Public Data on Private Schools
The Washington Post has a story today about "a little-known database on the Department of Education's Web site" -- the Private School Universe Survey (PSS):
- Mining the Web for public data on private schools, by Michael Birnbaum, Washington Post (November 2, 2009).
Private schools have a reputation for being, well, private. Private about their size, private about their students, private about rates of college-bound students. The information on their Web sites, which is sometimes meager, and the material that a pesky parent can wrangle from an admissions director sometimes seem to be all that is available to interested families. But a little-known database on the Department of Education's Web site has a surprisingly comprehensive profile of the nation's private schools. The Private School Universe Survey, part of the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, is a biennial roundup of private schools with information on enrollment, demographics, college attendance rates and number of days in the school year.Continue reading
A handful of classics from Peggy Garvin
The Government Domain: A Handful of Classics, By Peggy Garvin, LLRX (October 31, 2009) This is an update by Peggy Garvin of her tracking of federal web sites for her book, e-Government and Web Directory: U.S. Federal Government Online (formerly: United States Government Internet Manual). In it she notes that many federal government sites are not well optimized for indexing and ranking by popular search engines and that government web databases are still a large part of what is called the Deep Web or "the UnGooglable". She also found, in talking to professionals who are not information professionals, that "some standard government web resources are not as universally known as I had imagined. These are federal government resources that librarians know well and -- if they're like me -- tend to assume everyone knows. Everyone doesn't." She advises us to "Do the newbies a favor and clue them into a few old favorites" and she lists some of hers in this article. Continue reading
Problems with Accessibility of California Law
Law student, Robb Shecter, who has created the OregonLaws.Org web site, wrote us recently about the fact that California Codes have accessibility issues:
The California Codes are published online (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html) with crucial information absent (removed?) that renders them nearly impossible to use: No Section names ("leadlines") are present in this version-for-the-public. For example, the Sections relevant to the California Highway Patrol are presented like this: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=veh&group=02001-03000&file=2250-2269 The sections are thus relatively unusable, greatly increasing the cost of legal research and defeating access and transparency for nearly all people. The missing information is also crucial for third parties (like me) who'd like to create easy-to-use directories of the codes. The needed information does seem to exist, however. The names for this particular section, for example, can be found on the DMV website, for example: http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/vc/tocd2c2a2.htm Those DMV pages are unfortunately the exception that proves the rule. After seeing these Section names, it should be immediately obvious that these represent a crucial element of the codes that should be published along with the codes.Continue reading
Oregon once again claims that law is copyrighted
Oregon once again claims that law is copyrighted, by Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing, October 30, 2009. The Oregon Attorney General has asserted ownership over the "Attorney General's Public Record" and "Public Meeting Manual." See also:
- The Oregon Question: What is the copyright status of primary legal materials governing the actions of the citizens of Oregon?, Carl Malamud, Public.Resource.Org.
- Oregon Tries Claiming Copyright Over Gov't Materials Again, by Mike Masnick, techdirt, Oct 30th 2009.
Law Library of Congress refusing to retract report on Honduras coup
Library of Congress stands by report on Honduras coup, By LESLEY CLARK, McClatchy Newspapers (October 29, 2009).
Congress's law library is rebuffing calls from the chairmen of the House and Senate foreign relations committees to retract a report on the military-backed coup in Honduras that the lawmakers charge is flawed. The request, by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., has sparked cries of censorship from Republicans who say the Democrats don't like what the August report said: that the government of Honduras had the authority to remove deposed President Manuel Zelaya from office. ...Kerry and Berman maintain the report "contains factual errors and is based on a flawed legal analysis that has been refuted by experts from the United States, the Organization of American States and Honduras." The chairmen charge that a key line in the analysis was based on a provision of the Honduran constitution that was struck down in 2003 and that "critical portions rely exclusively on a single, outside individual who had previously and publicly declared his support for the coup."The report is: HONDURAS: CONSTITUTIONAL LAW ISSUES, Directorate of Legal Research for Foreign, Comparative, and International Law, The Law Library of Congress, REPORT FOR CONGRESS (August 2009) LL File No. 2009-002965, Prepared by Norma C. Gutiérrez, Senior Foreign Law Specialist. "This report discusses the legal basis under the Honduran Constitution for President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales’s removal from office."
Executive Summary: The Supreme Court of Honduras has constitutional and statutory authority to hear cases against the President of the Republic and many other high officers of the State, to adjudicate and enforce judgments, and to request the assistance of the public forces to enforce its rulings. The Constitution no longer authorizes impeachment, but gives Congress the power to disapprove of the conduct of the President, to conduct special investigations on issues of national interest, and to interpret the Constitution. In the case against President Zelaya, the National Congress interpreted the power to disapprove of the conduct of the President to encompass the power to remove him from office, based on the results of a special, extensive investigation. The Constitution prohibits the expatriation of Honduran citizens.Also see: Law Library of Congress refusing to retract report on Honduras coup: report, by Sarah Miley, Jurist (Oct 31, 2009). Continue reading