LOCKSS would need to examine its a capability as a preservation system, which is has done for eight years longer than FDSys has. The second major problem area is that this purported evaluation of the LOCKSS technology is sprinkled with negative comments that have little to do with LOCKSS itself. In this category I'd put: Some libraries may want to “weed” publications from their caches in order to regain disk space at times. (page 11) It is unclear what percentage of FDLP libraries want to utilize LOCKSS for e-journal content. (page 11) It is not clear whether libraries that do want LOCKSS want it as an exclusive service to depositories, or whether they simply want to enable libraries to archive content locally. (page 11) Many agencies will complain if they believe GPO is taking business away from their Web sites by republishing content on GPO Web sites. (page 11) The depository library community has not been surveyed to determine whether there is wide enough support for LOCKSS to use it as the only e-journal delivery mechanism to justify requiring all libraries to receive e-journal content through LOCKSS. (page 12) What all of the above statements have in common is that GPO doesn't know the answers to the implied questions, hasn't asked despite being formally interested in LOCKSS for more than three years, and have no bearing on LOCKSS capability. They really sound like excuses rather than reasons. Aside from these two major sets of problems, I believe that most of the problems that GPO attributes to LOCKSS apply equally to the Future Digital System (FDSys). Think about it. If GPO serves agency content through FDSys, won't that take business away from agency web sites? Or when GPO states on page nine "technical sustainability and longevity of the LOCKSS platform as a long-term archiving solution needs to be assessed", how is this different from the Future Digital System, except that LOCKSS has been around since 1999 and the FDSys is still in development? Since I'd like to note when I agree with an opponent's point, I'd like to say that GPO does have a point about the time intensive nature of manually harvesting journals. Their collection times are similar to what I have in collecting Alaska State Journals and annual reports. That's part of the reason that Alaska's LOCKSS program focuses on monographs distributed on our monthly shipping lists. This allows it to distribute hundreds of titles in a single plugin in a way that adds at least minimal metadata to the LOCKSS system. Rather than abandoning LOCKSS because manually harvesting journals is too hard, GPO or some enterprising library or group of libraries should explore the automated download and posting of materials found in GPO's New Electronic Titles on a monthly basis. Even an experiment with a single item number or small agency might be useful. In as much as the Future Digital System could produce an output like the new electronic titles page, all they might have to do would be to include a LOCKSS permission statement on their "new titles" results page and let the LOCKSS community write the plugins. They could have their centralized system and interested libraries, some depository and some not, could have assurance that publications would be preserved outside of a chronically underfunded federal agency.
- [Achieving a collaborative FDLP future (#FDLP)](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3586/) - Note: This post is a longer response to a recent comments left on the LJ article written by Jim A. Jacobs and Melody Kelly. Recently, Library Journal published a short article that Melody Kelly and I wrote (The Future of the FDLP: From Conversation to Confrontation). In such a short opinion piece, we did not have the space to document our arguments and expand on our reasoning. Since the article was posted, it has received a few comments. So we are using this post to expand on our LJ piece a bit and re-post here our replies to those comments. As we said in LJ, the discussions about shared regional depositories have morphed from a conversation into a confrontation. This was our main point. As Daniel Cornwall said here recently, just as GPO needs to work with FDLP, so all FDLP libraries should be working with GPO, not working against it. We are concerned that the tactics adopted by ARL and many of the association's prominent members are more confrontational than cooperative and that such tactics may harm GPO at a time when it needs our support. Some of the issues involved are complex and confusing and we imagine that many non-FDLP librarians -- and even some in the FDLP community -- find it difficult to follow the sometimes arcane, legal details of the arguments on both sides. This is particularly true when attempts are made outside the current GPO rules to redefine the scope or procedures of an existing Regional.
- [Library anniversary celebrations wiki](https://freegovinfo.info/node/957/) - With so many libraries having important anniversaries, someone has created an anniversary Wiki to get and share ideas! While it is not clear who drew up this wiki, information is plainly sourced and looks useful. The wiki can be found at: http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/Library_anniversary_celebrations and is currently divided into these areas: 1 PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS 1.1 Press Releases 1.2 Publications 1.3 Materials to Obtain, Adopt, or Create 1.4 Resources 2 AGENDAS, SPEAKERS 2.1 Ideas for an agenda promoting GovDocs 2.2 Speakers 3 DEPOSITORY LIBRARY EXCELLENT EVENTS While some of this material can be dug out of the govdoc-l archives, isn't it better to have it all in one place? Whether or not you're celebrating the big 1-0-0, check out this site. It could give you event ideas for non-anniversary years. My thanks to whomever was responsible for this great start. I say start, because like most wikis, it is freely editable. So anniversary libraries, start your engines and make this site even better for those of us who will be celebrating big anniversaries
- [Access to Government Information, pre and post 9/11](https://freegovinfo.info/node/7877/) - Access to Government Information, pre and post 9/11. By James A. Jacobs An examination and discussion of the impact the events of Sept. 11 have had on Government Publications and libraries. A presentation at the event Intellectual freedom in libraries post 9/11 April 9, 2002 Sponsored by Librarians Association of the University of California Riverside
- [Federal publications recalled from libraries](https://freegovinfo.info/node/7758/) - James R. Jacobs and Barbara Krupa of Stanford University Libraries created this list of Federal government publications that have been recalled from Federal Depository Libraries. Federal publications recalled from libraries. Entries were garnered from several resources (see below) but it may not be complete. The list was created in June of 2010 and is updated
- [Letter to Deputy CTO Noveck: "Open Government Publications"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2970/) - [UPDATE 9/23/11: It's come to our attention that scribd, the site that hosts the document below, does not make it easy for users to download. In some instances it appears as if the user has to subscribe to scribd before they can download. So I've attached a copy of the document below for your free downloading pleasure. JRJ] In early April, Michael Keller, Stanford University Librarian and my boss, had a phone conversation with [w:Beth Simone Noveck], US deputy Chief Technology Officer for Open Government leading President Obama's Open Government Initiative. Noveck requested a short report outlining how the digital FDLP would work. Below is that report outlining a distributed ecosystem, or publications.gov, that "would incorporate collaborative cataloging/metadata creation, as well as shared or Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technical infrastructure in which data and technological redundancy and collective and proactive action reign." As many of you already know, some of the pieces for a digital FDLP ecosystem are already in place. However, as our recent post, "The State of FDsys and the Future of the FDLP", showed, some of those critical pieces are on shaky ground to say the least. The report was forwarded to Bob Tapella and Mike Wash at GPO as well as Aneesh Chopra, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Vivek Kundra, Chief Information Officer (CIO), and US Archivist David Ferriero. FDLP issues are now front and center to the movers and shakers in the Obama administration. But we'll need more libraries and librarians willing to step up and pitch in to make the digital FDLP ecosystem a reality. Digital FDLP Ecosystem
- [Scroogle shuts down, citing DDoS attacks and Google throttling](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3634/) - 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 [w: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 /.]
- [House votes to cut "intrusive" American Community Survey (ACS)](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3692/) - The House voted today 232 - 190 on the Webster-Lankford amendment to prohibit the use of funds for conducting the American Community Survey. The amendment was one of many on HR 5326 "Making appropriations for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, Science, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2013". The data from the [w:American Community Survey], collected since 1790, is generally considered vitally important for policymakers, businesses, researchers and students to write public policy, make decisions, do research and generally know more about their communities. Here's Representative Daniel Webster (R-FL) talking about the ACS as an unconstitutional invasion of privacy:
- [FRASER adds new Marriner S. Eccles Document collection on economic history and the Fed](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3750/) - The St Louis Fed's FRASER (Federal Reserve Archive) has just announced the addition of the new Marriner S. Eccles Document collection. It looks to be especially relevant to economic historians and those interested in economics and the [w:Great Depression]. FRASER, a digital library dedicated to preserving the nation’s economic history, recently added the Marriner S. Eccles Document Collection. The new collection provides access to nearly 10,000 documents from the archival collection housed by the University of Utah. Eccles served as Chairman (1934-48) and member (1948-51) of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The collection provides research material about the Federal Reserve System, particularly during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as Eccles’s role in the monetary and fiscal systems of the United States during those years. The documents can be browsed and searched by box, date, author, or keyword (the keyword field searches title, author, and description). Full-text searching is also available through a site-level advanced search, which can be narrowed to only items in the Eccles collection. Other archival collections that have been made digitally available on FRASER include Papers from the Committee on the History of the Federal Reserve System (held by the Brookings Institution) and the William McChesney Martin Jr. Document Collection (held by the Missouri Historical Society). FRASER has more than 640 publication titles, dated from 1789 to the present, that can be browsed by title, author, date, or topic. Full-text searching is also available.
- [Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (PLOTS) are #OpenGov champions](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3774/) - The Sunlight Foundation recently named Liz Barry and her group at the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (PLOTS) as OpenGov Champions. Sunlight highlights these champions for their work and ingenuity in furthering govt transparency. Ms Barry and the PLOTS team is perhaps best known for using kites and helium balloons to map the BP [w:Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill] in 2010, the only high resolution images out in the media at the onset of the catastrophe. PLOTS uses "mapping and other scientific DIY methods to empower local residents and activists to issue their own data sets to better engage with their local governments in environmental and other issues in their communities." Be sure to check out their many maps available in the PLOTS open data archive. And for all of you DIY scientists, you can chip in to the PLOTS DIY spectrometry kit kickstarter campaign and help them build a spectrum-sharing wiki. Congratulations PLOTS!
- [CRS tax report withdrawn after Senate Republicans protest](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3807/) - Today, the NY Times published an article "Nonpartisan Tax Report Withdrawn After G.O.P. Protest" which points to the increasing politicization of the [w:Congressional Research Service] (CRS), the non-partisan think tank of the US Congress. The CRS report, by researcher Thomas Hungerford, concluded: The results of the analysis suggest that changes over the past 65 years in the top marginal tax rate and the top capital gains tax rate do not appear correlated with economic growth. The reduction in the top tax rates appears to be uncorrelated with saving, investment, and productivity growth. The top tax rates appear to have little or no relation to the size of the economic pie. However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution. As measured by IRS data, the share of income accruing to the top 0.1% of U.S. families increased from 4.2% in 1945 to 12.3% by 2007 before falling to 9.2% due to the 2007-2009 recession. At the same time, the average tax rate paid by the top 0.1% fell from over 50% in 1945 to about 25% in 2009. Tax policy could have a relation to how the economic pie is sliced—lower top tax rates may be associated with greater income disparities. Huffington Post interviewed Mr Hungerford, who stood by the report: "Basically, the decision to take it down, I think The New York Times article basically got it right, that it was pressure from the Senate minority to take it down," Hungerford said. "CRS reports go through many layers of review before they're issued and as far as the tone and the conclusions go, people who specifically look at the writing and the tone said it was okay. So it's not going to be that and as I can tell you outright, I stand by the report and the analysis in the report." To the NY Times' credit, they posted a copy of the report in their story. We're hosting a copy on FGI servers for your convenience. More from the NY Times: The Congressional Research Service has withdrawn an economic report that found no correlation between top tax rates and economic growth, a central tenet of conservative economy theory, after Senate Republicans raised concerns about the paper’s findings and wording. The decision, made in late September against the advice of the agency’s economic team leadership, drew almost no notice at the time. Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, cited the study a week and a half after it was withdrawn in a speech on tax policy at the National Press Club. But it could actually draw new attention to the report, which questions the premise that lowering the top marginal tax rate stimulates economic growth and job creation. “This has hues of a banana republic,” Mr. Schumer said. “They didn’t like a report, and instead of rebutting it, they had them take it down.” Republicans did not say whether they had asked the research service, a nonpartisan arm of the Library of Congress, to take the report out of circulation, but they were clear that they protested its tone and findings. Don Stewart, a spokesman for the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said Mr. McConnell and other senators “raised concerns about the methodology and other flaws.” Mr. Stewart added that people outside of Congress had also criticized the study and that officials at the research service “decided, on their own, to pull the study pending further review.”
- [Freedom Summer online archive now available](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3931/) - Great news: now there's a digital archive to access the historically important "[w:Freedom Summer]", a seminal moment in the US civil rights movement. The Wisconsin Historical Society has just released the 1964 Freedom Summer Project. Not only are there 25,000 manuscripts and key documents, but there are finding aids to help users access the information and instructional materials for teachers. Dear colleagues, We've just released an online collection of 25,000 manuscripts related to the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer project. It's free and open to anyone for non-profit educational purposes at www.wisconsinhistory.org/freedomsummer Besides thousands of archival documents from COFO, CORE and SNCC and papers from dozens of individual activists, the site includes a downloadable Powerpoint about Freedom Summer and a PDF Sourcebook of key documents for teachers. I'd be grateful if you'd forward this note to colleagues and educators who might be interested. As the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer approaches, we want teachers, students, historians, librarians, museum curators, the media, and anyone else to use these primary sources in their 50th anniversary programming. We'll be adding a few thousand more pages this year, so please "like" us on Facebook and follow along: www.facebook.com/WHS.Freedom.Summer.collection?fref=ts Best wishes, Michael Edmonds Deputy Director, Library-Archives Division Wisconsin Historical Society
- [New CRS Report: Retaining and Preserving Federal Records in a Digital Environment](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3982/) - [w:Steven Aftergood] over at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) Project on Government Secrecy to (which you should all subscribe!) recently posted this CRS Report describing access to federal records over time as "increasingly complicated, costly, and potentially impossible.” We really appreciate Mr Aftergood's work over the years to shake loose and make publicly accessible government documents and especially CRS reports which are in the public domain but not distributed to the public or to FDLP libraries. Here's more on CRS reports. Thanks also to Sabrina Pacifici at the beSpacific blog for posting about it (and you should all subscribe to beSapcific too!). Retaining and Preserving Federal Records in a Digital Environment: Background and Issues for Congress. Wendy Ginsberg, Analyst in American National Government. July 26, 2013
- [Want to help make FOIA requests easier and faster? Chip in to FOIAmachine kickstarter](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3987/) - The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) has a KickStarter campaign to raise money to build FOIAmachine. What's FOIA you ask? Find out more about [w:Freedom of Information Act] (FOIA). FOIAmachine will help journalists, researchers and the public submit FOIA requests, track their progress through the Federal government bureaucracy, and post documents from successful FOIA requests online for public access. While they've made their original goal, they're looking to stretch it in order to build out additional features and host open records training in 5 states. I'm a backer and you should be too. You've got 3 days to help CIR meet their goal and help make FOIAmachine a reality.
- [Digging through the Government Attic](https://freegovinfo.info/node/4011/) - I love the [w:Freedom of Information Act (United States)] (FOIA)! It's a vital tool to researchers, journalists and the public -- so much so that there are now several sites that try to help manage the sometimes long and arduous FOIA process (see MuckRock and FOIA Machine). So I'm constantly on the lookout for sites that post FOIA'd documents that I can add to my FOIA web harvesting archive. One such site that has long had a place in my govt documents heart is the Government Attic. This is a truly amazing site in which to "rummage." The site has posted thousands of documents(!) from their many FOIA requests including: FOIA logs (FOIAs about FOIAs are really handy!) documents across a wide swath of government activity like Inspector Generals of various agencies internal agency Websites agencies' self-identified interesting documents FBI high visibility memos DoD resale activities border review (reviews which videos and magazines could be sold on military bases) a compilation of FBI documents concerning the security of telephone services, 1952-1995 (this one was so interesting that I have stored a local copy and had it cataloged for our library!). They also have a Links page which includes information about FOIA, guides on how to submit FOIA requests, etc.
- [Doc in the news: Pike report on the CIA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/4013/) - I ran across a story in the Guardian on Friday that sent me on a document hunt. Congressman Alan Grayson wrote a piece in which he referenced the Pike Committee investigation of the CIA: "Congressional oversight of the NSA is a joke. I should know, I'm in Congress." Alan Grayson. The Guardian, Friday 25 October 2013. In the 1970s, Congressman Otis Pike of New York chaired a special congressional committee to investigate abuses by the American so-called "intelligence community" – the spies. After the investigation, Pike commented: 'It took this investigation to convince me that I had always been told lies, to make me realize that I was tired of being told lies. I'm tired of the spies telling lies, too.' Pike's investigation initiated one of the first congressional oversight debates for the vast and hidden collective of espionage agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the National Security Agency (NSA). Before the Pike Commission, Congress was kept in the dark about them – a tactic designed to thwart congressional deterrence of the sometimes illegal and often shocking activities carried out by the "intelligence community". Today, we are seeing a repeat of this professional voyeurism by our nation's spies, on an unprecedented and pervasive scale.
- [Read the Congressional Record on the go!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3737/) - Want to read the Congressional Record on the go? Well now you can with this Congressional Record iphone/ipad app created by the Library of Congress under the guidance of the Committee on House Administration. The app pulls data from ?the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, and the Government Printing Office. With the app, the reader can: Browse editions of the Congressional Record by date: January 4, 1995 (the 104th Congress, 1st Session) to the present Perform keyword searches within individual documents or sections within documents Share documents via email Save documents to your preferred iPad PDF reader Identify the latest bills and resolutions considered daily on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives Identify the latest bills, resolutions, treaties, and nominations considered daily on the floor of the U.S. Senate The [w:Congressional Record] is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session.
- [Computer Bulletin Boards, 1990](https://freegovinfo.info/node/7845/) - Do you remember 1990 when the Internet was little more than a test, when the web was still a dream (there were no browsers), when "electronic bulletin boards" were an advanced form of telecommunication? If so (or even if not), you may enjoy this article, written in 1990 about the then fledgling attempt by a
- [2009 Fall DLC Meeting: "Demystifying Digital Deposit: What It Is and What It Could Do for the Future of the FDLP"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2936/) - At the Fall 2009 Depository Library Council (DLC) meeting in Arlington, VA, James A. Jacobs and I (Rebecca Blakeley) introduced attendees to the concept of "digital deposit" that maps out the pieces of the FDLP cloud and what it could do for the future of the FDLP. Our slides and notes are available for you to view and download online.
- ["Less Access to Less Information" now available in its entirety!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2950/) - From 1981 until 1998, Anne Heanue and the fine folks at the Washington Office of the American Library Association (ALA) published an amazing series called Less Access to Less Information by and about the U.S. Government, a chronology of efforts to restrict and privatize government information. Readers may remember that the Internet Archive was kind enough to digitize the series from 1981 to 1996 for FGI, but that I had not been able to get my hands on 1997-98 issues. Well now, thanks to Bernadine Abbott Hoduski who sent me the 1997-98 volumes, the complete chronology from 1981 - 98 is now digitized and hosted at the Internet Archive. Please check out the entire series of Less Access to Less Information by and about the U.S. Government available in the FGI library. Many thanks again to Ginger Bisharat and Robert Miller at the Internet Archive for their effort. Also thanks to Bernadine Abbott Hoduski for sending me her copies of the series and Emily Sheketoff, Associate Executive Director of ALA and manager of the Washington Office who graciously gave me permission to digitize the series.
- [GPO's draft regional libraries report and FGI comments](https://freegovinfo.info/node/1924/) - A few weeks ago, the Government Printing Office released their draft report entitled, Regional Depository Libraries in the 21st Century: A Time for Change? and asked for comments until June 30. I'm not sure how many comments they received, but wanted to publish comments we submitted. Lynne Bradley, Director American Library Association Washington Office, DID submit comments that were endorsed by the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS), and the Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT). GODORT republished Ms. Bradley's letter on their wiki. While we are in general agreement with ALA's letter calling for increased flexibility of Title 44 (*not* wholesale changes in the title) and increased appropriations for GPO initiatives and "regional depository libraries to help offset the costs of storing and preserving government property," our comments deal with the more philosophical issues embedded in the draft report. Please let us know what you think. I. Delete from the report all uses of the adjective "legacy" when referring to collections. The use of the word "legacy" as an adjective comes from computer science and is used to indicate things that are "outdated" and "undesirable." When the report uses the phrase "legacy collections" it implies that it is referring to unwanted and outdated collections. (The report uses "legacy" as an adjective in only one other context: in its reference to sections 1911 and 1912 of Title 44 USC as "Legacy Sections" -- apparently in order to define these section as out of date and undesirable.) Thus, the use of the phrase "legacy collections" is either inaccurate and misleading, or imprecise. In its place GPO should use phrases that accurately describe the collections it wishes to discuss. For example, in place of "legacy collections" the report could uses phrases such as "collections without adequate bibliographic records" or "collections of print materials" or "collections without digital equivalents" or other phrases that accurately describe the collections GPO is referring to. If GPO does wish to refer to unwanted out of date materials it should describe them that way explicitly rather than use the term "legacy." II. The report should more explicitly and accurately address the difference between roles and responsibilities that are legally mandated and those that have been assumed without a legal mandate. Specifically, we object to the following sentences of the report (Section V.B. pages 16-17) that gloss over these differences. (These sentences refer to Public Law 103-40, The Government Printing Office Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act of 1993.) The implementation of the GPO Access Act ushered GPO into the online age and accelerated the paradigm shift in the FDLP that changed GPO’s relationship with depository libraries. Regional depositories have the responsibility for permanent public access in the tangible publication environment. In the online information environment GPO has assumed primary responsibility for ensuring content and permanent public access. [emphasis added] We suggest the following wording instead: While the GPO Access Act specifically required GPO to "provide a system of online access" and to "operate an electronic storage facility for Federal electronic information," it did not specify any change in the roles of the depository libraries. It added new roles for GPO, but did not reduce, alter, or delete the roles of depository libraries. Since 1993, Congress has consistently provided funds to GPO for the "distribution" of government publications to designated depository libraries. This wording was carefully chosen. In 2000 the House attempted to substitute the wording "on-line access" for "distribution," but that language was rejected. Nevertheless, GPO has chosen to implement this law in a way that is shifting the relationship between GPO and depository libraries. GPO has chosen to assume responsibility for permanent public access to digital materials and has chosen not to offer digital deposit as an option to FDLP libraries. This has resulted in a paradigm shift in access, preservation, and service within the FDLP. Instead of relying on FDLP libraries and their different locations, funding, and technological infrastructures, GPO has chosen to implement policies a) that do not "distribute" digital objects to FDLP libraries, b) that make it difficult for FDLP libraries to build local digital collections, and c) that create a preservation system that depends on a single centralized collection with a single funding source. While these choices seemed appropriate 15 years ago, much has changed over the years. Many libraries are developing institutional repositories and other digital collections. In a survey in August of 2005, 85% of responding FDLP libraries expressed "high" or "very high" interest in being able to "pull" content from GPO and 65% were equally interested in GPO "pushing" digital content to FDLP libraries. In the current survey of Regionals, 52% expressed a willingness to receive digital files on deposit. Commercial and open source software for managing digital collections is now widely available. As we look at new models and roles for FDLP libraries, we need to consider true digital deposit as a viable and important option. We need to look beyond the now-old model of relying solely on GPO having primary responsibility for ensuring content and permanent public access.
- [Comment on Government Information Liberation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2131/) - John, Thanks for this interesting thread about Government Information Liberation! I hope I am not misreading your enthusiasm if I characterize it as part of a new optimism that so many of us are feeling after the election. I certainly feel more optimistic than I have for a long time! I want to key in on two things you've mentioned in your first few posts in your thread. (I may be going off on a bit of a tangent from what you were saying, but I hope not.) One is the idea of "weaving the political perspective with the policy perspective with the governmental structure perspective." The other is the "values" of libraries and librarians. First: weaving. A few of us at FGI had a conversation this week about the intersection of government information with non-government information. We discussed how the old model of separating government documents departments and collections in libraries was probably more of a library operational convenience than anything else. We certainly did the best we could with that model and the tools we had at the time to provide the best access we could to government information, but the model of separate collections was never ideal for users. Now, in the digital age, the model of separate (ok, I'll even use the buzzword: "stovepipe") collections has become less necessary and even less fruitful than it was in the paper and ink world. Projects like govtrack.us and the many projects from the Sunlight Foundation and other remixes and Insanely Useful Web Sites demonstrate how technology can help us overcome a lot of limitations we faced in the past and create tools for civic engagement. I would really like to see libraries creating similar projects and collaborating with projects like these! We have done it before when we created gateways to GPO Access and were so successful that GPO had to stop charging for access and start cooperating with this grass-roots effort. We also really need to come to grips with the fact that government information is on YouTube, Twitter, Qik, Facebook, etc. We need to accept that the overlap is rapidly increasing between clearly-official government information, and unofficial-but-important information (think: Hormuz incident), and grey-area political information, and public-officials-in-the-public-arena information. We need to accept that more and more government agencies are going to have publicly accessible comments from the public as agencies attempt to engage the public directly with e-government initiatives. We need to face the fact that no algorithm or group of highly-trained bibliographers is going to always succeed is accurately parsing all this and coming up with a universally agreed upon set of information that we call "government information." So we need ways of melding information that we get from different sources in ways that are useful and informative. And, we also need ways of selecting what to preserve and we need metadata so that users can understand provenance and make their own evaluations of authenticity, currency, and usefulness. But I also think that libraries have a unique role to play in enabling mashups and remixes and that is the building of digital collections. No other person or organization or group or institution is better positioned than libraries (and FDLP libraries in particular) to select, acquire, organize, and preserve digital information. No one is more committed than libraries to providing service and free access. And, let's face it, no one else will. Values. So that leads me to my second point: the values that librarians and libraries bring to the table. Whether we are talking about government information in the abstract, or civic engagement, or technological change, or long-term preservation and access, or "the future of libraries," libraries and librarians bring a unique combination of perspectives and values that transcend the interests of the many other valuable stakeholders of these issues. Clifford Lynch made a similar point recently. Listen to his brief Summation and Closing Observations (Audio [MP3 19 min.]) at the Association of Research Libraries, Coalition for Networked Information Fall Forum, October 16-17, 2008 in Arlington, Virginia (Reinventing Science Librarianship: Models for the Future, October 2008). At around the 13-14 minute mark he begins to talk about the Values that librarians bring to the conversation. Perhaps even more importantly, when we look at the challenges we all face under the current economic crisis, it is libraries that are better positioned than anyone else to act on these values and get them funded. A long time ago, a faculty member told me that the library was everyone's second priority. Everyone values the library, but everyone values their own department, grant, job, mission first. But right after their own mission, everyone wants (and needs!) some institution to take responsibility for long-term preservation and free access to information. And this requires an institution for whom this mission is a first priority -- not a second priority or a secondary benefit of another priority. And, yes, I'm thinking of government agencies, including GPO. One can claim, as GPO does that "There has been a paradigm shift in preservation of depository materials" but you will look in vain in the GPO Access Act, for the words "preservation" or "long-term" or "permanent." And, yes, I am also thinking of Google, and the entire private sector. As much as we love their products, their mission is to make money; access is a secondary by-product of that mission. I believe that society needs someone to select, acquire, organize, and preserve information. I believe that we will lose information if we rely on information producers to preserve information for the long term and we will lose free, open access if we rely on those who see their "content" as an "asset." I believe that we need an organization that will not just provide long term preservation and free access, but that will fight for it: fight against proprietary formats, restrictive licensing agreements, and DRM restrictions, and fight for open access, open formats, and Fair Use. I tend to look at libraries and the FDLP this way: if someone does all of these things, what would we call that entity but "a library"? And who is in a better position to be "a library" than ... libraries? As I said earlier: We read so often of libraries trying to "redefine" themselves in the digital age and trying to justify their existence to people who think that google is a library, that ad-hoc solutions to preservation are good enough, and that the government will provide free access to all of its information forever for free. For those librarians who don't believe all those myths, here is a simple way to reinvent your library: insist on digital deposit by the government and establish your library as a digital Federal DEPOSITORY Library.
- [Less Access to Less Information By and About the U.S. Government](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2619/) - [UPDATE 3/25/10: Thanks to Bernadine Abbott Hoduski for sending me 1997-98 volumes, the complete chronology from 1981 - 98 is now digitized and hosted at the Internet Archive!] From 1981 until 1998, Anne Heanue and the fine folks at the Washington Office of the American Library Association (ALA) published an amazing series called Less Access to Less Information by and about the U.S. Government, a chronology of efforts to restrict and privatize government information. In 1986, the publication was listed in Project Censored's annual review, Top 25 censored stories for 1986. I recently had a nice email exchange with Emily Sheketoff, Associate Executive Director of ALA and manager of the Washington Office in which I suggested that Less Access to Less Information ought to be online for the world to see, read, share etc. Emily graciously gave me permission to digitize the series. So, with the help of Rick and Megan Prelinger, Robert Miller and others at the Internet Archive, I give you Less Access to Less information by and about the U.S. government in several formats including text, flip book, PDF, and DjVu. 1981-1987 chronology 1988-1991 chronology 1990-1996 chronology 1997 chronology: January – June 1997 chronology: June – December 1998 chronology: january – June 1998 chronology: June – December I'm still on the hunt for the last 2 years of the series, but haven't come across them yet. If anyone's got them hanging around their bookshelves and would lend them to me, drop me an email (freegovinfo AT gmail DOT com) and I'll tell you where to send them. [This is a repost of my original blog post about Less Access. I reposted it to the library so it wouldn't get lost. JRJ]
- [Distributed Globally, Collected Locally: LOCKSS for Digital Government Information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/2440/) - Since Daniel mentioned yesterday about LOCKSS and digital deposit as recession insurance (which BTW is a GREAT oogly hook for open govt!!) I thought I'd mention a hot new article that Daniel and I wrote for the February 2009 issue of Against the Grain about the new U.S. Government Documents Private LOCKSS Network (citation below). The issue has not officially been released, but we got permission to post to FGI as a preprint. The article describes the LOCKSS model of digital preservation and why that model is beneficial to apply to the realm of digital government information. We describe Carl Malamud's herculean efforts toward better access to government information; Then talk more specifically about the new USDOCS Private LOCKSS Network (USDocsPLN) using those documents harvested by Malamud. The paper concludes with a call to action. Let us know what you think. and by all means, help us move forward with the USDocs network by participating. LOCKSS is great recession insurance and SO much more! Citation: Distributed Globally, Collected Locally: LOCKSS for Digital Government Information. Daniel Cornwall and James R. Jacobs. Against the Grain, 21(1) February, 2009. p.42-44 (p.5-7 of the PDF) The preservation of federal documents is too important to be left to the federal government alone; we have the makings of a viable system to preserve digital government publications. There are several ways you can help. Join our private LOCKSS Network. Join the LOCKSS alliance, get a server for under $1,000, and contact us. The more servers in the USDocsPLN, the merrier. Notify us of collections of electronic federal documents. LOCKSS staff can show you how easy it is to allow LOCKSS to ingest and preserve your materials. Attack the root problem. Demanding your Members of Congress legislate and FUND a system that will ensure that GPO proactively deposits publications and data through the FDLP and other interested partners. While the USDocsPLN project is a good start and an excellent ad-hoc effort, it should be the government's responsibility to put information in the hands of taxpayers. We should not have to be prying it out of the government’s hands. A distributed digital FDLP benefits everyone.
- [LOCKSS-USDOCS at Best Practices Exchange](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3097/) - I just got back from Best Practices Exchange 2010 (check out the growing list of available presentations and the twitter back channel!). It was a really solid conference -- a healthy mix of archivists, documents and other librarians, and technologists having project-oriented presentations with a healthy dose of discussion. The cherry on top was the engaging keynote by the David Ferriero, the Archivist of the US (AOTUS) (here's a good summary of AOTUS' talk). I was on a panel with Arlene Weible from OR State Library (Arlene gave a great talk on RAT, OSL's tool for collecting state documents -- I hope she posts her slides soon!) and presented about LOCKSS-USDOCS, the distributed documents preservation project. Take a look at the slides. We're looking for other participant libraries so email me if your library is interested (jrjacobs AT stanford DOT edu). LOCKSS-USDOCS: best practices for preserving digital government information View more presentations from James Jacobs.
- [Back from the brink! Recent discussions and the future of the #FDLP](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3503/) - We are concerned that in some recent informal comments on twitter and some more formal discussions of the MN/MI regional proposal and ASERL project, the tone has taken on a decidedly confrontational, even hostile tone with implications that GPO is being obstructionist. We are concerned that a few libraries may be in a rush to set the agenda for the FDLP in a way that best suits their interests. We are writing in hopes of calming the discussion so that, at the upcoming Depository Library meeting, we can have constructive discussions and avoid rushing into important decisions and the setting of agendas. The stakes are too high to oversimplify the issues facing GPO, the FDLP, the Regional Depositories, and the Selective Depositories with one-word epithets, emotionally loaded characterizations, and name-calling. It is essential that the conversations at DLC not be dominated by a few well-organized, vocal Regionals. 1. At the DLC meeting this month, when the future of the FDLP is discussed and the specific proposals by MN/MI and ASERL are sure to be raised, it is very important that we differentiate the issues that Regional Depositories face (with their special legal requirements, comprehensive collections, and support of selective depositories) from the issues that selectives face. The issues overlap but it would be unwise to let the agendas of the Regionals (or, worse, just some of the Regionals) set the agenda for all of the FDLP. Regionals face unique problems, and solving their problems will not necessarily "save" the FDLP any more than a failure to solve their problems will "kill" the FDLP. Even the defunding and privatization of GPO will not "kill" the FDLP: it will just make it that much more difficult to build and maintain FDLP collections and services. It is particularly important that we examine the context of the proposals currently on the table. As Ithaka S+R has assiduously described in its recent reports, many library directors and administrations are actively seeking ways to weed their paper-and-ink collections, and some want to decrease their commitment to the FDLP because they no longer believe that there is an institutional value to depository status. Regardless of the efficacy of such policies, FDLP librarians should recognize that those policies, even if justifiable for an institution, have little if anything to do with a commitment to long-term, free, public access to government information. At best, designing policies based first on local needs will only yield value for the FDLP as a by-product; at worst, it will diminish the FDLP's value to users. Ithaka S+R's report already made the case for just such an approach and GPO has (wisely, we believe) rejected it. GPO and the FDLP collectively need to maintain the long-term preservation of and access to government information as a first priority and need to keep the needs of information users, not individual institutions, as our collective highest priority when modeling the future of the FDLP. Policies based on such an approach will yield value to users as a direct result of their implementation, not as a by-product. In our deliberations on the future of the FDLP, we need to clearly state our justifications for new policies and procedures and separate those that are demonstrably good for the FDLP and government information users from those that are tied to local needs -- such as budgetary constraints and the desire to weed paper-and-ink collections. Obviously, each library has to take its own needs into account, but, just as obviously, we should avoid making system-wide decisions based on the needs of a few libraries. 2. Developing a model for the future of the FDLP is going to require give-and-take and cooperation. Name calling and hostility will not serve the needs of anyone or result in positive solutions. Libraries must work with GPO -- and vice versa. Libraries need to accept that GPO operates under legal constraints. When GPO asks legitimate legal questions, it is not attacking or resisting change; it is fulfilling its legal obligations. Characterizing GPO's responses as "protecting the status quo" are neither helpful in this difficult transition time, nor accurate. That said, we also urge GPO to be as flexible as it legally can be and also as creative as it can be in order to come up with innovative solutions that strengthen information preservation, public access and the ongoing management of regionals and selectives. We believe GPO should push its policies and procedures to the limit of the law, not look for the most conservative possible interpretation of the law. We remember all too vividly how the introduction of microforms into the FDLP took almost 7 years, but it was done with leadership from GPO. Just as GPO must work within a legal framework, so individual libraries must work within their own constraints. We urge FDLP libraries to be as flexible as possible and come up with plans that reflect the needs of a broad community of users and that will guarantee long-term preservation and access of government information in all formats. The digital-shift provides libraries new opportunities to do more than they ever have before. While it may seem easy to come up with procedures that reduce collections, minimize numbers of copies, increase costs to users and Selective Depositories, and reduce services to users, such "solutions" are, we believe, short-sighted and inadequate to the task at hand. It will be harder but, we would argue, much better to develop innovative solutions that will expand what libraries do to meet needs of users. Libraries are not as constrained as GPO is by Title 44: we can do more than GPO/FDsys can do by building collections that are beyond the scope of Title 44. Digital makes this possible and provides new opportunities; it should not be used as an excuse to trim services and collections. We at FGI yield to no one in our desire for a fully functional digital FDLP. We have been advocating that for seven years and are just as anxious -- if not more so -- as anyone to move forward to the next phase of the FDLP. Over the years, we have criticized GPO and its policies -- and will continue to do so when we believe such criticism is warranted. But our intention has always been to challenge GPO to do more and to do better, and to work with FDLP libraries, not work against them or arrogate responsibilities from them. Just as we want GPO to work with FDLP libraries, we want FDLP libraries to work with, not in opposition to, GPO. We at FGI believe that the future of the FDLP will be most secure if GPO and FDLP libraries work together to a common end. We urge all participants in these conversations to deal with each other collegially and cordially and seek common solutions that will benefit all -- not just a few libraries. We urge all parties to refrain from over-simpification of complex issues. We urge thoughtfulness and cooperation toward what should be our common goals of high-quality long-term preservation of and access to government information, driven first and foremost by the needs of users. Endnotes Tweets: "GPO headwinds" "This is the way FDLP ends" Twitter #fdlp hashtag ASERL documents: ASERL FDLP implementation plan ASERL letters to/from GPO Letters regarding the MI/MN shared regional plan: GPO letter to Nancy Robertson 15 September 2011 (PDF) response to GPO from Ms Robertson (PDF) Response to GPO from Ms Wendy Lougee, University Librarian at University of MN "Recent Developments on FDLP" from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) including links to several letters to/from GPO and the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Between University of Minnesota Libraries and Library of Michigan/Michigan Department of Education Privatization of GPO, Defunding of FDsys, and the Future of the FDLP FGI response to Ithaka draft values proposition for the FDLP "The GPO Microform Program its history and status" by LeRoy C. Schwarzkopf, DttP (June 1978) v6, n4, p163-166.
- [Public talk: "Gone Today, Here Tomorrow: The Future of Government Information and the Digital FDLP"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3854/) - I had the distinct honor to be invited to speak at the University of Washington Libraries on thursday, January 24, 2013. I want to thank Cass Hartnett, the Northwest Government Information Network, the UW Information School, the UW Association of Library and Information Science Students (ALISS), and the University of Washington Libraries for allowing me the opportunity to talk publicly about the future of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). the audio for my talk can be downloaded from the UW Library digital archive or streamed below from the Internet Archive. that is all. We’re at the very beginning of the digital era where tools, policies, best practices, etc are all in flux. In many ways, we’re at the age of new metaphors needed to describe what it is that we as librarians do on a daily basis. I'd like to talk about the underlying historical ideals of the FDLP, discuss how those ideals have been under fire from both within and without the library community and argue that those ideals applied to today's new information metaphors give us the best chance at access to and long-term preservation and assurance of govt information. Then I’ll talk about some of the digital collection strategies that I’ve found to be successful and then conclude with a bit about collaboration and to-dos. Gone today, here tomorrow: the future of government information and the digital FDLP from James Jacobs
- [Letter of concern to Congressman Duncan re the horrendously bad HR1638 "Census Reform Act of 2013"](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3959/) - We at FGI have been long-time supporters and agitators for the US Census and its companions, most notably the American Community Survey (ACS) -- see for example "Fear, uncertainty, or doubt? Why the Census and ACS are critical to a well-functioning democracy." So it was a complete shock to the system to learn about the Orwellian bill H.R. 1638: Census Reform Act of 2013 making its way through Congress. And we were so happy to learn that Kathy Karn Carmichael, Documents Librarian/ Instructor of Library Science at the University of South Carolina Aiken was going to be in Washington DC and planned to drop off letters of concern to Congressman Duncan's office. My colleague Kris Kasianovitz and I hastily wrote a letter (attached PDF and below), sent it to our University Librarian for approval, and were extremely grateful that he approved it and agreed to add his name to it. We sent a PDF copy to Kathy who added it to her own letter (attached PDF and below), and then sent paper copies to Congressman Duncan, the 14 co-sponsors of the bill, the Chairs and ranking members of the 3 committees taking up the bill, as well as to Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, [D-CA18], Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, [D-CA19] and our 2 Senators Feinstein and Boxer. But a bill like this demands more than a letter of concern. So we're posting our letter here on FGI for others to copy/crib and otherwise use as a template for letters of your own and to pass around to friends, family and colleagues, especially to those in districts represented by Congressman Duncan and the other 14 co-sponsors. Kathy has also generously allowed us to post her letter as well. We'd be happy to post copies of others' letters as well. Help us assure that HR1638 "Census Reform Act of 2013" does not move beyond committee and does not rear its ugly head again. The Colbert Report Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,Video Archive June 13, 2013 The Honorable Jeff Duncan 116 Cannon House Office Building United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20510 Dear Representative Duncan: I am writing regarding H.R. 1638, the Census Reform Act. As a librarian in the Federal Depository program, I am opposed to eliminating the various censuses targeted in this legislation. This data provides valuable, free information, not only to the citizens of South Carolina and the entire country, but to local, state, and federal governments so that they may assess the needs of their constituents. Furthermore, it provides information which is not available elsewhere to business leaders, entrepreneurs and researchers. In addition to my responsibilities as the FDLP coordinator, I am also a reference and instruction librarian at University of South Carolina Aiken. As a frequent user of this data I am able to assist students, faculty, and citizens in this community with their government information research needs. Additionally, I work with clients of the South Carolina Small Business Development Center to help them access government information to prepare business plans or market analyses. Only last week, I was assisting one of their clients with her market analysis. The American Community Survey provided access to data which helped demonstrate the need for a type of healthcare service which is unavailable in our small community and would prevent patients from seeking treatment across the state line in Georgia. You, as a former small business owner, are aware of the challenges in beginning a new business. The ability to access demographic and economic data at no cost which might help these entrepreneurs better understand their target market is vital to ensure their future success. According to your website, this legislation is in response to complaints by South Carolinians who feel these censuses, in particular the American Community Survey, are too intrusive. Living in the age of social media and electronic information and given the recent revelations regarding the government’s access to private information of its citizens without our knowledge, asking questions about the size of your property or the distance of your commute seems trivial. Eliminating these data collection programs impact all Americans. If implemented it would severely limit the ability of all librarians to assist the constituents of the other 434 members of Congress with accessing timely demographic information. I hope you will reconsider moving forward with this legislation and look for alternative methods to resolve the concerns of your constituents. Sincerely, Kathy Karn-Carmichael, MLS University of South Carolina Aiken Gregg-Graniteville Library Aiken, SC 29801 803-641-3320 June 17, 2013 The Honorable Jeff Duncan 116 Cannon House Office Building United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20510 Dear Congressman Duncan, We are writing to express our grave concern regarding 113 HR 1638, the “Census Reform Act of 2013,” the bill you introduced on April 18, 2013. This bill, rather than “reforming” the Census, will eliminate the collection of the nation’s most critical statistical instruments and cause the nation irreparable harm in negatively affecting public policy planning, scientific and academic research, and the economy. As we understand it, HR 1638 calls for: 1) The repeal and cancellation of certain census activities including the census of agriculture, census of governments, economic census, etc.; 2) curtailing the Census Bureau from conducting any census, survey, sampling or questionnaire including the American Community Survey (ACS) and rescinding any unobligated moneys to carry out the ACS; 3) prohibiting surveys or questionnaires and limiting statistics collected in a decennial census; 4) Repeal of the Census of Agriculture act of 1997. The US Census is enshrined in the US Constitution (Article I, Section 2) and was a significant act by our founders of empowering the people over unruly governments. The legality of the Census has been repeatedly affirmed by the courts. The gathering of information is done in accordance with the US Constitution under the authority of Congress and is regulated by other laws and regulations. The various Census instruments – including the American Community Survey (ACS) – are implemented in a careful, public way under the Constitution, the U.S. Code, and the Code of Federal Regulations – all with the approval of the courts. Today the data gathered by the Census Bureau is used by US citizens, businesses, and researchers and students across the hard- and social sciences and humanities – many of whom access current and historic data in Federal Depository libraries across the country – to measure our economy, know how to adjust spending for and develop social, financial and economic programs, and ensure that we are producing crops and livestock to support consumption and trade. Here are just some of the uses for Census data : • Attracting new businesses to state and local areas. • Forecasting future transportation needs for all segments of the population. • Planning for hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, and the location of other health services. • Designing public safety strategies. • Making business decisions. • Economic development of rural areas. • Planning urban land use. • Creating maps to speed emergency services to households in need of assistance. • Planning investments and evaluating financial risk. • Facilitating scientific research. • Providing evidence in litigation involving land use, voting rights, and equal opportunity. • Drawing school district boundaries. • Assessing the potential for spread of communicable diseases. • Drawing federal, state, and local legislative districts and re-apportioning seats in the House of Representatives. These data that HR 1638 seeks to destroy underpin and are critical to sound policy-making. Without it, the US Congress, State and local governments, businesses, academia, the American people and the libraries which serve them will be flying blind in terms of public policy, planning and ensuring that the US is on sound economic footing. We strongly urge you to reconsider and withdraw HR 1638. Sincerely, Michael A. Keller, University Librarian*, Stanford University James R. Jacobs, FDLP Coordinator, Government Information Librarian*, Stanford University Kris Kasianovitz, Government Information Librarian*, Stanford University 123D Cecil H. Green Library Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305 *title and address used for identification purposes only. cc Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, [D-CA18] Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, [D-CA19] Bill co-sponsors: Jason Chaffetz [R-UT3]; Andy Harris [R-MD1]; Walter Jones [R-NC3]; Steve Pearce [R-NM2]; Reid Ribble [R-WI8]; Steve Southerland [R-FL2]; Raúl Labrador [R-ID1]; Thomas Massie [R-KY4]; Bill Posey [R-FL8]; Steve Stockman [R-TX36]; Howard Coble [R-NC6]; Todd Rokita [R-IN4]; Jim Bridenstine [R-OK1]; Austin Scott [R-GA8] Chairman Steve King and Marcia Fudge, ranking member, House Committee on Agriculture: Department Operations, Oversight, and Nutrition Chairman Rep. Harold “Hal” Rogers [R-KY5] and Ranking Member Rep. Nita Lowey [D-NY17], House Committee on Appropriations Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa [R-CA49] and Ranking Member Rep. Elijah Cummings [D-MD7] Senator Diane Feinstein Senator Barbara Boxer
- [Wait! Don't digitize and discard!](https://freegovinfo.info/node/3911/) - Some libraries, library organizations, and library managements believe they can "manage" their collections better by first digitizing historic collections of books and other paper and ink information sources and then weeding their collections of these materials. Such projects will reduce the number of copies held in the aggregate by all libraries (Lavoie, Schonfeld, Schottlaender, Yano). One problem that these projects often overlook is the subtle (and not so subtle) differences between the legal standing of paper and digital objects with regard to access and use. Too often, creators of digital objects attempt to impose copyright restrictions on the digital objects even if the originals were in the public domain. Additionally, digital objects are often encumbered with licenses and technological restrictions that limit how they can be used and who can use them. The digital objects are often just not as accessible or as usable as the original print. How bad would it be if we threw away our print collections in favor of digital collections that are less accessible and less usable? Randal C. Picker, who is Leffmann Professor of Commercial Law and Senior Fellow at the The Computation Institute of the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory University of Chicago Law School, has written a paper and created a presentation on just this issue. Picker, Randal. 2013. Access and the Public Domain. Rochester, NY: University of Chicago Institute for Law & Economics. Coase-Sandor Institute For Law And Economics Working Paper No. 631. Picker: Access and the Public Domain (Fordham IP Talk), YouTube (Apr 6, 2013). "This is a version of a talk that I gave at the Fordham IP Conference on April 5, 2013. It is based on my paper Access and the Public Domain, which was published in the San Diego Law Review." In the paper, he considers how legal issues affect digitization projects such as The Internet Archive, JSTOR, Google Book Search, HathiTrust, and THOMAS. His take-aways from the presentation are: Access rights and use rights are different animals and operate in different legal settings. Even though the public domain is coming online, the financing models for the projects will result in efforts to restrict use ina variety of ways. Those efforts will be situated at the intersection of technology controls, contract, terms of use, copyright and the CFAA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act). Perhaps a truly public public domain, something like the DPLA perhaps, is required to avoid the path of non-copyright control over the public domain. Hat Tip: ARL Policy Notes. Endnotes Lavoie, Brian F., Constance Malpas, and J.D. Shipengrover. 2012. Print Management at “Mega-scale”: a Regional Perspective on Print Book Collections in North America. Dublin, OH: OCLC Research. http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2012/2012-05.pdf (Accessed July 19, 2012). Schonfeld, Roger C., and Ross Housewright. 2009. 28 What to Withdraw: Print Collections Management in the Wake of Digitization. Ithaka S+R. http://www.sr.ithaka.org/research-publications/what-withdraw-print-collections-management-wake-digitization. Schottlaender, Brian E.C. et al. 2004. 82 Collection Management Strategies In A Digital Environment, A Project Of The Collection Management Initiative Of The University Of California Libraries, Final Report to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. University of California, Office of the President, Office of Systemwide Library Planning. http://www.ucop.edu/cmi/finalreport/index.html. Yano, Candace Arai, Z.J. Max Shen, and Stephen Chan. 2008. Optimizing the Number of Copies for Print Preservation of Research Journals. Berkeley, CA: University of California Berkeley, Industrial Engineering & Operations Research. http://www.ieor.berkeley.edu/~shen/webpapers/V.8.pdf.
- [Reference cut-backs](https://freegovinfo.info/node/7786/) - The cover story of the November-December 2013 California Teacher reports on the scaling back of reference within the University of California. The cover says: "Access Denied. Losing the Human Face of Reference Librarians." Reference librarians meet complex queries with a human touch, By David Bacon, California Teacher (November-December 2013). "We no longer have a visible

## Pages

- [Preserving Government Information](https://freegovinfo.info/pgi) - Preserving Government Information Past, Present, and Future by James A. Jacobs and James R. Jacobs The book examines how preservation practices of the past affect the preservation of digitally published government information today, analyzes publishing and preservation data to characterize the current gaps in preservation, and looks to the future by charting a path to
- [FGI Library](https://freegovinfo.info/librarypage) - This is a list of presentations, white papers, published articles, and major commentaries and analyses by the FGI volunteers. Book Preserving Government Information: Past, Present, and Future, by James A. Jacobs and James R. Jacobs. FreeGovInfo Press (2025). Available as a free PDF, free ePub, and paperback book (ISBN: 979-8-218-66931-7). Papers, Articles, Presentations, White Papers
- [No Access](https://freegovinfo.info/no-access/)
- [Past FGI projects](https://freegovinfo.info/past-fgi-projects/) - This page is a collection of sunsetted projects that FGI has undertaken. LostDocs - (2009 -2022). LostDocs was a long-running project to post “fugitive” federal government publications (now called “unreported” documents or those documents that should be part of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) but have slipped through the cracks and remain uncatalogued and
- [Less Access to Less Information By and About the U.S. Government](https://freegovinfo.info/less_access) - From 1981 until 1998, Anne Heanue and the fine folks at the Washington Office of the American Library Association (ALA) published an amazing series called Less Access to Less Information by and about the U.S. Government, a chronology of efforts to restrict and privatize government information. In 1986, the publication was listed in Project Censored's
- [Less Access to Less Information By and About the U.S. Government](https://freegovinfo.info/less_access2) - From 1981 until 1998, Anne Heanue and the fine folks at the Washington Office of the American Library Association (ALA) published an amazing series called Less Access to Less Information by and about the U.S. Government, a chronology of efforts to restrict and privatize government information. In 1986, the publication was listed in Project Censored's
- [Search](https://freegovinfo.info/search/) - [wp-ultimate-search-bar][wp-ultimate-search-results]

## Downloads

- [PGI book (epub)](https://freegovinfo.info/download/14832/?tmstv=1783839306) - Preserving Government Information.epub
- [PGI book (PDF)](https://freegovinfo.info/download/14829/?tmstv=1783839306) - PreservingGovernmentInformation

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- [elections](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/elections/)
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- [First Amendment Center](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/first_amendment_center/)
- [First Amendment](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/first_amendment/)
- [Govt Secrecy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/govt_secrecy/)
- [Freedom of the Press](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/freedom_of_the_press/)
- [Link dump](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/link_dump/)
- [boingboing](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/boingboing/)
- [WIPO](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/wipo/)
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- [Podcast](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/podcast/)
- [Domestic Surveillance](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/domestic_surveillance/)
- [Senate](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/senate/)
- [Jay Rockefeller](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/jay_rockefeller/)
- [NIE](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/nie/)
- [Bush library](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/bush_library/)
- [preservation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/preservation/)
- [argentina](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/argentina/)
- [Onion](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/onion/)
- [spoof](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/spoof/)
- [SOTU](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/sotu/)
- [libraries](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/libraries/)
- [Bush](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/bush/)
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- [FCC](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/fcc/)
- [supressed documents](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/supressed_documents/)
- [web2.0](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/web2.0/)
- [Sunlight Foundation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/sunlight_foundation/)
- [Open House Project](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/open_house_project/)
- [fdlp](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/fdlp/)
- [NASA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/nasa/)
- [NARA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/nara/)
- [Electronic Records Archives](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/electronic_records_archives/)
- [organizations of interest](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/organizations_of_interest/)
- [Center for Digital Democracy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/center_for_digital_democracy/)
- [Cheney](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/cheney/)
- [Vice President](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/vice_president/)
- [ISOO](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/isoo/)
- [Plum book](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/plum_book/)
- [web 2.0](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/web_2.0/)
- [broadband](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/broadband/)
- [Search](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/search/)
- [science.gov](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/science.gov/)
- [News](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/news/)
- [alaska](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/alaska/)
- [roundtables](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/roundtables/)
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- [akla2007](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/akla2007/)
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- [science](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/science/)
- [science policy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/science_policy/)
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- [blogroll](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/blogroll/)
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- [docuticker](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/docuticker/)
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- [streaming audio](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/streaming_audio/)
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- [washington d.c.](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/washington_d.c./)
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- [u.s. constitution](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/u.s._constitution/)
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- [real time information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/real_time_information/)
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- [calendars](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/calendars/)
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- [aerial imagery](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/aerial_imagery/)
- [local information](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/local_information/)
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- [newspapers](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/newspapers/)
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- [search tools](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/search_tools/)
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- [congressional research service](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/congressional_research_service/)
- [Comics](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/comics/)
- [Tom Tomorrow](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/tom_tomorrow/)
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- [Presidential Records Act](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/presidential_records_act/)
- [gpo](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/gpo/)
- [IFLA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/ifla/)
- [trains](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/trains/)
- [Amtrak](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/amtrak/)
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- [LOCKSS](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/lockss/)
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- [taxpayers](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/taxpayers/)
- [tax refunds](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/tax_refunds/)
- [identity theft](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/identity_theft/)
- [historical documents](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/historical_documents/)
- [United States](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/united_states/)
- [web archives](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/web_archives/)
- [govt web sites](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/govt_web_sites/)
- [Second Life](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/second_life/)
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- [terrorism](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/terrorism/)
- [information sharing](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/information_sharing/)
- [DHS](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/dhs/)
- [national intelligence](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/national_intelligence/)
- [Google Video](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/google_video/)
- [U.S. Attorney firings](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/u.s._attorney_firings/)
- [RNC](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/rnc/)
- [U.S. government](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/u.s._government/)
- [HIPAA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/hipaa/)
- [Library of Congress](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/library_of_congress/)
- [PBS](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/pbs/)
- [war veterans](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/war_veterans/)
- [oral histories](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/oral_histories/)
- [Medicare](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/medicare/)
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- [voting machines](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/voting_machines/)
- [U.S. Presidents](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/u.s._presidents/)
- [librarians](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/librarians/)
- [spring2007dlc](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/spring2007dlc/)
- [personal finances](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/personal_finances/)
- [historic newspapers](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/historic_newspapers/)
- [Subpoena](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/subpoena/)
- [govt oversight](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/govt_oversight/)
- [Waxman](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/waxman/)
- [U.S. Census Bureau](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/u.s._census_bureau/)
- [Google](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/google/)
- [google bomb](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/google_bomb/)
- [state government](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/state_government/)
- [FEMA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/fema/)
- [information technology](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/information_technology/)
- [geospatial data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/geospatial_data/)
- [USGS](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/usgs/)
- [polar research](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/polar_research/)
- [DLC](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/dlc/)
- [GIS](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/gis/)
- [funding](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/funding/)
- [Billington](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/billington/)
- [RSS](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/rss/)
- [bpe2007](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/bpe2007/)
- [Weinberger](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/weinberger/)
- [book reviews](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/book_reviews/)
- [commons](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/commons/)
- [centralization](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/centralization/)
- [public domain](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/public_domain/)
- [crime](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/crime/)
- [law enforcement](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/law_enforcement/)
- [virtual worlds](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/virtual_worlds/)
- [3d](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/3d/)
- [Nebraska](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/nebraska/)
- [Kansas](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/kansas/)
- [aall](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/aall/)
- [OAI](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/oai/)
- [panoramic views](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/panoramic_views/)
- [maps](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/maps/)
- [historic maps](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/historic_maps/)
- [wikis](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/wikis/)
- [federal libraries](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/federal_libraries/)
- [propaganda](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/propaganda/)
- [state documents](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/state_documents/)
- [sitemap](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/sitemap/)
- [GPL](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/gpl/)
- [Tag cloud](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/tag_cloud/)
- [Tag crowd](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/tag_crowd/)
- [CLOCKSS](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/clockss/)
- [openhouse](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/openhouse/)
- [NOAA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/noaa/)
- [electronic documents](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/electronic_documents/)
- [lobbying](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/lobbying/)
- [James R. Jacobs](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/james_r._jacobs/)
- [Jacobs](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/jacobs/)
- [images](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/images/)
- [Smithsonian Institution](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/smithsonian_institution/)
- [search engines](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/search_engines/)
- [Internet archive](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/internet_archive/)
- [Rheingold](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/rheingold/)
- [university of north texas](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/university_of_north_texas/)
- [unt](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/unt/)
- [Public Printer](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/public_printer/)
- [Baghdad](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/baghdad/)
- [scanning](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/scanning/)
- [national map](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/national_map/)
- [free data sets](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/free_data_sets/)
- [Alabama](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/alabama/)
- [FARA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/fara/)
- [Geodesy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/geodesy/)
- [NGA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/nga/)
- [Water](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/water/)
- [Tiger](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/tiger/)
- [NWRC](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/nwrc/)
- [Polar year](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/polar_year/)
- [Army](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/army/)
- [European Union](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/european_union/)
- [thomas](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/thomas/)
- [fees](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/fees/)
- [semantic](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/semantic/)
- [del.icio.us](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/del.icio.us/)
- [P2P](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/p2p/)
- [Upgrade](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/upgrade/)
- [FGIpodcast](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/fgipodcast/)
- [state libraries](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/state_libraries/)
- [sdltf](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/sdltf/)
- [Google Maps](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/google_maps/)
- [Google Earth](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/google_earth/)
- [open worldcat](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/open_worldcat/)
- [bibliographies](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/bibliographies/)
- [govdoc-l](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/govdoc-l/)
- [remixes](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/remixes/)
- [music](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/music/)
- [restrictions](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/restrictions/)
- [media](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/media/)
- [agencies](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/agencies/)
- [mashups](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/mashups/)
- [CIA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/cia/)
- [privatization](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/privatization/)
- [FEC](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/fec/)
- [cataloging](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/cataloging/)
- [metadata](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/metadata/)
- [politics](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/politics/)
- [worldcat](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/worldcat/)
- [humor](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/humor/)
- [portals](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/portals/)
- [spying](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/spying/)
- [education](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/education/)
- [databases](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/databases/)
- [state](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/state/)
- [Declaration of Independence](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/declaration_of_independence/)
- [ohp](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/ohp/)
- [fdsys](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/fdsys/)
- [Web-at-risk](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/web-at-risk/)
- [Web harvesting](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/web_harvesting/)
- [Op-ed](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/op-ed/)
- [DOJ](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/doj/)
- [USAPA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/usapa/)
- [EFF](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/eff/)
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- [Lessig](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/lessig/)
- [Foreign Service](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/foreign_service/)
- [Creative Commons](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/creative_commons/)
- [e-voting](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/e-voting/)
- [commercialization](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/commercialization/)
- [Democracy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/democracy/)
- [Pirate Party](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/pirate_party/)
- [Patents](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/patents/)
- [POD](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/pod/)
- [TSA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/tsa/)
- [Afghanistan](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/afghanistan/)
- [Grants](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/grants/)
- [Contracts](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/contracts/)
- [GSA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/gsa/)
- [Bridge collapse](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/bridge_collapse/)
- [Federal highway administration](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/federal_highway_administration/)
- [MN dept of transportation](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/mn_dept_of_transportation/)
- [Sierra Leone](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/sierra_leone/)
- [Intellectual Property](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/intellectual_property/)
- [CA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/ca/)
- [states](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/states/)
- [promotion](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/promotion/)
- [Data](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/data/)
- [Repository](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/repository/)
- [FISA](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/fisa/)
- [NSA wiretapping](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/nsa_wiretapping/)
- [Censure](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/censure/)
- [open formats](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/open_formats/)
- [digitized publications](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/digitized_publications/)
- [osu](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/osu/)
- [digital collections](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/digital_collections/)
- [Cryptome](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/cryptome/)
- [documents](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/documents/)
- [Google Books](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/google_books/)
- [welcome](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/welcome/)
- [Colbert](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/colbert/)
- [pdfs](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/pdfs/)
- [gao](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/gao/)
- [Satellites](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/satellites/)
- [policies](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/policies/)
- [APIs](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/apis/)
- [open government](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/open_government/)
- [ferries](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/ferries/)
- [hawaii](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/hawaii/)
- [superferrry](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/superferrry/)
- [surfboards](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/surfboards/)
- [bookmobile](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/bookmobile/)
- [e-mail](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/e-mail/)
- [youtube](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/youtube/)
- [Madelyn Helling Library](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/madelyn_helling_library/)
- [Orland Free Library](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/orland_free_library/)
- [OAIS](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/oais/)
- [Local govt](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/local_govt/)
- [health](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/health/)
- [safety](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/safety/)
- [West Nile Virus](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/west_nile_virus/)
- [crows](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/crows/)
- [Weaverville](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/weaverville/)
- [Redding](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/redding/)
- [Jeters' Victorian Inn](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/jeters'_victorian_inn/)
- [Herbert Kraft Free Library](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/herbert_kraft_free_library/)
- [Tehama County Library](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/tehama_county_library/)
- [Red Bluff](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/red_bluff/)
- [NDIIPP](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/ndiipp/)
- [Humboldt County Library](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/humboldt_county_library/)
- [restricted access security secrecy](https://freegovinfo.info/node/tag/restricted_access_security_secrecy/)
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