63 Days to Government Information Liberation
What interests me most about the current and future roles of libraries (and what draws the distinction between Jim and myself) are the possible ways libraries can transform within a dynamic information world driven more by decentralized creation, distribution and a heavy focus on users. Fair point, Stehle did not directly refer to a digital world library in so many words, but I would argue the article's descriptions of successful public-interest organizations can only exist if there is such a beast. My tendency to push this point is not as a zero sum proposition (though the rhetoric can be a bit thick at times) -- libraries can only thrive at the expense of the digital world (or vice versa) -- is simply not true. Jim and I are agreement that libraries and their social purpose are a righteous thing, and deserve a place of honor in the private and public markets. I agree with Jim, as well, a blended library of both paper and digital sources -- as a transitional organization -- will survive best in the near future as the digital/paper scales recalibrate constantly. The forces driving this balancing act are energized through the competing commercial and public interests for the right to digitize the paper universe and organize the evolving digital one into something more along the lines of that other digital holy grail, the semantic web. The roles libraries played in the late 19th century with private publishing empires of mass circulation books and periodicals (first set of standardized cataloging rules, periodical indexes, etc.) or the federal and state governments (creation of the modern Government Printing Office in mid-1890s)were as full partners in the best cases, useful allies in others. Those days are long over. Our roles with the information industry today (if I can use that retro designation) is much more as a customer or competitor. Further complicating the issue is how the web has unleashed a greater role for the user to assume their own information destiny (witness the power of social software, self-publishing, blogs, etc.) But the biggest difference, I think, between the two perspectives rests not on technology -- but on the library's social purpose. We government documents librarians of old were borne into a culture steeped in the lore of collections/possession and selfless local public service (primarily through the model of a depository library) Gutenberg's Government Information Librarians. Librarians seeking a career path in government information must deal with the fact that collections are being digitized, public services are now a blend between specialized subject and generalists, government services and information sources are now tightly bound together, leaving little room for the traditional roles libraries used to intervene -- except on behalf of economically dislocated or those unable to reach the web through their own means. More and more users over the last decade, with the ability and resources, can now access much of the material distributed through and unique to depository libraries. Does that threaten depository library system? Only if we imagine it terms of a Gutenberg Galaxy of information technology and mass media. My argument is not to fight this change, or ignore it; rather, simply, to adapt to it. Jim and I are in agreement that much that is digitally available out there, and properly considered to be government information, is chaotic, episodic, subject to bad policy and technological applications -- or simple corrupt politics. Among the few institutions trying to knit a narrative from this confusion of public knowledge are special interest organizations (profit and non-profit), news media, educational institutions, and, the best of the lot, libraries. Of course there are government organizations working towards the same goal of order from the chaos (Government Printing Office, Library of Congress, Government Accountability Office, National Science Foundation, to name but a few.) And here, again, Jim and I perhaps share a common ethic and credo of what might be called information marines. This is an image I sometimes use with my library students -- picture strong and robust individuals, armed with a certain attitude and knowledge that allows them to storm the rocky shores of ignorance, ready to take on even the must obscure question or problem. And then preserve how they did it in their long term memories. Tattooed on their arms (or chest) -- DEATH BEFORE DISINFORMATION! I like this version alot better than the library action figure often promoted over the last few years. In fact, I am willing, with proper attribution of course, to offer the image and phrase to FGI to start their own action figure to compete with Nancy Pearls conceptual dominance ... my people can call your people .... But this eagerness to challenge the impossible is less Walter Mitty and more of a real attempt to get back to the public purpose of our institutions. And that is what I always like about librarians, for the most part, we are all optimists .... which will best serve us through our long slog along the borderlands of ignorance. Hooah! See you Day 62 Continue reading
NY Times Article on Change.gov
The Caucus Blog at the New York Times online just published a blog entry about the recent return and changed Agenda pages at change.gov: Changes at Change.gov: Return of the ‘Agenda’
The section of the Obama-Biden transition homepage detailing the president-elect’s policy proposals that was recently stripped from the site with little explanation, reappeared with some tweaks. Call it the kinder, gentler Change.gov. Gone are references needling the Bush administration for refusing to “tackle health care, education and housing in a manner that benefits the middle class” or for being “one of the most secretive, closed administrations in American history.” Some pages in the “Agenda” portion of the site have been pared down, while others have been expanded. But the most obvious changes focus on weeding out the fiery campaign-style rhetoric of Mr. Obama and Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden that initially appeared on the transition Web site.And I especially like this portion of the article:
There was an almost instantaneous outcry from bloggers and other advocates of transparency in government who noticed disappearance.Perhaps they stumbled upon our blog? And apparently, this website notatypewriter.com contains the original agenda pages in PDF and HTML format. Continue reading
Funding Collections and Services in the Public Interest
Do you ever worry about funding for your library? Have you ever thought about how to get a grant to help your library? Do you wonder about how you might attract grant funding to a library in the age of Google and the Web?
If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, I recommend the article Digital Infrastructure and Public Interest by Vince Stehle, in Grantmakers in the Arts Reader, Fall 2008.
(I posted a link to this article a few days ago but, after John referred to it in his 66 Days to Government Information Liberation post, I wanted to follow up a bit and mention why I think the Stehle article is important for libraries. This also gives me an opportunity to contribute some more to the excellent discussion that John is facilitating about Government Information Liberation.)
Stehle is a program director at the Surdna Foundation, which makes grants in the areas of environment, community revitalization, effective citizenry, the arts, and the nonprofit sector, and he was writing for Grantmakers in the Arts Reader. In addressing his audience of grantmakers, foundations, and people who support non-profits he says that there is an opportunity and even "an imperative" for foundations to support non-commercial work and help build "a public interest infrastructure" that will "promote the free exchange of knowledge over the Internet."
In specifically emphasizing the need for non-commercial support he says that we cannot rely on the private sector to operate in the broad public interest except as that interest translates into profit:
"While there are billions of dollars in Silicon Valley venture firms seeking to invest in the next Google, Facebook, or YouTube, there is no equivalent capital pool available for investment in the expansion of social enterprises operating in the public interest."
We often make that point here at FGI and extend it to those in government who see their information content as an "asset" and a source of needed dollars and not as a public good that should be in the public domain, freely and openly available for use and reuse. As Stehle says:
"So the real challenge is for grantmakers to figure out how to effectively identify, vet, and support promising new media and information services that put the public interest before commercial profits." [emphasis added]
I believe we in libraries should listen to Stehle's message and think about what it means for grant support for libraries. After all, most (all?) libraries are non-profits, and so many of our best libraries (and certainly our FDLP libraries) explicitly support the public interest, and libraries need funding to do their work.
To put this in a library context, I think we need to think about what libraries have to offer that other institutions and grant seekers do not. As I mentioned in an earlier post, libraries -- because of their values of free, equitable, open public access to information -- are better positioned than anyone else to seek and get funding for those very kinds of activities that Stehle describes.
But, how do we differentiate libraries from others? What are our unique roles? Many libraries are struggling to define their roles and purposes in society. John picks up on this and says that Stehle is one of those who "argue from the perspective, the library/web morphing together into some kind of global resource is a done deal." (I disagree with John on this; I don't see where Stehle says this or anything like it.)
John seems to be saying (correct me if I am wrong) that the center of libraries' responsibilities has shifted because there are new distribution mechanisms and because we have new abilities to make better use of information. He says that it (the role of libraries?) "is something no longer centered on possession and/or control...."
I think this is a grave mistake. While I agree strongly with John that libraries can and should use technology to "knit together the medium of governance (politics, policy, law, and programs) with how our communities use the civic message to inform their daily lives," I also believe that possession and control of information is an essential, primary role for libraries. If we do not possess copies of information and control where it is and control its very existence (keep it from disappearing or being altered or lost), we cannot do the exciting mashups that we want to do.
I also think that, while libraries can and should use technology to "knit" and "weave" information from a lot of different sources (see: collections, services, and "mini-libarians"), I don't think that this is a unique role for libraries -- nor should it be. What libraries can do that is unique, though, is select, acquire, organize, and preserve information and ensure that our services for that information make it possible for others to do their own "knitting and weaving."
In short, libraries can make the case that one of their roles in society is to maintain digital collections that others can use and reuse and mix and mashup. We can make the case that society will lose information if it relies only on information-producers to preserve information for the long term and we can argue that society will lose free, open access if we rely on those who see their "content" as an "asset." We can make the case that libraries are non-profit, public-interest organizations that will guarantee long term preservation and free access to information. We can argue that if the information is not preserved, there will be nothing to share and knit and mash-up. We can argue that libraries facilitate information use and reuse.
But, don't take my word for it. Re-read the excellent article Managing Digital Assets in Higher Education: An Overview of Strategic Issues by Donald J. Waters from 2005 (or my brief summary and comment of it). Or read the paper that Stehle refers to, Sustainable Public Media Infrastructure which describes non-profit organizations that are creating permanent, sustainable public knowledge and communications infrastructure that is designed for public benefit. Then reflect on the primary, central importance of permanent digital collections in libraries.
Continue reading64 Days to Government Information Liberation
Another day of transition, spending most of it talking about the future of government information and the federal depository library system. Now waiting to go home and think about everything -- again. One note of interest -- this is the first time in years (and I am talking about the time before 2001) -- that I felt there was an edge of hope to the future of a robust, accessible, permanent and freely available system of government information distribution. It isn't just the technology -- its the people I met that reminded me again of why we do this. We might disagree on the details of structure and purpose, but the goals are astoundingly similar. Jet lag strikes. See you on Day 63 Continue reading
Lunchtime listen: Archives of dissent, food for docs thoughts!
In September, I had the good fortune to attend a most interesting panel discussion held at UC Berkeley's Free Movement Speech Cafe (which just so happens to be in the UCB's Moffitt Library!) called Archives of Dissent. The panel was part of a week-long series of Bay Area events called The Great Rehearsal commemorating the 40th anniversary of the uprisings and worldwide upheavals of 1968, their impacts and legacies. Archives of Dissent brought together librarians, curators, oral historians, conservators, publishers, academics, and others working to prevent the loss and erasure of radical voices, events and movements of both the past and the present. The panel included:
- Lincoln Cushing (19:35), independent librarian and Docs Populi archivist. The first 10 minutes of the presentation are images from Lincoln's collection of radical posters.
- Julie Herrada (28:20), Labadie Collection Librarian, University of Michigan, curator of a “1968? special exhibit, and good radical reference buddy. The Labadie Collection is an internationally renowned archive of social protest materials.
- Kalim Smith (41:25), UC Berkeley doctoral student in anthropology and folklore, researching the preservation of Native American languages threatened with extinction.
- Megan Shaw Prelinger & Rick Prelinger (50:08), Co-founders of the appropriation-friendly Prelinger Library in San Francisco