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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
New versions of JAL FDLP article now available
The article, "Government Information in the Digital Age: The Once and Future Federal Depository Library Program" by James A. Jacobs, James R. Jacobs and Shinjoung Yeo, previously available as a pre-print here, is now available in new versions.
- In print: Journal of Academic Librarianship, (May 2005), Vol.31, No.3, pp198-208.
- Official online version: doi:10.1016/j. acalib.2005.02.006
Free, fully functional access can increase sales!
As GPO looks for a way to find a new business model that allows it "bring revenues in the door" (as Mr. James says) and at the same time provide "free and ready public access" to electronic documents (as the GPO Strategic Plan says), it might do well to look at this:
South African lessons: Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). (Lessig Blog, May 27, 2005). In this blog posting, Lawrence Lessig notes the experience of the HSRC in changing their publishing model. They started "to give away all their research books for free online, and offer a high quality print-on-demand service for anyone who wants the paper version. The result: 'the sales turnover of the publishing department has risen by 300%.'" The posting has links to more information.
The clear lessons from this seem to be a) that it is possible to make money by selling paper and ink and b) that giving away digital versions can even increase sales.
Continue readingWhere oh where did that govt document go?
Has anyone got a digital copy of the Overseas Base Closing Commission report that was released a couple of weeks ago? It seems the Secretary of Defense didn't like it so he had it pulled from the Internet. I'd be willing to trade for the May 3, 2005 GAO Report on Military Base Closures. Heck, I'll give you the report up front! If you have a digital copy, please send it to admin at FreeGovInfo dot info. 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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