As Easy as FDL? What do you think?
The Government Printing Office has produced a draft marketing plan for the Federal Depository Library Program. The 22 page plan and a survey link can be found at http://www.fdlp.gov/promotion/marketingplan.html. Depositories have been asking for marketing/promotion assistance for awhile and this plan seems to be in response to these requests. It's also quite good that it is a draft plan and that input is being solicited before being rolled out. It suggests a willingness to collaborate that is appreciated. It is our hope at FGI that GPO will get a good response rate to their call for comments because this will become a major way of marketing for the community. Better that stakeholders have input and suggestions BEFOREHAND instead of complaining about it afterwards. The proposed slogan for the marketing campaign has stuck in my head every since I read it off the executive summary of the plan -- "As Easy as FDL - Free (information), Dedicated (service), Limitless (possibilities)" As slogans go I think that this is an excellent encapsulation of everyone's vision for the FDLP. I think it might even serve as a rough approximation for what the program is now. Whether this slogan will strengthen an improving reality or degenerate into mere lip service depends greatly on how the electronic era will be implemented. If it becomes a centralized model with digital rights restrictions that means that info is only free within depository walls, then it won't be as easy as FDL. But if librarians successfully adapt the century old model of decentralized, freely reusable information to the electronic era, it will be as easy as FDL. Continue reading
Welcome Outdoor Oklahoma!
Today we welcomed a new state agency podcast to our government podcasts directory: Outdoor Oklahoma - This is a video podcast of a weekly TV show produced by the Department of Wildlife Conservation. It appears to be archived on iTunes. We're always on the lookout for new podcasts by government agencies. If you know of that isn't in our directory, let us know. Remember, to be a podcast, there must be a way to subscribe to the program. A pointer to a list of audio/video files that someone must visit to determine new content is *not* a podcast. Continue reading
Authentication: The Next Frontier in Online Government Resources
[Cross posted on LegalResearchPlus.com] On a daily basis I visit various court and other government websites, often to locate recent opinions, regulations, or agency decisions. It is a common practice for law librarians and for any researcher who wants very recent sources or does not have access to commercial databases. Admittedly it is far less often that I consider whether the case I just downloaded is an authentic representation of the court’s decision. But consider these two examples. The first from the California Courts website and the second from the website for the First Circuit Court of Appeals: “The Official Reports page is primarily intended to provide effective public access to all of California's precedential appellate decisions; it is not intended to function as an alternative to commercial computer-based services and products for comprehensive legal research.” “Although every effort is made to ensure that the information contained on this site is correct and timely, the First Circuit does not warrant its accuracy. Portions of the information may be incorrect or not current. The information contained on this site should not be cited as legal authority.” In 2007 the American Association of Law Librarians completed a survey of states' online statutes, regulations and case law to determine which states, if any, were deeming their online material to be official and/or authentic. The survey, “State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources,” is available from the Washington Affairs Office of AALL. Survey authors Richard Matthews and Mary Alice Baish concluded that while many states considered the primary legal material that they put online to be official, no state had taken steps to authenticate those materials. In a world where online research is becoming the norm, are courts (and other government websites) really keeping up with the needs of the people they serve by not offering official and authenticated versions of their opinions online? -Kate Wilko Continue reading
Kahle challenges FBI and FBI withdraws demand for IA user information
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has withdrawn a secret demand, issued as a national security letter (NSL), that the Internet Archive (IA) provide the agency with a user's personal information after Brewster Kahle, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenged the records request in court.
- FBI Withdraws Unconstitutional NSL Served on Internet Archive, ACLU. (Includes links to documents)
Since the Patriot Act was authorized in 2001, relaxing restrictions on the FBI's use of the power, the number of NSLs issued has seen an astronomical increase. Reports from the Justice Department's Inspector General reveal that the FBI has issued nearly 200,000 NSL between 2003 and 2006. Multiple investigations have found serious FBI abuses of regulations and numerous potential violations of the law.
- Internet Archive Challenges F.B.I.’s Secret Records Demand, by Grant Gross, IDG News Service, New York Times, May 7, 2008 (or Internet Archive challenges FBI's secret records demand, by Grant Gross, in InfoWorld).
In each of the three court challenges to the NSL program, the FBI has withdrawn the information demands, ACLU's Goodman said. "I think that calls into question how much the FBI needed the information in the first place and, frankly, whether the FBI needs this kind of sweeping and unchecked surveillance power," she said.Continue reading
Secret Laws
Secret Laws are laws that citizens and even Congress do not know about or are forbidden from seeing. A recent Senate hearing examines how these "laws" become law and why they are 'repugnant' and 'an abomination.' The official page for the hearing with links to written testimony and a video of hearing: Secret Law and the Threat to Democratic and Accountable Government, Hearing, Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights, April 30, 2008. A brief overview of the hearing by Steven Aftergood with links his and others' to testimony: Secret Law Debated in Senate Hearing, by Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News, April 30, 2008. A concise op-ed by Senator Russ Feingold about secret laws: Government in secret, By Russ Feingold, Los Angeles Times, May 8, 2008. Continue reading