Roundup of New Resources and Other Government Info News (12 Items)
Hello From DC. Here are some catchup posts from the past couple of weeks that I was unable to get to when the stories were first posted. I've also tossed in a few items not directly from a government source but that still might be of interest and/or use. The items were culled from our INFOdocket.com site where we post news and new resources on a variety of topics. Almost all of them are from the past week. 1. New Interactive Map: “World Debt Comparison: The Global Debt Clock” Data from EIU 2. World Data Population Sheet 2011 From the World Population Bureau 3. “EPA Publishes Rule to Improve Reporting of Chemical Information” 4. “New Online Database Launched by the [European] Commission to Make Legal Data on Unfair Commercial Practices Available” 5. USA.gov Directory of Mobile Apps Has Two New Additions 6. NOAA — Deepwater Horizon: A Preliminary Bibliography of Published Research and Expert Commentary 7. From the AP: “Mystery Surrounds Loss of Records, Art on 9/11? 8. New: “University of Oregon Website Holds Archive of Historic Newspapers” 9. New Database: “History Makers Makes its Debut” (Bios of Elected Officials/Others from State of Washington) 10. High Interest GAO Report — Social Media: Federal Agencies Need Policies and Procedures for Managing and Protecting Information They Access and Disseminate 11. New Report: “#SocialCongress: Perceptions and Use of Social Media on Capitol Hill” 12. California History: Online Archive of California (OAC) and Calisphere Add Local History Resources Continue reading
Center for Public Integrity Report: “Millions of Federal Court Records are Being Destroyed to Save Money”
(via INFOdocket) From the Article: The federal courts are destroying millions of judicial case records that have been stored in the Federal Records Centers of the National Archives for decades, all in an effort to save money. The plan is to destroy all records on cases that did not go to trial that were filed between 1970 and 1995. For other records, the federal judiciary has reduced the current record retention time from 25 to 15 years in an effort to cut costs. All cases that went to trial or were filed before 1970 will be kept. When a federal case is filed, it is held in the U.S. District Court of record for a period of time, but is ultimately transferred to one of the Federal Records Centers in 17 cities around the country. The National Archives charges the courts a storage fee for holding these documents; last year the fee was over $6.2 million. The new retention plan will help save $7.7 million over the next 10 years. However, the decision to destroy 79,000 boxes filled with civil cases, 43,000 boxes of criminal cases and over 500,000 bankruptcy records is cause for concern among legal historians and advocates for public access to information. Direct to Full Text of CPI Article Continue reading
New House Ethics Committee Report Search Tool
New House Ethics Committee Report Search Tool, by Daniel Schuman, Sunlight Foundation (Aug. 4, 2011).
The House Ethics Committee is responsible for investigating and making recommendations on the enforcement of House ethics rules. In an nod towards transparency, its reports and statements are published online -- but they are virtually unusable. The Committee publishes documents in an unsearchable PDF format, spreads them out over of 24 pages, and gives them impenetrable titles like "Statement of the Chairman and Ranking Minority Member." Search engines (like Google) cannot see the documents, and only the most patient will click on each link to see what's inside. We've taken all 120+ documents, made them searchable, and published them online in a database.House Ethics Committee search tool. Continue reading
New eNewsletter: FDLP Connection (Vol 1. No. 1) Now Available
A very brief note to let you know that the first issue of FDLP Connection is now available on FDLP.gov Vol. 1 No. 1 contains three columns, three feature articles, and much more. The Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine at Orono is the Library Spotlight of the Month. Mansfield Library at the University of Montana is featured as the partnership showcase. Congrats to all involved on the launch of FDLP Connection (Hat Tip: INFOdocket.com) Continue reading
July 2011 Lost Docs Report and Appeal
REPORT In July 2011, we received and posted 16 reports to GPO from librarians reporting documents that had seemingly fallen through the cracks of the cataloging process. The reports were originally sent to GPO between May and July 2011. This month of the 16 reported documents posted by us, 3 (18%) have been cataloged and are in the Catalog of Government Publications (CGP) as of this writing. See these records for yourself by visiting lostdocs.freegovinfo.info/category/found/ and looking at the postings with July 2011 dates. We are appreciative of these new records. From July, 13 items remain listed as "fugitive documents." No documents reported to GPO appeared to already have public CGP records. So there were no "false positives" for the month. Two of the 3 cataloged documents had not been assigned a PURL. So these were classed "found" but with "preservation needed." Please remember that our listing of "fugitive documents" reports is only as complete as you make it, since GPO does not yet publish any statistics we're aware of on fugitive documents/document discovery. APPEAL If you like the concept of a public listing of fugitive documents reported to GPO, there are a number of easy ways to help us:
- If you report a fugitive document to GPO, send your e-mailed receipt to lostdocs@freegovinfo.info. We welcome any item reported to GPO in the past month. It is best if you can send us the receipt the same day you get it from GPO. Some e-mail programs will support auto-forwarding. If so, please consider autoforwarding items where the subject contains "lostdocs submission."
- Visit the blog at lostdocs.freegovinfo.info and comment on the listed items. Comments can include -- Did your library receive the item? Did you find it in the CGP? Do you think the item is out of scope for the CGP? Did you report the item as well and so on.
- Post the blog link to your website or share it on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media.
- Subscribe to the blog feed at lostdocs.freegovinfo.info/feed/ or better yet incorporate the feed into your website or blog.