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Bill would privatize some USGS data
Congress Seeks to Privatize Some USGS Water Activities by Kris Christen. Chemistry.org, American Chemical Society. Reprinted from Environmental Science & Technology, June 8, 2005.
More of the data collection and analysis work conducted through the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) cooperative water program could be privatized under language in the U.S. House of Representative’s Department of the Interior fiscal year 2006 appropriations bill. Supporters of the privatization language say that it would stop USGS from competing with the private sector, but many environmental managers fear that important data collection efforts would be weakened.Continue reading
Comments on DLC Remarks by the Superintendent of Documents
Some of the formal remarks made by Superintendent of Documents Judith C. Russell at the Depository Library Council meeting in Albuquerque (April 17, 2004) both help clarify GPO's vision of the role of libraries and raise some questions.
Ms. Russell said that, "We need to continue our joint efforts to redefine the characteristics and roles of depository libraries...." While it is clear to everyone in the depository community that the availability of digital information must change how we do things, it is not clear why some think that we must redefine what libraries do. Ms. Russell makes it explicitly clear that GPO thinks that redefinition is required and that the role of depository libraries will be greatly diminished. She articulated GPO's vision of the role of libraries this way:
...the focus of the FDLP is continuing to shift from managing collections to providing services.
And further, Ms. Russell says that, when a library director asked her why he should remain a depository library, she responded:
Continue readingIRS Package X Soon to Be Obsolete
IRS Package X Soon to Be Obsolete. WebCPA, June 2, 2005.
Continue reading"To reduce the $1.8 million in printing and mailing costs associated with Package X and to support the agency's transition to electronic media and communications, the IRS said that Package X will become obsolete in the summer of 2005....
"Individual tax products are available online at http://www.irs.gov and from other commercial and government sources. Publication 1796, IRS Tax Products (a CD-ROM equivalent to Package X) is sold by both the Superintendent of Documents under the Government Printing Office and the National Technical Information System under the U .S. Department of Commerce."
Not a “myth” — an unanswered question
One of the major concerns I have about the future of free access to fully-functional digital government information is that GPO's strategic planning document and the documents outlining its future digital system raise many questions which GPO has not addressed. These include questions about user privacy, long-term funding, use of digital rights management technologies, and deposit of digital files with depository libraries. One major underlying problem that GPO has not addressed is that its Strategic Vision document has conflicting missions: to provide "free and ready public access" to electronic documents and to distribute electronic documents "on a cost recovery basis." How can GPO provide electronic documents for free and for fee at the same time? I was encouraged for a moment when I saw it was addressing this very issue in its handout, FDLP Myths and Monsters (included in the April/May Admin Notes). The very last item in this list is: Continue reading
Digital divide has not disappeared
June 3, 2005 / Leave a comment
Digital divide has not disappeared By Paul Lamb, CNET News.com, Jun 03, 2005
Consultant Paul Lamb, who is a fellow with the Community Technology Foundation of California writes that "If you read only the big picture statistics, you might be fooled into believing that the digital divide has indeed been bridged" but "if you read in more detail about Internet and technology use in America, you will find a much different story." He points to new studies and suggests specific approaches to identifying the scope of the "knowledge divide" and identifying solutions.
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