FDLP – The Final Frontier
Here is the latest video from "Obsessive Documents Librarians" Productions: This video highlights NASA publications available at many Federal Depository Libraries. Like our other community videos, this one is posted to our videos page. Think you can do a better job? So do I! Please create your own video celebrating Federal Depository Libraries or government information resources. Post it to the web and share the link with us so we can post it to the community videos page! Update 2/12/2007 - Changed video source to Capitol Hill Broadcasting Network for higher video quality. Continue reading
Happy 50th to Lamar University
While surfing the 'net I came across the news that the Mary and John Gray library at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a federal depository library. From the press release, it looks like the University is the only depository library in the 2nd Texas Congressional District. The press release also contains this description of the library's collection and importance to the local community that I hope is picked up by other media outlets:
The federal depository at Lamar contains more than 416,000 items, including print documents, maps, microfilm, microfiche, and electronic. Status as a federal depository is important not only to the region, it is a significant value to academic research and scholarship on campus as well. Faculty teaching courses in history and government make extensive use of the materials while undergraduate and graduate students find the resources invaluable for research as well. Patrons interested in researching their genealogy may use the genealogy link for family history research. "As the only federal depository in the region, the Mary and John Gray Library has done its part to safeguard the public's right to know by collecting and maintaining 64 percent of the documents available from the federal government," U.S. Rep. Ted Poe said in recognition of the Lamar milestone on Capitol Hill. "Since 1957, this library has served as one of the vital links between students, Southeast Texas residents and the government." Eastern district director Kristin Barrs attended the ceremony at Lamar University and read a copy of the representative's letter there.Recently, at least in the world of depository libraries, the headlines are dominated by other libraries celebrating their 100th anniversaries. Hopefully, the Mary and John Gray library will still be providing valuable government information services to their community in 2057 for their 100th anniversary. If any of the depository Centurions out their would like their library highlighted on FGI, would you either post a link to a news release or story in comments or e-mail me at dnlcornwall AT alaska.net with a description of your anniversary celebration? Thanks! Continue reading
Blacked Out: Government Secrecy in the Information Age
If you have access to EBSCOhost databases, you can read a review of the book "Blacked Out: Government Secrecy in the Information Age," by Alasdair Roberts in: Issues in Science & Technology; Winter2007, Vol. 23 Issue 2, p92-95, 3p Although the review isn't a 100% favorable, it looks like the book is worth a look. Particularly how it lays out a US-driven drive for secrecy across the world, according to the reviewer:
Roberts goes on to explain the three trends he sees as threatening the march toward greater transparency, and here he is perhaps most compelling. The first trend is the development of what he calls "opaque networks." Although the 9/11 Commission and the 2004 reform of the U.S. intelligence system made information-sharing a major priority in the fight against terrorism, much less appreciated has been the way in which information-sharing undermines the efforts to promote open government. Robert writes: "Transparency within the network is matched by opacity without." For instance, cities and states that work with the federal government on homeland security face strict new limits on what they can disclose under their own FOI laws. At the international level, Roberts reports that many of the new democracies of Eastern Europe specifically passed national security and other limits on transparency at the insistence of the United States. To participate in new information-sharing networks, these countries had to promise not to disclose any secrets exchanged, even if their own antisecrecy laws said otherwise.People not blessed by with EBSCOhost subscriptions can read a review by UMD author Daniel Hoffman. Continue reading
Employees Say: EPA Library System Continues to Implode
Thanks to Bernadine Abbott Hoduski for passing along this press release from a federal employees group regarding the EPA Library controversy: ----------------- Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337 EPA LIBRARY SYSTEM CONTINUES TO IMPLODE Union Charges EPA with Unfair Labor Practice for Refusing to Consult on Closures Washington, DC — Despite public pledges of cooperation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is refusing to consult with its own employees about the effects of past or schedule of future library closures, according to an unfair labor practices complaint released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In the face of growing congressional opposition, EPA continues to shutter libraries and make collections unavailable both to its own staff and the public. The unfair labor practice complaint was filed on Monday, February 5, 2007 by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National Council of EPA Locals, Council 238 before the Federal Labor Relations Authority. The complaint centers on the closure of the EPA Regional Library in Chicago and charges that EPA has refused to bargain on the impacts this action has on scientists and other specialists. The complaint asks for intervention to force EPA to enter binding arbitration on the subject. "EPA touts its outreach efforts but has refused to consult with its own professionals or anyone else prior to hacking apart its library system," stated PEER Associate Director Carol Goldberg. "It is ridiculous that our nation's top environmental professionals have to wage legal battle just to keep access to information." This Tuesday, in an oversight hearing before the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson testified that only five of the 26-library network had been closed. In fact, additional libraries have been shut, including, most recently the EPA Regional Library in Atlanta (serving eight southeastern states) where virtually all services had been transferred to Cincinnati. When confronted by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the committee chair, Johnson said he knew nothing about this functional shuttering of the Atlanta facility. The rationale for EPA's library shutdowns has shifted. Originally it was to save funds but agency studies show that its libraries produce cost savings several times their budgets by eliminating staff time that would otherwise be spent on tracking down documents. In addition, EPA's plan to digitize tens of thousands of documents will likely cost far more than the $1.5 million it estimated it might save. Now, EPA claims that it wants to modernize its information system, even as its budget is being cut - the FY 08 proposed budget unveiled by President Bush this week would cut EPA's budget by 6.6%. The agency, however, has not described how the new system it is implementing on a piecemeal basis will ultimately function. Nor is it known how this still-developing new system will perform any better. "EPA is forcing its entire staff to become their own librarians, wasting countless hours and sacrificing access to mountains of information formerly available," Goldberg continued. "These shuttered libraries handled tens of thousands of information requests each year, not the handful that EPA is now implying." ----------------- More information and commentary can be found at the PEER website. If EPA Officials authorized to speak on the record wish to comment on any of the claims above, especially: "The rationale for EPA's library shutdowns has shifted. Originally it was to save funds but agency studies show that its libraries produce cost savings several times their budgets by eliminating staff time that would otherwise be spent on tracking down documents. In addition, EPA's plan to digitize tens of thousands of documents will likely cost far more than the $1.5 million it estimated it might save." Please send an e-mail with a verifiable return address to admin AT freegovinfo.info and we will make an unedited blog posting out of your reply. Continue reading
New CRS Report on FOIA
According to the Open CRS Network, the Congressional Research Service has published this helpful report on proposed changes to the Federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): RL32780 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Amendments: 110th Congress February 01, 2007 The report reviews changes to FOIA that were proposed but not enacted in the 109th Congress in hopes of informing decision-making in the 110th. Aside from this legislative review, the report also contains this summary of what Federal FOIA is about and the perceived balancing issues:
The statute has become a somewhat popular tool of inquiry and information gathering for various quarters of American society -- the press, business, scholars, attorneys, consumers, and environmentalists, among others -- as well as some foreign interests. The response to a request may involve a few sheets of paper, several linear feet of records, or perhaps information in an electronic format. Such responses require staff time, search and duplication efforts, and other resource commitments. Agency information management professionals must efficiently and economically service FOIA requests, doing so, of late, in the sensitized homeland security milieu. Requesters must be satisfied through timely supply, brokerage, or explanation. Simultaneously, agency FOIA costs must be kept reasonable. The perception that these conditions are not operative can result in proposed new corrective amendments to the statute.Continue reading
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