A thread on govdoc-l about the google print project and access to hearings on friday caught my eye. At first I was excited because I learned that google-digitized hearings are available full-text for 1980s-era Congressional
hearings through the University of Michigan online catalog (Mirlyn) (see the govdoc-l post for directions because it is far from intuitive to get at those digital documents!). My excitement quickly turned despondent as I read on and found that “one must view the full-text one page at a time. Only single pages can be printed or saved, one at a time … can’t find a way to print a range of pages or to save the entire document in one file.” I appreciate that UMich is at least willing to push back on the copyright czars and give access to public domain government information but is this the access to which we’ve be reduced?! Access without functionality is neither. *sigh*
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