Lost MLK speech
Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!! Here's a treat for you: On February 26, 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr., was invited to give a sermon for Friday evening Shabbat services at Temple Israel of Hollywood. Unless you listened to this tape in the Temple's archives, or were there that night, this speech hasn't been heard since. Well now the Jewish Journal has uncovered this rare speech and made it available via its Web site (and below). Kevin Roderick of LAObserved adds some context (via an unnamed Proquest database)
King was 36 years old at the time. Selma was heating up that month, and Malcolm X had just been killed in New York, so King arrived in Los Angeles under heavy guard. It was his first trip west since winning the Nobel Peace Prize. King dined with prominent Westsiders at the Beverly Hills home of Dr. Irving Lichtenstein and attended a screening of "The Greatest Story Ever Told" at the Cinerama Dome (now the Arclight.) The theater crawled with police because of death threats and the seizure of stolen dynamite connected to a racist group. King also spoke at the World Affairs Council at the Hollywood Palladium. The Times reported that an "overflow crowd" of 1,500 at the temple gave King a warm welcome. That Sunday he returned to Selma.And for an added bonus, here's MLK's "I have a dream" speech! Continue reading
Digital Legal Collections
Technology and Policy in Acquiring Digital Collections, by Roger V. Skalbeck and Iva M. Futrell, Legal Tech Newsletter, January 11, 2007.
While focusing on legal information from the perspective of law firms, this article examines many issues relevant to government information and access to digital materials. For example, in referring to the Hein Online version of the Federal Register it says, "With a source such as the Federal Register, downloaded documents are superior to both the version on Westlaw as well as the actual printed reports. Documents are available in their familiar three-column format, and they can be printed on normal laser paper instead of the fragile paper used by the Government Printing Office."
In acquiring access to new digital collections, law firms and other information consumers need to think about issues of cost, technology requirements and ease of use. Beyond that, merely acquiring a new collection will not ensure that all people who need the information will know it exists when the need for that information arises. This article addresses several topics relating to digitized collections, framing the discussion by first discussing two legal-specific digitization projects available for private law firms.Continue reading
UK Government to close 551 websites
We usually focus on US government information policy, but this story from the UK warrants a mention. It notes that "Among those which are being axed are out-of-date sites...."
- Government to close 551 websites, BBC NEWS, January 11, 2007.
Hundreds of government websites are to be shut down "to make access to information easier" for people. Of 951 sites, only 26 will definitely stay, 551 will definitely close and hundreds more are expected to follow. In future government information will be streamlined through two main sites - Directgov and Business Link. The Cabinet Office called it a natural step as people shifted their interest to use what it called "supersites" such as Directgov and the BBC website. The annual report on "transformational strategy" [Transformational Government Annual Report 2006], published on Wednesday, said 90 websites had already been closed.
It is not completely clear from the BBC story what information will be permanently removed, what will be kept online but moved to a new location, and what will be removed, but archived. Responses from readers reflect some of this concern and confusion:
"Closing down sites with outdated information is part of the natural evolution of the internet. However I trust the National Archive is taking static copies of these closed sites before they go offline..." "It's a bit academic how may web sites there are. It's not called the web for nothing; information can be linked from site to site and appear to be quite elsewhere from where it appears. If the government is going to reduce the number of silos with their own web teams then good but if less information is made available to the public then this will not be a good move at all." "Nowhere on the internet could I find out how much the UK governments spends on the NHS, either in total pounds or as a proportion of the income tax take. They should provide essential info like this. How else can we take political decisions?" "I note, with interest, that one of the sites being axed is Home Information Packs. If you recall the Government reversed its policy regarding the Home Survey which was to be included in HIPs. Now it removes all web traces of the failed HIPs project."Continue reading
Census to replace “approaching obsolescence” American FactFinder
The Census Bureau is soliciting proposals for a new Data Access and Dissemination System (DADS) in preparation for the 2010 Decennial Census to replace the existing systems. "The government recognizes that DADS systems are approaching obsolescence," Census said in its solicitation. (Census Acquisition Information. DATA ACCESS AND DISSEMINATION SYSTEM (DADS II))
"DADS is made up of the American FactFinder system for dissemination of data, the Data Product Production System for Census 2000 product tabulations and the American FactFinder Advanced Query system for Census 2000. IBM Corp. is the incumbent, having provided DADS since 1997." (Census to modernize data distribution systems, by Mary Mosquera, GCN, 01/09/07)
Continue readingNews from abroad: UK open statutes & RFID in Canadian coins
I know we usually focus on US documents, but it's good to look at what's happening in other countries once in a while. BoingBoing, one of my favorite blogs, frequently posts information of interest to libraries, and today was a banner day. The first post of interest was a story about the UK's new *free* statutes database. The UK Department for Constitutional Affairs, after 13 years in the works, has launched the Statute Law Database project. Before this, access to consolidated versions of the law of the UK wasn’t possible without paying lots of money to a private publisher. While the writer mentioned that the situation in the US was similar with access dominated by Westlaw and LexisNexis, a kind commenter pointed out that West and Lexis indeed dominate case law access, but US code could be freely accessible via GPOAccess, Thomas and Cornell's Legal Information Institute. A little closer to home, The US counter-intelligence office of the U.S. Department of Defense recently related that Canadian coins containing tiny transmitters have mysteriously turned up in the pockets of at least three American contractors who visited Canada. Evidently, this is one way that foreign agents use to illicitly acquire military technology. Continue reading