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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
FGI Bibliography on Issues Related to Government Information
Below is a bibliography -- alphabetical by title -- of resources relating to the many intertwining issues surrounding government information. You'll find here articles on copyright, Freedom of Information (FOIA), digital library management among others. We've also started using a Zotero group to collect articles on an ongoing basis. If you'd like to suggest other titles, please email us or post the citation(s) as a comment to this page.
- "Facts for Sale by Holley Knaus. Multinational Monitor, 5 (1991)
- Government Documents at the Crossroads [2001] by Karrie Peterson, Elizabeth Cowell, and Jim Jacobs, American Libraries, (Sept 2001) vol. 32 no. 8 p. 52-55.
- Government Information in the Digital Age: The Once and Future Federal Depository Library Program. by James A. Jacobs, James R. Jacobs, and Shinjoung Yeo [Article to appear in Journal of Academic Librarianship, May 2005, http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jacalib]
- Is the GPO Endangered? Miriam Drake, Information Today, August 5, 2002.
- "Let the People Know the Facts: Can Government Information Removed from the Internet be Reclaimed?" (PDF) by Susan Nevelow Mart, University of California, Hastings College of the Law. 98 Law Libr. J. 1 (2006) (It's also available via the Social Science Research Network)
- "Records Management Guidance for Agencies Implementing Electronic Signature Technologies." National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), October 18, 2000.
- State-by-State Report on Permanent Public Access to Electronic Government Information (2003) By Government Relations Committee and Washington Office American Association of Law Library
- Text of speech by Wayne Kelly, formar Superinendent of Documents, to the Federal Documents Task Force at ALAÃs Midwinter meeting in Washington DC (1997)
- Undocumented Evidence. The Politics (and Profits) of Information: The 9/11 Commission One Year Later. Max Holland, Washington Spectator,November 1, 2005
Official Documents by and about GPO and FDLP
Documents here are listed in chronological order, newest at the top.
- The Federal Government Information Environment of the 21st Century: Towards a Vision Statement and Plan of Action for Federal Depository Libraries. Discussion Paper Prepared by the Depository Library Council. September 2005 (PDF)
- GPO FDLP Statistics Compiled by ALA GODORT for discussion (June 22, 2005) (PDF). Compiled by John Stevenson, GODORT Chair.
- Update for ALA June 2005 (PDF). Statistics and information for GODORT Update at the 2005 ALA Annual Conference.
- ID 73: "Harvesting Federal Digital Publications for GPO's Information Dissemination (ID) Programs." This policy governs both manual and automated harvesting of publications from Federal agency web sites for inclusion in the Federal Depository Library and National Bibliography Programs. Continue reading
Privacy
*Update October 21,2005: James R. Jacobs, Shinjoung Yeo, and Danial Cornwall were invited to speak at the Nevada Library Association Annual Conference. Here's James' panel presentation about privacy and government information.
What you read about your government (or about anything) should be your business. But how well is your privacy protected? There is a great difference in privacy between the analog world of government publications and the Internet. In the analog world you decide the amount of privacy you have; in the digital world the servers of the information decide how much privacy they'll let you have.
Let's look at three examples: walking into a federal depository library; viewing information on a library's web site; and downloading a document from Federal Agency X's web site.
The Physical Depository Library - You can usually walk right into a Federal Depository Library. There are a few that may ask for identification, but even these libraries do not track your browsing. Once you walk in, you can browse all you like without being tracked. You can take books off the shelves and look through them and if you put them back on the shelves, no one will know what titles you looked through. If you decide to check some reports out of the depository, you'll be protected by the confidentiality statutes of the state where the library is. Since October 2001, it's been possible for your reading records to be turned over to federal authorities, but most libraries erase the record of any books you've checked out once you turn them in.
Viewing information on a library web site - Most libraries have websites these days. Many have explicit privacy policies that limit the information that the library collects. Some of the information they could collect include:
- The address (IP) of your computer or Internet provider.
- The date and time you accessed their site.
- The Internet address of the web site that referred you to their site.
- Tracking information via cookies. Most libraries won't put cookies on your computer.
Downloading Files from the website of Federal Agency X - When you go to http://www.fedagencyx.gov; the agency is able to collect the same kinds of information that the library can. According to M-03-22, OMB Guidance for Implementing the Privacy Provisions of the E-Government Act of 2002, federal sites may use cookies if there is a compelling need. According to the same memo, federal agencies must have a policy. We at Free Government Information are unaware of federal statutes protecting federal web browsing.
Does this mean we cannot have Internet access to government information without Uncle Sam looking over our shoulder? No. One solution would be to deposit electronic copies of government information with libraries and let the libraries serve the information on their own servers. That way, electronic government documents would be accessed from privacy minded librarians. Even if the government used its new powers under the PATRIOT act, it would have to make literally thousands of requests to find out who has handled a given document. This is unlike the current system, where the gov't can ask its own webmasters for as much data as they like without anyone knowing.
For further exploration try...
Web resources
- White House IT Policies
- Electronic Frontier Foundation Privacy Page
- Electronic Privacy Information Center Privacy Page
Articles
- Huff, James. Patron Confidentiality, Millennium Style. American Libraries, Jun/Jul99, Vol. 30 Issue 6, p86, 2p,
- Martin, Shannon; Chamberlin, Bill F.; Dmitrieva, Irina. State Laws Requiring World Wide Web Dissemination of Information: A Review of State Government Mandates for Documents Online. Information & Communications Technology Law, Jun2001, Vol. 10 Issue 2, p167, 12p,
- Murphy, Bernadette. Privacy and government information issues: Looking forward, looking back. College & Research Libraries News, Feb2005, Vol. 66 Issue 2, p132, 1p;
Books
- General Accounting Office. (2000). Internet privacy: comparison of federal agency practices with FTC's fair information principles . Washington DC: General Accounting Office.
- Hernon, Peter. (2002). United States government information : policies and sources. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
- Podesta, John and Shane, Peter M. (2004). A little knowledge : privacy, security, and public information after September 11th. New York: Century Foundation Press.
Please post suggestions for this bibliography in the comments section. Continue reading
“Policy neutral” does not mean “neutral policies”
August 21, 2005 / 1 Comment on “Policy neutral” does not mean “neutral policies”
Below is a copy of a comment I posted today to the Future Digital System (FDsys) Blog in response to a discussion thread there on the "policy neutral" nature of the FDsys.I invite your responses here or there. "Policy neutral" does not mean "neutral policies." "Policy neutral" means that there are no inviolable policies. The new system will, according to Magan Fleetwood, "adapt" to "guidelines created or adopted by GPO." So, while GPO may be committed today to no-fee permanent public access, the future digital system is designed to accommodate a change to that policy. While the FDsys requirements "do not prevent or limit free public access to authenticated content" neither do the requirements guarantee it. On the contrary, the system is designed to accommodate any policy, including the opposite of the current commitment. The FDSys is designed to be flexible enough to accommodate treating different information products differently -- some without fees and some with fees, for instance. It is easy to imagine how well-intentioned policies today could be superseded by financial or other constraints tomorrow. (See What the Copyright Office / Internet Explorer rule tells us about government information for real-life examples of such constraints.) The original "Transition Plan" was explicit about recognizing limitations when it said, "Electronic information under the custody of the SOD will be maintained for access" not permanently, but only, "as long as usage warrants." [emphasis added]. We can take no comfort from the fact that this wording (from 1996-1998 Transition Plan) has been dropped from subsequent plans because the new system is being designed not to prevent such policies, but to accommodate them. It is easy to imagine FDSys adapting to new policies and dropping information such as old reports that are not being used frequently, or statistics that are "out of date," or content judged "sensitive" by politicians, or large databases that are too expensive to keep online. It is easy to imagine content that is expensive to keep online and that is not used frequently being relegated to a fee-based system, or "permanent" access being provided by private-sector "partners." It is easy to imagine policies changing to accommodate financial constraints so that some information is available to the public without fees, but other information (or more functional versions of that information) are available only for a fee. When government information was deposited in depository libraries, such policy changes were difficult or impossible to implement. The new system is being designed to make it easy to implement them. In fairness, GPO cannot guarantee anything else. Magan is right to include qualifications to GPO's commitment to providing no-fee permanent public access; ("Based on enabling legislation" and "in-scope content" and "GPO intends to... permit..." [emphasis added]). GPO cannot go beyond what it is legislatively authorized and funded to do. How could it guarantee to provide access in the future to content that became defined by others as out of scope? How could it provide permanent, public, no-fee access to everything if its funding became inadequate to do so? How can GPO guarantee no-fee access if its own mission is to distribute electronic documents "on a cost recovery basis." GPO cannot guarantee these things so its "commitment," while noble, is not enough. There are, however, two things that GPO can guarantee. I ask GPO to respond here if it will do so. 1. Will GPO guarantee that it will provide information products for free to the public and that those products will be fully-functional and not encumbered, disabled, controlled or otherwise non-optimal or locked-down versions? 2. Will GPO guarantee that it will make available for deposit, without fee, into FDLP libraries that wish to receive them, all fully functional digital government information products within its purview? These are guarantees that GPO can make and that will accomplish two things that promises of future commitment cannot. First, they will ensure that government information will be, at its release, freely available to all without encumbrance and individuals will be able to use and re-use the information without having to pay for the information or its use and re-use. Second, while GPO cannot control the future, it can ensure that every new document is deposited, at its release, in as many libraries as possible, creating a safety net and alternative to the FDSys in case policies change. Continue reading →
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