More on House Hearings about Presidential Records
The National Coalition For History (NCH) newsletter has an article about the Hearings held this week on Presidential Records and the impact Executive Order (E.O.) 13233. The public witnesses were united in their opposition to E.O.13233.
- House Archives Subcommittee Holds Presidential Records Hearing NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 13, #7; March 2, 2007) By Lee White (Editor)
Mr. [Steven L.] Hensen, representing the Society of American Archivists said, "On behalf of the nation's archivists, I ask your consideration in overturning this six-year old Executive Order that has seriously compromised the basic principles of government accountability, which are underpinned by the people's right of access to the records of their government. In the case of the records of the office of the President of the United States, it is a right that took a long time for the nation to claim fully, but just a quick stroke of the pen to destroy."
The official page for the hearings is: Subcommittee Holds Hearing on The Presidential Records Act of 1978. There is a copy there of legislation (H.R. 1255) that would nullify the Bush E.O. and NCH reports that copies of all of the testimony should be available there shortly.
Continue readingMalamud Challenges C-SPAN
In an email (27 Feb 2007) to Brian Lamb of C-SPAN, Carl Malamud proposes to purchase from the C-Span store its entire inventory of 6,251 videos of congressional hearings "for the purpose of ripping and posting on the Internet in a nonproprietary format for reuse by anybody." Malamud says:
Holding congressional hearings hostage is not in keeping with your charter, and it is not in keeping with the spirit of that grand bargain you made with the American people. Please re-release this material back into the public domain where it came from so that it will continue to make our public civic life richer.
Malamud was instrumental in getting the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to make its data available through the EDGAR database.
More here:
- Internet Watchdog Picks A 'Fair Use' Fight With C-Span by Andrew Noyes, National Journal's Technology Daily, March 2, 2007 PM edition [subscription required]
William Patry, a senior copyright counsel for Google, said on his blog that "the very transparency in government C-Span purports to seek is antithetical to claims of ownership in the events as recorded." Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig said ... that as more takedown notices are ordered for video remixes of political events, an advocate is needed "to take the lead to assure that the Web can be used for politics (without the mess of copyright)." An Internet-led reform effort called The Open House Project also has taken an interest in the C-Span debate.Continue reading
Access to Presidential Records Diminished
Yesterday, there was a hearing on the problems of access to Presidential records: "The Presidential Records Act of 1978: A Review of Executive Branch Implementation and Compliance," held by the Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The Chronicle of Higher Education says,
Public access to presidential records came under scrutiny in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday as a panel of archivists, historians, and lawyers told a subcommittee about threats to access, and lawmakers introduced two bipartisan bills that would reform key aspects of how presidential documents are preserved and controlled.
- In Testimony and New Bills, Historians and Lawmakers Urge Protection of Access to Presidential Records, by Jennifer Howard, The Chronicle of Higher Education (March 2, 2007) [subscription required] (Available without subscription for a few days here)
According to Thomas Blanton, the Executive Director of the National Security Archive, the government has added five years of delay into the process of releasing presidential records.
- The Presidential Records Act in Crisis National Security Archive (March 1, 2007)
Welcome Gary Price to the blogger-of-the-month podium!
This month we've got a special treat for FGI readers, Gary Price will be our BOTM for March! I'm sure Gary needs no introduction, but in case you've been living under a library rock or haven't had internet access for the last 10 years and so haven't seen Gary's ResourceShelf and Docuticker, here's his bio. Gary will start posting on Monday. Welcome Gary! I'd also like to thank Chris Zammarelli for being our BOTM for February. We really appreciate his taking time out of his busy student schedule to start some really good conversations! Don't forget to catch Chris at his regular haunts: Libraryola and SuckMyCaucus. Thanks Chris!! In case you missed them, below are Chris' posts:
- GAO report on EPA proposal to change TRI threshold
- Expect more from ExpectMore.gov
- Victorian Government's eGovernment Resource Centre
- NARA to release ERA in September
- The burden e-gov puts on libraries
- FOIA hearings held this week
- Transparency and the President's Management Agenda
- FEC aims to restrict Inspector General reports
- So What's the Big Deal About Climate Change?
Gary Price, BOTM for March, 2007
** Note: Bio reproduced from Gary's site, ResourceShelf ** Gary Price is a librarian and the Director of Online Information Resources at Ask.com. Gary is the founder and chief editor/compiler of ResourceShelf (http://www.resourceshelf.com). This daily electronic newsletter is where he and the ResourceShelf team post news and other new resources of interest to the online researcher. He is also the founder and a contributor to DocuTicker (http://www.docuticker.com). This is another daily update with direct links to a variety of new reports from goverment agencies, think tanks, ngo’s, universities, and other groups. Both of these sites and services are independent of his work at Ask.com. A native of the Chicago area, he earned his Masters of Library and Information Science degree from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He also holds a Bachelors of Arts degree from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. From August 2004 through January 2006, Gary was the News Editor of Search Engine Watch. He is a frequent speaker at professional and trade conferences, a contributor to Searcher magazine and the co-author (with Chris Sherman) of The Invisible Web, published by CyberAge Books. Price has also compiled several well-known web research tools including Price’s List of Lists and direct search. These and other compilations have been mentioned in numerous publications including The Washington Post, The Guardian, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Gary was awarded the 2004/2005 Distinguished Alumnus of the Award from the Wayne State Library and Information Science Program. In June 2004 he was the co-recipient of the Agnes Henbry Award from the News Division of the Special Libraries Association and in the summer of 2002 he received the Innovations in Technology Award from the Special Libraries Association From February 1995 through April 2001 Price worked as a Reference Librarian at The George Washington University. He is based in suburban Washington D.C. Gary can be contacted at gary.price AT resourceshelf DOT com Continue reading