It’s official: Twitter isn’t Government Paperwork
The Office of Management and Budget has issued an interpretation of the Paperwork Reduction Act and how it applies to government agency use of social media such as Twitter. The Center for Democracy and Technology says, "Currently, there's a burdensome process for agencies who want to do something as simple as ask the users of their website whether they are pleased with their experience - and there has been widespread confusion about whether asking users on Twitter or other social networks amounted to the same thing. Luckily for those in agencies that want to use social media or blogs to engage the public, today's guidance makes it that much easier to do, clearly stating that most uses of interactive web tools are not, in fact, paperwork."
- It's official: Twitter isn't Government Paperwork, by Heather West, Center for Democracy and Technology (April 7, 2010).
- Social Media, Web-Based Interactive Technologies, and the Paperwork Reduction Act (Memorandum For The Heads Of Executive Departments And Agencies, And Independent Regulatory Agencies) Cass R. Sunstein, Administrator Office Of Information And Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget (April 7, 2010).
A personal story about open access
Are citizens who seek government information "busybodies on fishing expeditions"? Are they "persons seeking to embarrass government agencies"? Should each agency set its own fee for copying pages of public documents? Here is an account of one citizen in Oregon who calls attention to bad policies.
- An Oregon Story, By Darrell Flood, Sunlight Foundation Blog (04/08/10) Across the country people are going to government meetings asking for better government. In Oregon the Attorney General is asking people for their input and Darrell Flood answered the call to make sure the elected officials in Oregon know that government information needs to be online and updated in real time. He has graciously shared his experience with us.
New Blog from Archivist of the United States
David S. Ferriero, the Archivist of the United States (AOTUS), has started a blog:
- AOTUS: Collector in Chief We risk losing our memory as a country if we cannot meet the challenges of electronic records management. The fact is, without good records management, it is impossible for us to learn from the past and plan for the future. ...I expect the principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration to change the way we do things, the way we think about things, and the way we deliver services to the public.
March 2010 Lost Docs Report and Appeal
REPORT In February 2010, we posted 25 "lost docs" e-mail receipts sent by GPO to the librarians who reported these missing documents. These civic minded librarians in turn e-mailed us their receipts. How many reports did GPO receive? Only they know, but the more people who send their fugitive docs e-mail receipts to lostdocs@freegovinfo.info, the more accurate our count will be. This month's count is particularly underreported. Owing to my attendance and blogging at the 2010 Public Library Association Conference and participating in an excellent distance delivered Museum Registration class, I was unable to post many lost documents receipts I got. They will be posted in April. My apologies to the librarians who sent me reports but failed to see them posted. Of the 25 reported items that were posted to the blog in March, three items have been cataloged by GPO since the initial report. You can view this list by visiting lostdocs.freegovinfo.info/category/found/ and looking at the postings with March 2010 dates. We are appreciative of these new records. In our view, three of the items reported to GPO and posted to the blog in January were either out of scope for the Catalog of Government Publications (CGP) or were already in the catalog. You can view these items by visiting lostdocs.freegovinfo.info/category/false/ and looking for items with March 2010 dates. In two of these "false positive" cases, it looks like GPO had received the tangible item near the published date of the item and cataloged an electronic equivalent, but did not distribute the tangible item to the Federal Depository Library Program. This may or may not be in accordance with GPO SOD 301 which states that budget permitting, tangible documents will be offered when both tangible and online formats are available. With the available information in these two CGP records, it is unclear whether GPO made a conscious, budget related decision to not offer these publication or just forgot to send them out. We encourage GPO to begin putting notes explaining why a given item was not distributed to the FDLP into the item's bibliographic record. If you are interested in viewing this category of publication, visit http://lostdocs.freegovinfo.info/category/explain/ and look for items with March 2010 dates. We strongly encourage people with instances of CGP cataloged but non-distributed federal documents to use GPO Help and not GPO's Lost Docs form. 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.
This week’s hot docs from ResourceShelf
Our pal Gary Price runs both ResourceShelf and Docuticker, two must-read sites for docs geeks and great tools for library collection development. He just sent some highlights from the last week on ResourceShelf. Be sure to check out the Docuticker ticker in the left column. You can also find Gary on twitter (@resourceshelf).
- A New Blog From the GPO: Government Book Talk
- Online Databases: The New and Improved Prints and Photographs Online Catalog from Library of Congress What a difference! Awesome!!!
- Gov Docs: Public Printer of U.S. Tapella Visits and Does Some Research With Archivist of the U.S., David Ferriero at the National Archives (Even a Picture (-:)
- U.S. Gov Info: Banking Agencies Modernize Uniform Bank Performance Report (UBPR) New Way to Access Data
- CRS — Government Collection of Private Information: Background and Issues Related to the USA PATRIOT Act Reauthorization
- Local Government: California Interactive Map: California: Compliance With Water Quality Laws
- U.S. Government: A Searchable Database of Earmark Data and More Make sure to note the links at the bottom. One is a story from The Hill newspaper.