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Bulk access to THOMAS and Legislation
From a blog post at Sunlight Foundation:
Yesterday, Rep. Bill Foster introduced a bill that would improve public access to legislative information. Specifically, H.R. 6289 calls for: * Bulk access to THOMAS legislative summary and status data, * The creation of an advisory committee that would issue recommendations on improving services provided by THOMAS, and * The Library of Congress to work towards adding bulk access to the full text of legislation. Rep. Foster Introduces Bill To Improve THOMAS, By Daniel Schuman, Sunlight Foundation (09/30/10).Continue reading
Libraries: Good News, Bad News
This week, two stories in the news about libraries highlight the importance of libraries to their communities and the challenges they face.
- Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Announces Support for Library Facilities Across the Country. U.S. Department of Agriculture Press Release No. 0486.10 (Sept. 24, 2010). Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced investments in 30 states that will create jobs by building and enhancing libraries in 129 rural communities across the nation. The projects are being funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act). "Libraries are the centerpiece of rural community life, but in many cases they need additional funding to provide rural residents with computer access, modern equipment and new training and educational opportunities," Vilsack said. "These Recovery Act investments in our nation's libraries will serve rural America for generations to come."
- Anger as a Private Company Takes Over Libraries, by David Streitfeld, New York Times (September 26, 2010). Can a municipal service like a library hold so central a place that it should be entrusted to a profit-driven contractor only as a last resort -- and maybe not even then? "There's this American flag, apple pie thing about libraries," said Frank A. Pezzanite, the outsourcing company's chief executive. He has pledged to save $1 million a year in Santa Clarita, mainly by cutting overhead and replacing unionized employees. "Somehow they have been put in the category of a sacred organization."
Association of American Publishers says taxpayers have not paid for journal articles
More reporting on the hearing this week on Public Access to Federally-Funded Research: In his testimony to the House Committee On Oversight and Government Reform, Alan Adler of the Association of American Publishers, said:
Publishers strongly believe that American taxpayers are entitled to the research they've paid for.... But taxpayers have not paid for the private sector, peer-reviewed journal articles reporting on that research. ...Peer-reviewed articles published in scholarly journals are not research, federally-funded or otherwise. They describe and explain the process, findings and significance of research. They require substantial amounts of the publisher's resources to ensure that their content is accurate, new, and important.Or, as Barbara Fister comments at Inside Higher Education,
Sure, taxpayers are entitled to federally funded research, but "peer-reviewed articles published in scholarly articles are not research." No, they are the intellectual property of publishers, because they're the ones who spend all kinds of money to make sure the science in them is accurate. I'm not kidding. He actually said that. It's publishers who make sure the research is "accurate, new, and important." That peer review you do for free? They have to spend millions to make sure you do it right. So we have no problem, and taxpayers have to right to this stuff because it's not research.Continue reading
Publisher argues free access to research violates transparency initiative
Publisher argues free access to research violates administration's transparency initiative, By Aliya Sternstein, NextGov (07/30/2010).
...But a mother of two children diagnosed with a rare disease, who also testified at the hearing, said access to such articles has been critical to treating their illness....Continue reading
End of Senate Secret Holds Moves Closer
Reid moves closer to ending secret holds in Senate, By Michael O'Brien, The Hill (07/28/10)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) added a bill to eliminate the practice of secret holds on nominees to the Senate calendar on Wednesday.... Adding the legislation to the calendar has the effect of moving the legislation closer to the point where Reid could bring it up for a vote. If Reid does bring it up, it appears that he may have the votes to do away with the practice after Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) lobbied Senate colleagues to end it. Sixty-seven votes are needed to change Senate rules, and McCaskill, as of late June, had said she'd gathered 68.Continue reading
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