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The government information crisis is bigger than you think it is
[This post is adapted from our forthcoming book, Preserving Government Information: Past, Present, and Future.] Today we want to clarify something important about preserving government information. There is a difference between the government changing a policy and the government erasing information, but the line between those two has blurred in the digital age. When a […]
Here’s what govt info *should* be but isn’t currently
Here’s a a thought-provoking tweet forwarded to me by Jonathan Petters. Random twitter user Kenny Jacoby found a giant 1,200 page document that he wanted to use — not read! So what did he do? He banged on it for 8 hours in order to extract all the data from the PDF and convert it […]
Montana Library Association passes Resolution to fund US govt publications preservation
Bernadine Abbott Hoduski, the grande dame of government documents — she’s got a GODORT award named after her for gosh sakes! — sent me this announcement. The Montana library Association, at its annual membership meeting in March, 2017, passed a packet of resolutions including their Resolution on Funding the Preservation of Federal Government Publications (text […]
Research Works Bill endangers Government Information Policy
James Boyle, William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law at Duke Law School and co-founder of Science Commons, has a new piece about the so-called "Fair Copyright in Research Works Act" (H.R.801) that lays out the arguments against this bill in chilling detail. He says that the bill "is so badly drafted that it would also wreak havoc on federal information policy more generally."
- Misunderestimating open science, By James Boyle, Financial Times, February 24 2009.
As a copyright professor, I have to say the bill is a nightmare. For reasons I won’t bore you with, its limitations on Federal agencies are completely unworkable. And as a scholar who writes about innovation, I have to say that it flies in the face of decades of research which shows the extraordinary multiplier effect of free access to information on the speed of scientific development. But speaking as a human being, I just have to wonder what could be going through a politician’s head at a moment like this. ...This bill would forbid us from building the World Wide Web for science, even for the research that taxpayers have funded.See also: Act now for open access to govt funded research. Professor Boyle's most recent book is The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind (Yale University Press.) which you can download for free from http://thepublicdomain.org . Continue reading
FGI’s comment on GPO’s draft policy on preservation (SOD-PPS-4-2026)
March 29, 2026 / 3 Comments on FGI’s comment on GPO’s draft policy on preservation (SOD-PPS-4-2026)
GPO has asked for comments on its draft of a new version of its policy statement SOD-PPS-4-2026, “Permanent Public Access to U.S. Government Public Information through Preservation” which will supercede SOD-PPS-2016-4 (effective July 5, 2016). Unfortunately, the comment form had a 4000 character limit, so below is FGI’s complete comment. This policy implies that there […]
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