Freedom of Information Reform Bill Passes Senate
Freedom of Information Reform Bill Passes Senate, National Security Archive, August 4, 2007. "Open Government Advocates Overcome Secret Hold; Key Reforms Fix Delay Problems Identified by Archive Audits; Better Tracking, Reporting, Processing Fees and Ombuds Office."
After a conference to reconcile provisions between the House and Senate versions, the new law will mandate tracking numbers for FOIA requests that take longer than 10 days to process so they will no longer fall through the cracks, require agencies to report more accurately to Congress on their FOIA programs, create a new ombuds office at the National Archives to mediate conflicts between agencies and requesters, clarify the purpose of FOIA to encourage dissemination of government information, and provide incentives to agencies to avoid litigation and processing delays.Continue reading
Sierra Leone Peacebuilding Initiative
Sierra Leone Peacebuilding Initiative From the UN Pulse: "A new online portal intended to meet the information needs of those working to build peace in Sierra Leone was launched last week at UNHQ. The web site, a partnership between Member States, NGOs, the academic community and the Peacebuilding Support Office, is targeted to both practitioners and policy-makers and hopes to consolidate and prioritize information relevant to the elaboration of peacebuilding strategies. This web site provides access to online information on peacebuilding in Sierra Leone, with a focus on four priority areas determined by the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission, in consultation with the Government of Sierra Leone." Continue reading
U.S. Federal and Minnesota Information on I-35W Bridge
In light of the complete collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, MN on August 1, 2007, I put together a list of links to materials on bridges generally and that bridge specifically at the Government Publications Library website. Noteworthy from a government information perspective: 1. The "2001 report" variously described as authored by the UMN Dept. of Civil Engineering and/or the MN Dept. of Transportation (MN/DOT) is cataloged by the MN/DOT Library, but lives at a non-governmental website. 2. Because the title of this report ("Fatigue Evaluation of the Deck Truss of Bridge 9340") contains no terms I first thought to use to find it, I had to spend some time on news sites in the hope of finding a link to the full text. Of course, once you've got the title right, it turns out that it's described in many places in addition to MN/DOT's catalog including the University's Center for Transportation Studies and TRIS Online. 3. Political expediency is the name of the game. Finding reports on this particular bridge even earlier today wasn't as easy as I would have liked. Throughout the day though, MN/DOT has been adding links to various reports on the bridge to their homepage. Some are cataloged by the MN/DOT Library, some aren't. I haven't read through them all yet, but I note that they have yet to link to the one definite source of negative information on the bridge, namely the National Bridge Inventory ASCII files. 4. The National Bridge Inventory ASCII files are not user friendly. They are in fixed-width format and have a zillion fields. Even if I had proper software for handling files of this type (and I don't 'cause I'm breaking in a new computer and still figuring out what I need), it would be a drag to create the setup files because of the way the record layout is, well, laid out. If there's a summary of the results, I haven't found it yet. Continue reading
Welcome Amy West, BOTM for August, 2007
Yes, as you can tell, we've been slacking off...um...taking a slight vacation from our invited bloggers of the month. But now we're back with a vengeance to introduce you to Amy West (Amy's bio) our BOTM for August, 2007. As you can see, Amy's already posted a few times, so we look forward to a long and rewarding relationship -- or at least of month full of good discussion. Take it away Amy!
Continue readingAmy West: BOTM for August, 2007
Amy West is the Data Services Librarian at the University of Minnesota, having previously worked in the Government Publications Library there for seven years. She is a GOVDOC-L moderator, has worked on the National Historical Geographic Information System, developed by the Minnesota Population Center, maintains the Government Publications Library website, is coordinator-elect of the International Documents Task Force of ALA/GODORT and currently co-chairs a group at Minnesota called the Reinventing Reference Collaborative. She is perpetually in search of the perfect handbag, shoes and software. Continue reading