Updated 12:20pm to reflect comment below
While checking my feeds at Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com), I see that the FGI feed at http://freegovinfo.info/blog/feed has 17 subscribers. So that leaves 16 of you that like us so much that you’ve plugged us into a news aggregator.
If you’re reading us strictly through Bloglines or another news aggregator, then you’ve missed out on our New additions to the grassroots proceedings for the Spring 2005 Depository Library Conference at http://freegovinfo.info/spring05_DLC. We’ve got new coverage of Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday events, including what looks to be a fairly complete summary of the DLC Open Forum where Bill Sudduth read a two page letter from a retired (but well respected) librarian that appeared to criticize depository librarians for being luddites. It’s a little hard to tell without the full document. Hopefully it will be included in GPO’s official proceedings to be published hopefully in late May.
Hopefully Ridley wasn’t referring to the growing number of librarians trying to nudge GPO into committing to the local deposit of electronic files; or to those tech-savvy people who know that there are no current “best practices” to digital preservation.
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Bill Sudduth –
As the reader of the letter from Ridley Kessler I want to reassure you and the rest of this forum that the letter was NOT from GPO but from Mr. Kessler. It will do your discussion much credit to make sure you get your facts correct before you post information.
Hi Bill, Welcome to freegovinfo. I hope we will be hearing more from you.
I don’t believe that either the DLC Forum notes, nor my posting said that this letter was FROM GPO, only that it was read at the forum by GPO Staff.
The notes for the DLC forum said:”A long letter from Ridley Kessler discussed the fact that GPO was giving us what we’d asked for over a ten-year span. He said that the electronic depository was a fact and what the public wants. Libraries opposed to giving up paper are Luddites in the path of progress. GPO can’t afford to support outmoded formats.”
My post that you replied to said:
“Including what looks to be a fairly complete summary of the DLC Open Forum where GPO took the time to read a two page letter from a retired (but well respected) librarian that appeared to criticize depository librarians for being luddites.”
I’m not sure how you could get the impression that either of us cited someone other than Ridley Kessler was the source of the letter. Thus, I feel that our facts are in order.
However, it seems clear that Sharon did not mention WHO read Ridley’s letter. My assumption was that it was someone from GPO or the DLC and thus had GPO approval. Thank you for letting us know that you read it. How did you think the letter was received? Any reactions from GPO, the DLC, or other attendees would be very welcome. The more observation points we have, the better our picture of this meeting will be.
If Ridley sends his letter to us, I give you my word we would post it in full without editing.
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“And besides all that, what we need is a decentralized, distributed system of depositing electronic files to local libraries willing to host them.”
Bill Sudduth
Dan – first to say that “GPO took the time read a letter” implies that GPO had the letter inserted into the record – which by the way is false; second to not accurately report who read the letter is an omission that continues to torque the truth; secondly to then say that “GPO staff” read the letter shows another grave misunderstanding as to the purpose and role of the Depository Library Council. I have been a documents librarian for 20 years and never been on the staff of the Government Printing Office. Please check your facts and double-check your facts – I believe in the power of communication and commend the existence of this forum but for this forum to work it most be credible and to trip up on basic facts of reporting will hurt this forum’s goal to advance any solutions.
My question back to the discussion is – who do you think the luddites are? And why should the people who are far from being luddites be concerned about the use of the word?