Check out The Gov Doc
Washoe County Library System librarian Ian Campbell has started a new blog called The Gov Doc that looks like it will deal with local, state and federal documents of interest to Nevadans and others. In his first entry, Ian says:
Blogging is new to me and I will be working and learning to make this an informational site for postings on new developments in federal, state, and local government publications, both in book and electronic formats.With about a post a week so far, Ian seems to be well on his way to realizing his goals. I especially appreciate his intention to "link to a local document of current interest at least once a week" because local documents are usually the hardest to come by. Thanks Ian, for reaching out to your users and the rest of us in this way! The blog is located at http://washoegovtakes.blogspot.com/ and the RSS feed is http://washoegovtakes.blogspot.com/atom.xml if you'd like to subscribe to it through Bloglines. I have. Continue reading
50-State Blue Book updated – now includes South Carolina info
Marylaine Block was kind enough to mention my 50-state Blue Book guide on her August 4th issue of Neat New Stuff on the Net. Not surprisingly, around the same time I got e-mailed a few corrections which I'm very thankful for and have now been posted to the web. In addition, Paul Lewis stopped by FGI and left the address of the South Carolina Legislative Manual, which is a full government directory plus state symbols and emblems. Thanks Paul! I'd also like to point out that over half the links on the "Blue Book" page were contributed by Jennifer Manning of the Congressional Research Service. She's been credited at the bottom of the page, but maybe I need to make that thanks more visible. It may be on my web site, but this guide really is a community effort. Thank all of you for the corrections/additions you have sent, and if you have more, drop them in comments or in e-mail to dnlcornwall AT alaska.net. Lastly, I'd like to point out that I've got more state information links besides the Blue Books/Directories page. Feel free to offer amendments to those as well. Continue reading
Millions of people looking at records through FOIA, backlogs continue to rise
More and more people are using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to learn about what their government is doing, according to this July 26, 2006 report from the Government Accountability Office: Freedom of Information Act: Preliminary Analysis of Processing Trends Shows Importance of Improvement Plans, GAO-06-1022T. According to the report summary (emphasis mine):
According to data reported by agencies in their annual reports, the public continues to request and receive increasing amounts of information from the federal government through FOIA; however, excepting one case--the Social Security Administration (SSA)--the rate of increase has flattened in recent years. (SSA reported an additional 16 million requests in 2005, dwarfing those for all other agencies combined, which together total about 2.6 million; SSA attributed this rise to an improvement in its method of counting requests. However, Justice officials have suggested that SSA consider treating the bulk of these requests as non-FOIA requests and thus not include them in future reports.) When SSA's numbers are excluded, data reported by the other 24 major agencies show that the number of requests received increased by 27 percent from fiscal year 2002 to 2005, but by only about 2.5 percent from fiscal year 2004. As more requests come in, agencies also report that they have been processing more of them--25 percent more from 2002 to 2005 (but only about 2.0 percent more than from 2004). Despite processing more requests, agencies have not kept up with the increase in requests being made: the number of pending requests carried over from year to year has been steadily increasing, rising to about 200,000 in fiscal year 2005--43 percent more than in 2002. The rate of increase in requests pending is also growing: the increase from fiscal year 2004 to 2005 is 24 percent, compared to 11 percent from 2003 to 2004.The report also detailed flaws in agencies' measurement and resolution of backlogged FOIA requests. If you would like to add to the gov't backlog while learning how your tax dollars are being used, see the National Security Archive's guide to FOIA. It's also possible your interest area has already been made public in a federal FOIA reading room. Continue reading
Run for your lives! The forests are blogging!
One of the promises of e-government is that of greater interactivity and less formality. Perhaps in hopes of promoting both, the Tongass National Forest has begun an official blog at http://tongass-fpadjust.net/FPA_Blogs.htm. Its identity as a blog is not obvious until you start clicking on topic links like:
The "forest blogs" accept comments, but you must complete a one-time registration first. Given the heated comments on both sides of forest management, I personally see nothing wrong with registration. It will be interesting to see if this device will help produce dialog in forest management issues. One thing is pretty clear and that is without a good amount of planning, it is unlikely we'll be able to look back on these blogs and see what people were saying about the Tongass in 2006. For background on why that is likely so, please check out our issue paper on preservation. Continue readingNot Just Blogs: Issues – Access
In our current but undervoted poll, we got this kind comment from a regular Bloglines reader:
As much as I like your blogs, I like your web site even better. Since some folks may only know you through the blogs, you might want to remind everyone about your site and its features. Keep up the great work! --Jerry GillWe think Jerry has a good point, and so we'd like to introduce you to a once-a-week tour of the pages of Free Government Information which we're calling "Not Just Blogs." Each week a FGI volunteer will briefly highlight one of our pages and take questions and suggestions about it. Today I kick things off by exploring the Access page of our Issues section. From the front page of Free Government Information, click on Issues:
Then on Access:
The Access page consists of a short essay on accessing government information, what we view as current threats to continued access and a short list of websites, articles and books chosen to help you explore this topic further. It was originally written in 2004 and has been updated with information from our October 2005 presentation to the Nevada Library Association. Please look it over and let us know whether you think our concerns are overblown or not nearly strong enough.
If you have suggestions for additions to the short bibliography, we'd like to hear about those as well.
Until next week, happy exploring!
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