Change.gov hosting health care discussion
Change.gov continues to change. Now they seem to be hosting citizen led discussions on selected topics. They started a discussion on health care this week. The starting point was a video briefing from the health care team followed a few starter questions. As of this writing, there were 44 pages of comments. Comments default to be sorted by user rating. It appears to be working. The comments I saw at the top of page seemed to be thoughtful posts engaging the questions asked. Posts may also be sorted by date or "last activity." In addition, for hard core policy wonks, there is an RSS feed for new comments. There is what seems to me personally a reasonable comments policy. The discussion itself is hosted by a commercial third party called Intense Debate. Browsing around the first few pages, I didn't see comments back from the policy team, but that likely isn't feasible given the amount of comments. But I really appreciate them trying to have a constructive conversation among constituents. Check it out and let us know what you think. Now if only they'd adjust their copyright policy to make it worthy of a dot gov. Continue reading
56 to 52 Days to Government Information Liberation
When I started this conversation back in early November I failed to account for the Thanksgiving holiday. Being on the grid blogging about the liberation of government information, as my loved ones made clear to me, is not on the menu. I did point out, as a good and loyal information marine, such sacrifices must be taken into account (“there is no I in team” I say proudly, channeling my old wrestling coach’s visage.) My stoic pose met with flinty silence. Any self-respecting information marine recognizes a superior show of strength and falls back on valor of discretion and strategic repositioning. Since I won’t be blogging until December 1, here are the next five installments in one transmission -- in the spirit of NPR’s This American Life. This is just a shameless cop out, but I think irony and deprecating self-regard are easy sacrificial lambs during these days of national reflection and thanks. Needless to say, I am getting a jump on Christmas and New Years with this new awareness of opposition to my professional missions. Day 56 On this day I still argue for some kind of coordinated national campaign to get libraries of all types to Talk Back To Democracy! (I know, it is kind of lame, but if any other enthusiasts out there want to pitch in, we can build a better slogan.) All the media buzz and pundit profundity about the recent historic electoral events offers government information librarians a chance to interact with their communities in very direct and deliberative ways. Here are few suggestions: • Obama’s picks for his staff and political appointees and the wonderful opportunity this creates to talk about how our government works; • daily revelations of how the Federal government will save us from the unfolding economic failure; who is going to keep track of the billions of dollars? • countless stories of how local and state authorities are wallowing in these rough economic waters; no end of opportunity to talk to communities about impending state and local issues that will come up during the hundreds of discussions about budgets for the next two or three years; • the possibility of engaging foreign countries and cultures through the lens of cooperation rather than declarations of war; • global warming and other impending environmental issues that are literally life threatening; • education, health care, retirement and social security; explaining current programs, talking about future changes • national security and constitutional protections of civil rights; instead of just talking about banned books once year, why not a weekly conversation about freedom of information and the importance of transparency in government deliberations. • 2010 Census (my favorite) • Getting ready for the congressional 2010 elections (never to early to start thinking) Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney musicals are great ways to imagine how we can pull this off (or my favorite, which even has a government element to it – White Christmas). We can compose the music, write the lyrics, build the stage, put on the show, and reap the rewards. Day 55 On this day, overloaded with too much food and too many memories – I understand why a family might scatter itself across the globe (the line from the country song – “how can I miss you if you won’t go away?” brings a poignant edge to the conversations around a food laden table) – I imagine getting back to institutional purposes as I courageously outline how various library associations might pull together during these days before information liberation (and after.) I call out to them in my mind … rally around some kind of common vision, or agreed on set of principles, on behalf of the Federal Depository Library Program. Don’t fight over which vision of the program is better; agree to disagree on some of the legislative or organizational aspects, but join hands and support the program before new executive and legislative powers. To the library directors, I send out a mental plea to talk to your staff responsible for government information, try to grasp how they struggle to serve your community in a world where the distribution and access to government information is at least democratizing, if not in a very organized fashion. To the government information librarians, I say take your library director out for a coffee, tell him or her how excited you are by all the opportunities delivering government information services now abound, but express sympathy that it is lonely at the top, and how you understand difficult economic choices must be made. Emphasize how approaching government information in innovative and surprising ways (did someone shout out Talk back to Democracy?) can meet the mission of the library, but not cost much money in the long run. Day 54 Slog day one. Black Friday is gone. We are reminded of how much money we don’t have to enjoy shopping. Notes from other librarians trickle in, admonishing me that they have neither the time nor resources to participate in a Talk Back to Democracy event. I roll my eyes, channel Judy and Andy, and look these wavering librarians square in the eye (metaphorically speaking) and say -- Yes you can. Day 53 Slog day two. Running out of things to talk about with the loved ones; suddenly -- the importance of government information strikes me as the most important thing to give thanks for. I contemplate a stealth run at the computer, get back on the grid, but my beloveds realize my impending surrender and launch an intervention. We go out to see a movie – about animated animals on some kind of slap-stick journey of return and renewal, not a lick of public policy or government information associated with the tale. But it does give me ideas – forget the library action figure – we need and slick and cute creature to champion Talk Back to Democracy! Day 52 Work looms over tomorrow’s horizon. As the holiday leftovers calcify or liquefy into new food groups -- suddenly, the likely playoff fates of several professional football teams matter more than if we ever get to Talk Back to Democracy! Even if we do use cute animals! I know the other librarians will be there on December 1, ready to take up the cause again. Let’s put them off one more day. Go Brett Go! Let’s cheer of the power of brotherly skill found in the Mannings! Yes we can! Let us root for the home team (as if they deserve it!) Go Bears! See you on Day 51 Continue reading
Government secrecy is pervasive problem
The thing I like about blogging is being able to connect the dots, to provide a context in order to expand on or prove a point. Sometimes, it takes work and a good deal of brain power. Other times, those dots just connect themselves. This is one of those latter times. I probably could have simply given links to the following 2 articles and nothing more. It's *that* clear that these 2 articles are proof positive that government secrecy is deep-rooted, pervasive and far-reaching and happen as a matter of course from the insignificant to the fundamental. Of course, some secrecy is justified (like some lobbying is justified; after all, ALA is a lobbyist!), but these 2 articles show that there's an information war going on and the losers will be the American public, historians, researchers, libraries etc. It's also clear reason for getting digital govt information off of govt servers as quickly as possible, getting it onto public FTP sites like public.resource.org, into LOCKSS caches like the U.S. Government Documents Private LOCKSS Network, and into public, non-profit digital archives like the Internet Archive. As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said, "Sunlight is the best disinfectant," and it can only shine in public.
- Last Secrets of the Bush Administration: How to find out what we still don't know. By Charles Homans. Washington Monthly, November/December 2008.
- Airbrushing History, American Style. Scott Althaus and Kalev Leetaru. Cline Center for Democracy, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. (NYT article provides more background: "Iraq Ally Lists Were Altered, Study Shows". Thom Shanker. NY Times, November 24, 2008)
(Homans) Gonzales’s March 2001 memo was the opening salvo in a war over information, one that began in the earliest days of the Bush administration and will continue beyond its end. The stakes, which no one could have predicted when the letter crossed Carlin’s desk, are now self-evidently enormous: when Bush hands over the keys to the White House in January, he will leave behind more unanswered questions of sweeping national importance than any modern president. We still do not know how intelligence operatives, acting in the name of the United States, have interrogated suspected terrorists, and how they are interrogating them now. We do not know how many Americans’ phone calls and e-mails were scanned by the National Security Agency. We do not know—although we can guess—who ordered the firings of the U.S. attorneys who didn’t comply with the Bush administration’s political agenda, and we do not know who may have been wrongly prosecuted by those who did. There are large gaps in our understanding of the backstories to everything from pre-war intelligence in Iraq to the censoring of scientific opinion at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior. And those are the things we know we don’t know—there are also what Donald Rumsfeld might call the unknown unknowns.
(Althaus and Leetaru)Continue reading
- There are at least five documents taking the form of White House press releases that detail the number and names of countries in the "Coalition of the Willing" that publicly supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq. At one time, all five of these documents were archived on the White House web site.
- Today, only three of these five documents can still be accessed in the White House archives. One of the missing lists was removed from the White House web site at some point in late 2004, and the other was removed between late 2005 and early 2006. These two "missing" lists represent earlier and smaller lists of coalition members.
- The text of three of these five documents was altered at some point after their initial release, even though in most cases the documents still retained their original release dates and were presented as unaltered originals. These alterations to the public record changed the apparent number of countries making up the coalition, as well as the names of countries in the coalition. Some of these alterations appear to have been made as long as two years after the document's purported release date.
- Of the five documents, only two appear to have remained unaltered after the date of their initial release. These are the only two of the five that could be authentic originals. However, we find no evidence that either of these press releases was distributed broadly to the media through normal electronic channels.
- Two versions of the coalition list dated March 27, 2003 can be currently accessed on the White House web site. Both claim that there were 49 countries in the coalition, but one lists only 48 by name, omitting Costa Rica. The revision history of this document shows that Costa Rica's name was removed retroactively at some point in late 2004, after the Costa Rican Supreme Court ruled that continued use of its name on the list was a violation of Costa Rica's constitution.
- Taken together, these findings suggest a pattern of revision and removal from the public record that spans several years, from 2003 through at least 2005. Instead of issuing a series of revised lists with new dates, or maintaining an updated master list while preserving copies of the old ones, the White House removed original documents, altered them, and replaced them with backdated modifications that only appear to be originals.
57 Days to Government Information Liberation
We are eight weeks from a new national executive regime and about five weeks from a new national legislative branch. How can government information librarians best take advantage of the teaching moments these next two months make possible? People are actually talking about how their government works! Yesterday, driving home on the Eisenhower Expressway I listened to a National Public Radio host and reporter talk about the difference between the National Economic Council and Council of Economic Advisors. This is really the the kind of stuff we do as government information librarians. I just love the part where the refer to the 1947 law that created the former, and executive order that created the latter. Let me emphasize again that I think this is the most critical time for government information librarians to ban together, bridge their policy and institutional differences, and ride this wave of civic conversation. FGI guides on transition issues is an excellent effort, but it is an effort that will shine much more brightly if we can get some national collaboration going. I have suggested book discussions around impotant government publications. Might I suggest a more coordinated response -- that librarians sponsor discussions in their libraries days before or shortly after the President's inaguration, state of the union speech, introduction of the first budget, etc. -- a national movement to sponsor at least one of these conversations in each state organize that focus on these important democratic government information sources. We can call it -- Talking Back to Democracy Night! ALA and other library associations can post the idea on the web sites, and working with government information librarian groups, quickly produce a series of talking points, list of sources, who to talk to in the local media to encourage publicity and promotion. Think about it -- the news media and citizens are making our arguments for a place in the bibliographic ecosystem for us -- some one needs to talk about how government works through the distribution of public information beyond this very limited transition period. After January 20, the news media can't (or won't) do it. Local politicians will slant it to their agendas. Special interest groups will make it special (both profits and nonproits.) Poltical parties will continue to spin the partisan webs. To speak to the special values of government information librarians, we appear to be the best group to talk about the foundational aspects of teaching and showing people how their civic lives depend on understanding and using civic information. Who will work with me on this? Can we declare the start of Talk Back to Democracy Night during the first week in December? Any brave librarians, willing to put their activism where their rhetoric might be -- who wants to take a risk and offer a session or two? Can we build on this to offer something once a month (twice a week) for the next year? Can we take advantage of the FGI guides to prime the pump? Life beyond the day of liberation? Am I in the wilderness here? See you on Day 56 -- maybe with a couple of brave pioneers ready to push the agenda and street activism forward? Continue reading
Government information: the elephant in the academic library
I find it interesting that John recently referred back to his January blog post about what future generations of government documents librarians should know, as something he discussed in that entry has been on my mind for the last few weeks:
I am going to try to teach them how to be the best librarians who can find government information, not the best government information librarians...I am convinced the next generation of government information librarians will come to professional maturity in library organizations that do not give government information services or collections any special consideration.In my experience, librarians who don't work in government documents often seem to regard government documents as an inscrutable and mysterious body of information. I will admit that, prior to working with government information, I was a member of that group. Upon reflection, this attitude doesn't make much sense. Government information seems to me to be a format of information - a publication type, like a book or a newspaper article. As an academic librarian, my responsibilities also include liaising with several of the science departments at my university. Among other duties, I am expected to purchase books and evaluate related databases to ensure that those we subscribe to best support the research of students and faculty in those areas. Why shouldn't it also be my responsibility - and that of all academic librarians in similar positions - to be aware of relevant government publications in those areas? The American Library Association (more specifically, the Association of College and Research Libraries) defines information literacy as "a set of abilities requiring individuals to 'recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.'" Surely government information is often the type of information needed. How can academic librarians effectively teach students about when to use government information when we seem to fear using it ourselves? Academic librarian involvement can go beyond reference and instruction, however - the collections would be far more robust if subject librarians worked with the depository librarian to both weed, select, and deselect items to ensure that the depository collection is best meeting the needs of the university and the community. I have not experienced any difficulties in my own work while trying to form these collaborative relationships. I frequently share relevant government resources with our subject librarians, and I've worked with our education and health sciences librarians to weed those areas of our depository collection. This kind of collaboration isn't enough, however; to confront the belief that "government documents are mysterious", we must start earlier in the librarian life cycle. We must dash the misconceptions people have about government documents in library school. As John said, the trick is not necessarily to create the best government documents or government information librarians, but to create the best librarians who can locate government information. Continue reading