No Fee Access under FDSYS: Past Performance No Guide
In the latest issue of the Federal Depository Library Program's Administrative Notes, there is this item: Library Services and Content Management Update Remarks by Richard G. Davis Acting Superintendent of Documents Director, Library Services and Content Management At the Federal Documents Task Force Meeting ALA Annual Conference Saturday, June 23, 2007 Among other issues, Mr. Davis talks about the no-fee access to government information:
GPO Access – No Fee Access I also want to emphasize that GPO’s commitment to provide the public with no-fee access to Government information through the FDLP, including GPO Access, remains the same. GPO will not allow access to content available through GPO Access to be restricted, diminished, or based on user fees for the FDLP. The public will be able to continue to print and download this information through the FDLP without restriction into the future.While we at FGI greatly respect the 150+ year tradition of no-fee access and while we believe that Mr. Davis is sincere in his commitment, he cannot bind Congress or future GPO leadership. Free access (leaving aside NTIS and other cost recovery bits) is Congressional and GPO policy today, but only future leadership can determine policy in the future. Whatever access scheme is available in 2095, Ric Davis won't have put it into place. While GPO cannot guarantee permanent no-fee public access by simple decree, it stands at a crossroads where it can either facilitate no-fee access or make it possible for future leadership to institute a pay per view model. If GPO were to work with the library community and deposit non-DRM digital publications based on selection profile, those publications would remain available for access and preservation no matter what future GPO policy was. A future Congress and GPO wouldn't be able to successfully order over 1,000 libraries to destroy their files and sign up for a pay per view system. Where GPO is currently going however, is a centralized model where users have access to a central repository of files. Today that repository is free. It isn't subject to Digital Rights Management. But that's today. Because they have custody of the electronic publication, our free access depends on the the good will of GPO and Congress' unwillingness to change USC Title 44. But given enough time that can change. Especially in the secrecy and privatization-hungry environment Americans find themselves in today. That is why what we need is a decentralized, distributed system of depositing electronic files to local libraries willing to host them. Libraries need to step up to the plate, and a Government Printing Office wishing to facilitate permanent no-fee public access needs to help with training, storage estimates and simple section mechanisms like those used to select LOCKSS journals. Continue reading
FDSys web site is getting a make over
The FDSys blog is reporting that the main FDSys web site will be redone. According to the brief post, "Updates will include Frequently Asked Questions, system capabilities, reference material, and outreach." If you have questions about the new web site, the FDSys blog post invites you to leave comments on the blog or sending questions to pmo@gpo.gov. Based on the new FDLP Desktop design, I'm hoping the FDSys web site redesign will bring good things and be more user friendly. There's still the issue of FDSys itself promoting an information monoculture, but that's been covered before and will be covered again. FGI appreciates all of the Government Printing Office's efforts to provide more communication and interaction with the community of federal information users. Continue reading
Corpus Christi Caller Times Supports FOIA Reform
Calling it one of our "greatest democratic reforms", the Texas based Corpus Christi Caller Times has endorsed a bill to strengthen the Federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). They conclude their endorsement as follows:
The Freedom of Information Act affirms the public's right to know what its government is doing in its name. It forces government officials -- often against their wishes -- to substitute transparency and openness for a natural bureaucratic tendency toward secrecy. We must never allow the public's right to know be suppressed for the sake of official convenience. Letting legitimate FOIA requests languish for weeks, months, years, even decades, is unacceptable.You can find the current status of the Open Government Act via Govtrack.us, one of our favorite remix sites. Continue reading
ALA GODORT Wants YOU to help build 50-State Database Registry
As part of their activities in the last ALA annual meeting, the GODORT State and Local Documents Task Force (SLDTF) approved the creation of a fifty-state registry of state government produced databases on the new GODORT wiki. SLDTF believes that there will be great value to librarians and end users alike in having the "invisible web" of state produced databases together in one place. You can find the home page for this project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. Right now, only Alaska has a developed page which you can find at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/Alaska as an example for what SLDTF hopes the other state pages will look like. Once this registry is complete, it will have a number of uses, not the least of which will be showing that documents librarians are tech savvy people who know where the information is buried even when Google can't find it. BUT, they need your help to make this happen. There are four ways you can help with this project: 1) Go to the wiki and start adding any databases you are familar with. Just click on the "edit" tab. Registering with the GODORT wiki is recommended but not required. 2) Agree to be a "documents specialist" for a particular state and post your contact information so people who are not comfortable with editing wikis can e-mail updates to you. 3) Recruit state agency department webmasters, other state employees or other subject specialists to contribute to the database listing. 4) As you become aware of a new state (or local) government database, e-mail Daniel Cornwall, project coordinator (dan DOT cornwall AT Alaska DOT gov) or the documents specialist for that state if you are not comfortable with editing a wiki. To me, this seems like a perfect collaboration project for the documents community. You WILL benefit from learning where your state's databases are and posting them to this annotated registry. The rest of us will benefit from having similar databases available from the fifty states and learning about your state's unique content. So, help ALA GODORT and yourselves by contributing to this project! If you adopt a state's page, would you leave a comment here so people can see how the registry is coming along? Continue reading
Not so fast: US broadband lags behind world
As GPO pushes forward with it's Digital Future System and as the well connected (Internet-wise) Congress moves away from print and towards an exclusively online government information world, they might want to consider this new report published by the Communications Workers of America: Speed Matters: A Report on Internet Speeds in All 50 States http://www.speedmatters.org/document-library/sourcematerials/sm_report.pdf According to this report:
The median download speed for the 50 states and the District of Columbia was 1.9 megabits per second (mbps). In Japan, the median download speed is 61 mbps, or 30 times faster than the U.S. The U.S. also trails South Korea at 45 mbps, Finland at 21 mbps, Sweden at 18 mbps, and Canada at 7.6 mbps. The median upload speed from the Speedmatters.org test was just 371 kilobits per second (kbps), far too slow for patient monitoring or too transmit large files such as medical records. Most people who went to Speedmatters.org to take the speed test used either a DSL connection or cable modem. Very few people with dial-up took the test because it took too long. According to surveys, somewhere between 30 to 40 percent of Americans still connect to the Internet with a dial-up connection. So the median speeds in this report are actually higher than if dial-up Internet users had chosen to participate in the survey. In other words, even these dismal statistics paint a rosier picture than the reality.The report was compiled by people visiting a speed test site and providing their zip codes, so it isn't truly a random sample. Still makes for interesting reading for broadband advocates. And it should make interesting reading for policymakers who desire to eliminate print. And for people interested in constructing a geographically distributed system of electronic federal publications which could be more easily accessed over urban networks than all users dragging every publication from Washington. Continue reading
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