CRS reports released on WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks has release 6,780 Congressional Research Service reports. The oldest report released goes back to 1990, but WikiLeaks says that the release of these reports "represents the total output of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) electronically available to Congressional offices." WikiLeaks has merged its report collection with the reports into OpenCRS, has set up mirror sites, and made the collection downloadable in compressed form and via Torrent. There is an alphabetical list of reports and a Chronological list.
- Change you can download: a billion in secret Congressional reports, EDITORIAL, WikiLeaks, February 8, 2009.
OMB Watch has RSS feeds
OMB Watch "exists to increase government transparency and accountability; to ensure sound, equitable regulatory and budgetary processes and policies; and to protect and promote active citizen participation in our democracy." They have been around form more than 25 years and are an excellent source for information about government openness and transparency and information policy. Their redesigned web site has a page listing their RSS feeds including one on Government Openness. They also have a blog, The Fine Print. Continue reading
Watch the dollars with ShovelWatch
Here is another non-government site about the economic bailout/recovery. This one is put together by investigative journalists. They are citing the stories they have done on the largest domestic spending bill in U.S. history and highlighting the best reporting from around the Web on the stimulus. ShovelWatch.org
ShovelWatch is a joint project of the non-profit investigative outfit ProPublica, the morning news program The Takeaway and WNYC, New York’s flagship public radio station. With investigative reporting, interactive features, and (not least) help from you, we’ll be tracking the stimulus bill dollars as they travel from Congress to your neighborhood. With your help, we’ll make sure that one of the biggest, fastest appropriations ever has a big, fast army to track whether it is well spent.Continue reading
Congressman Twitters secret trip to Iraq
Congressman Twitters secret trip to Iraq, by Rafe Needleman, CNet, February 6, 2009. Continue reading
More on Outreach – When is a door more than a door?
One of my favorite low-tech ways to get users at my library interested in the vast arena of government information available online is to feature different electronic items on my office door. I've just put up a display with some highlights from American Memory's collections about Abraham Lincoln. My previous display was on teaching tools related to Saturn from the Cassini mission, and prior to that, I featured educational materials about the food pyramid from USDA. I like these displays because they take almost no effort to assemble (I look for items that will print well and will hook the interest of a casual audience - teaching tools are great for this), and because they're in a location where nothing else competes for attention. These items are clearly "from the internet", and yet they are high-quality materials that could be of use to our library stakeholders, both in their academic and personal lives. I don't expect to build a legion of government information enthusiasts, but what I hope to do is interest some of my many daily passers-by in a tiny slice of what's available, in the hopes that they will do some exploration on their own and perhaps someday become interested in exactly how much is available, and why it's available, and who works to keep it available. Is it working? I have no way of knowing directly, but the chance that it might is worth the time to locate the resources and the few sheets of paper to print it out. Besides, it makes my office door that much more interesting. Continue reading