A long strange trip, ONDCP on YouTube
In what I *think* is a case of a government agency attempting to access the power of YouTube, the White House based Office of National Drug Control Policy has placed anti-drug messages on YouTube. Here is one of the videos: Is anyone else aware of gov't agencies officially placing material on YouTube? Does this strike you as a good idea? Why or why not? I wonder what will happen when people invariably tag protest or raunchy videos with ODNCP tags? Continue reading
Digital Preservation Network
Although not open to all, I wanted to highlight a new resource mentioned by Ray Matthews on the State-GILS list. If you are a "practioner employed in a government funded institution that is currently researching or participating in apprasial, acquisition, preservation or access of government records or publications", you should consider joining the Digital Preservation Network. According to the network web site, the organization "is dedicated to forging a community of particitioners who are focused on the issues of preserving the digital records and publications of government. This online forum will be a respository for the exchange and discussion of ideas, research, strategy and documents that can be used by other practicitioners in their organization." Their membership community looks like it will join together librarians and archivists at all levels of government. One of the documents you can find at the network site is Technologies & Tools for State Publications Digital Libraries by Ray Matthews. According to Ray's State-GILS posting:
This document is a short summary of the repository and harvesting technologies used by each of the 50 states in our collective ongoing quest to provide for the permanent public access to state publications. It is based on an environmental scan that I originally conducted in June 2005 when we were trying to determine what others were using. I've updated it with 2006 survey information graciously provided to the community by the surveys done by Theresa Pardo and Brian Burke of the Center for Technology in Government and Stephen Wilhoite at the Nevada State Library and Archives.This sounds like a valuable document and one that I hope Ray will post on other web sites. In the meantime, I've registered for a password to the network and if you belong to an eligible instiution, I'd recommend you request access too. Thanks Ray! Continue reading
Part 15: Nonlawyer’s journey through Title 44: – Prices for sales copies of publications
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. 44 USC 1708
TITLE 44--PUBLIC PRINTING AND DOCUMENTS CHAPTER 17--DISTRIBUTION AND SALE OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS Sec. 1708. Prices for sales copies of publications; crediting of receipts; resale by dealers; sales agents The price at which additional copies of Government publications are offered for sale to the public by the Superintendent of Documents shall be based on the cost as determined by the Public Printer plus 50 percent. A discount of not to exceed 25 percent may be allowed to book dealers and quantity purchasers, but the printing may not interfere with prompt execution of work for the Government. The Superintendent of Documents may prescribe terms and conditions under which he authorizes the resale of Government publications by book dealers, and he may designate any Government officer his agent for the sale of Government publications under regulations agreed upon by the Superintendent of Documents and the head of the respective department or establishment of the Government. (Pub. L. 90-620, Oct. 22, 1968, 82 Stat. 1280; Pub. L. 95-94, title IV, Sec. 409(a), Aug. 5, 1977, 91 Stat. 683; Pub. L. 103-69, title II, Sec. 207(b), Aug. 11, 1993, 107 Stat. 708.) Historical and Revision Notes Based on 44 U.S. Code, 1964 ed., Sec. 72a (June 30, 1932, ch. 314, Sec. 307, 47 Stat. 409). Amendments 1993--Pub. L. 103-69, in first par., struck out at end ``Receipts from general sales of publications in excess of the total costs and expenses incurred in connection with the publication and sale thereof, as determined by the Public Printer, shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of miscellaneous receipts.'' 1977--Pub. L. 95-94 substituted ``Receipts from general sales of publications in excess of the total costs and expenses incurred in connection with the publication and sale thereof, as determined by the Public Printer,'' for ``Surplus receipts from sales''. Effective Date of 1993 Amendment Amendment by Pub. L. 103-69 effective Oct. 1, 1993, see section 207(c) of Pub. L. 103-69, set out as a note under section 309 of this title. Effective Date of 1977 Amendment Section 409(b) of Pub. L. 95-94 provided that: ``The amendment made by subsection (a) [amending this section] shall take effect on October 1, 1977.'' Section Referred to in Other Sections This section is referred to in sections 1504, 4102 of this title.Surprising as it may seem, Congress placed limits on how much the Government Printing Office (GPO) could charge for government documents. Those who weren't surprised by Congress setting limits might be surprised that that price is higher than the cost of producing the item. I speculate that the original purpose was to get a little more money for the general treasury. Up until 1993, this section of the law required any funds receive over and above the costs of production be deposited into the US Treasury. Public Law 103-69 deleted that provision, allowing (I believe) excess funds to stay with GPO to be plowed back into the sales program. Unfortunately for the sales program, 1993 was the same year that Public Law 103-40, known as the Government Printing Office Electronic Information Enhancement Act of 1993 passed Congress. That legislation created GPO Access, a wonderful source of free government information (after a short-lived attempt at a pay service) that largely killed bread and butter subscription to titles like the Federal Register and the Congressional Record. But we will save a full discussion of PL 103-40 and related laws until our journey reaches 44 USC ch. 41, Access to Federal Electronic Government Information. Next time we will examine the law of blank forms and tie this hopefully serious look at Title 44 to our Best Titles Ever! Continue reading
Hardcore Non-Adopters: Another reason for tangible formats
While reading Bowling for Broadband 2: Toward Citizen-Centric, Broadband-Based E-Government, a ten page report issued by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, I was struck by this paragraph (emphasis mine):
Hardcore Non-Adopters Recent developments in the market place for Internet access threaten to render the old online vs. offline digital-divide debate a moot point. The nearly 30% of Americans who don’t have any type of Internet access can now be considered hardcore Internet non-adopters. The Internet has been a high-profile part of the nation’s culture for a decade and monthly dial-up access has been universally available for well under $10.00 per month for nearly as long. So, it is hard to make a case that these Americans have not made the intentional choice to stay off line or use someone else’s access. However, broadband providers are still optimistic they can persuade this demographic of the value of broadband. A recent study by Leichtman Research Group shows that the coaxial cable and DSL providers are not simply engaged in a zero-sum competition for each other’s customers. They are actively marketing to the 30% of offline Americans and the 28% who use dialup access with a wide range of packages and prices that are competitive even with “enhanced†dial-up services.Taking the Census Bureau's latest estimate, there are 299,566,801 American citizens. That means there are over 89,000,000 Americans who do not use the Internet at all, and more than 83,000,000 citizens who currently can't do better than a 56K modem. If you've got a 56K modem, HP estimates that it takes two minutes to download a 768K document. For a not untypical 5MB government document, our 83,000,000 dialup users will have to wait 15 minutes to see the file. That isn't real access. While Congress, the Government Printing Office and too many documents librarians can't wait for the totally electronic future, such a future will leave over a 170,000,000 million people behind simply because they do not have quick and easy access to broadband. Is that fair? If not, what can we do about it? Should we do anything. Should offline and underconnected people be excluded from knowing about their gov't if they underconnectedness is something under their control? Don't misunderstand me. I believe in digital government information as an important access tool. Just not the only access tool. Especially when it looks like it will be sole-source access through federal servers. Continue reading
Background on copyright of government documents
We've added a new page to the FGI Library, an excerpt from a Federal Judicial Center published book on copyright law explaining how copyright law has been applied to federal, state and local documents. So please have a look and have a discussion, either here or on the library page. Continue reading
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