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Sunlight calls on GPO to publish The Constitution Annotated in XML
220 Years Later, It’s Time to Publish the Constitution Annotated Online in XML, By Daniel Schuman, Sunlight Foundation, (09/17/09).
The Constitution Annotated has been written by the Library of Congress for nearly 100 years, and contains analysis of nearly 8,000 U.S. Supreme Court cases. Over the decades, GPO has published print versions of this extraordinary resource every two years, with limited electronic versions available from 1992 edition onward. Although the Library of Congress has drafted the Constitution Annotated in XML for a number of years, that data is no longer present when it is published online by GPO.Continue reading
8 more collections added to GPO’s federal digital system (FDsys)
The Government Printing Office (GPO) has just released 8 new collections into the Federal Digital System (FDsys) -- http://www.fdsys.gov/. That brings the number of collections in FDsys to 21 -- very cool indeed. The new collections are:
- Congressional Directory (105th Congress to present)
- Congressional Record (Bound) (1999 to 2001)
- Congressional Record Index (1983 to present)
- Economic Report of the President (1995 to present)
- GAO Reports and Comptroller General Decisions (1994 to 2008)
- History of Bills (1983 to present)
- United States Government Manual (1995/1996 to present)
- United States Statutes at Large (2003 to 2006)
Critical GPO systems and the FDLP cloud
[Update: 10/13/09: I've revised my thinking on the cloud as the term is loaded and doesn't really mean what I'm describing. A friend from the San Diego Supercomputer Center said, "some greybeards are going back to the original metaphor: the grid" and suggested the term "shared digital libraries" which is good. But what I'm describing is more like a biological ecosystem, the FDLP ecosystem. jrj] Last week's GPO purl server crash should be disconcerting to both the documents community and the public at large (in fact, although the hardware's been restored, resolution is ongoing as I write). I know GPO staff are just as worried about this and are doing everything they can to fix the purl server.
"The PURL Server is currently inaccessible. GPO is working with IT staff to restore service as soon as possible. We regret any inconvenience caused by the server problems. An updated listserv will be sent once service is restored."But in the meantime, there are 1250+ library catalogs and innumerable links to government documents that are not working. The crash of a critical piece of GPO's infrastructure brings a couple of things to mind: 1) What worries me about this is that FDsys and it's supposed upgrade in hardware/software/systems design is for all intents and purposes the same as GPOaccess. That is, FDsys is a monolith where the failure of one piece can cause the whole system to ground to a halt. As our readers know, we've been advocating for a long time for a distributed digital FDLP (a *true* "digital depository" system!). We're heartened by what we see of FDsys so far, but we need to be building a system with built-in redundancies. I envision a collaborative and distributed system of digital content, collaborative cataloging/metadata creation, as well as technical infrastructure. With this kind of system in place, a failed purl server will only cause a momentary blip in service as a backup purl server kicks on instead of a several week+ outage. How many system degradations (WAIS) and failures (purl server) until we shift our thinking from "[w:client-server]" (with libraries decidedly on the "client" side of the equation) to "[w:Peer-to-peer]" concepts and build systems with built-in redundancies that mirror what the FDLP has been for the last 150 years? How long before we build an FDLP cloud?
Internet Archive proposal for mass digitization
I had known that the Internet Archive had submitted a response to the GPO's RFP for mass digitization. A friend just sent me the link to the proposal submitted to GPO (embedded below and here's the link to the proposal and supporting documents). As you can probably guess, we've been pulling for the Archive to get the bid, not least of which because the Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit library and we've stated on more than one occasion that privatization of public domain government information is a very bad idea. But also, we've been heartened by the quality of the Archive's scans to date, their openness and willingness to be collaborative in their processes and data access and sharing. Those qualities certainly come through in their proposal for mass digitization -- not to mention the fact that they've actually made their proposal public! While the award has not been officially announced, we really hope that the Archive wins the award. Perhaps GPO will name them as an official depository library and work with them not only on the "legacy" collection (there needs to be a better description of the deep and rich collections of depository libraries than the somewhat pejorative "legacy" :-| ) but on digital deposit of government documents going forward. --that is all.
GITCO VIRTUAL FORUM – JOIN US MONDAY, MAY 18TH – 2PM PST/3PM MST/4PM CST/5PM EST
see this link for chat logs and more details on GITCO Scroll down and start typing to join the chat. or if it does not seems to connect join here What is Meebo and how do I get set up? TOPIC: GITCO committee structure and our impact within GODORT and beyond Accessing government information electronically is now common in both US and international contexts. How can GITCO best position itself withing GODORT/ALA and beyond to provide leadership on issues associated with electronic government information? This session is meant to be a brainstorm -- to collect ideas and examples, rather than to follow each contribution to its conclusion. The room will be open after the session if you would like to add things after the planned session. There is also a brief participant survey which includes a place for feedback. Agenda for Today's Forum: * introductions * logistics * reflections on past projects * reflections on committee structure within GODORT *take the survey
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