NSF understands what GPO doesn’t seem to
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has been active in technology and Internet efforts for many years. I think it's fair to consider most NSF people technologists. So, it was with pleasant surprise that libraries and the concept of geographically distributed local digital collections got several favorable mentions in the new NSF Cyberinfrastructure Vision and Strategic Plan. Although the plan doesn't explicitly deal with government information, I think it does have something to say to the depository community and to the Government Printing Office which appears to be favoring a centralized model of information dissemination. First the plan explains the advantages libraries held in preserving scientific output in print (emphasis mine):
In print form, the preservation process is handled through a system of libraries and other repositories throughout the country and around the globe. Two features of this print-based system make it robust. First, the diversity of business models deriving support from a variety of sources means that no single entity bears sole responsibility for preservation, and the system is resilient to changes in any particular sector. Second, there is overlap in the collections, and redundancy of content reduces the potential for catastrophic loss of information. - Page 19Rather than try to consign this robust system as a "legacy collection" of scientific information, the NSF has seen the future and has found it to be geographically and institutionally diverse (emphasis mine):
The national data framework is envisioned to provide an equally robust and diverse system for digital data management and access. It will: promote interoperability between data collections supported and managed by a range of organizations and organization types; provide for appropriate protection and reliable long-term preservation of digital data; deliver computational performance, data reliability and movement through shared tools, technologies and services; and accommodate individual community preferences. The agency will also develop a suite of coherent data policies that emphasize open access and effective organization and management of digital data, while respecting the data needs and requirements within science and engineering domains. - Page 20Where does NSF expect to find the expertise and willingness to build these diverse digital collections? In part, in libraries! (Emphasis mine):
At the institutional level, colleges and universities are developing approaches to digital data archiving, curation, and analysis. They are sharing best practices to develop digital libraries that collect, preserve, index and share research and education material produced by faculty and other individuals within their organizations. The technological implementations of these systems are often open-source and support interoperability among their adopters. University-based research libraries and research librarians are positioned to make significant contributions in this area, where standard mechanisms for access and maintenance of scientific digital data may be derived from existing library standards developed for print material. These efforts are particularly important to NSF as the agency considers the implications of not just making all data generated with NSF funding broadly accessible, but of also promoting the responsible organization and management of these data such that they are widely usable.The moral of this story for the depository library community is simple. If the Uber geeks at NSF appreciate the contributions of libraries and the logic of local digital collections, maybe we should too. Continue reading
Michele’s bio
Michele McGinnis, FGI guest blogger for February, 2006, works as personal librarian and researcher to author and cultural visionary Kevin Kelly. She holds an M.S.I.S. from the University of Tennessee. Her connection to government information is as the Chair of Government Relations for the San Francisco Bay Region Chapter of the Special Libraries Association. In July, 2004, she started a bi-weekly e-mail newsletter, Intersect Alert, to keep herself and her chapter informed on news and legislation at the intersection of libraries and government. She is also a volunteer for Radical Reference, providing virtual reference services for activists and independent journalists. She resides in San Francisco, California but is soon to head back to her hometown of Knoxville, TN. Continue reading
Michele McGinnis, FGI’s guest blogger for February
We're trying out something new here at FGI. We've asked Michele McGinnis to be a guest blogger for the month of February (see Michele's bio for more on her background and connection to government information). That doesn't mean that other FGI volunteers won't be blogging as well, but Michele's posts will reside in the center column (as well as at the right and in the RSS feed!) Please let us know what you think -- and by all means contact us if you'd like to be considered as a guest blogger in the future! Welcome, Michele. Continue reading
Sprehe on FOIA Executive Order
A puzzling executive order "The Bush administration makes it harder to get information from the government," By J. Timothy Sprehe, Federal Computer Week, Jan. 23, 2006.
Sprehe, president of Sprehe Information Management Associates, has a long-time interest in government information. His latest column for FCW enumerates recent FOIA actions in light of the executive order, "Improving Agency Disclosure of Information" (Dec. 14, 2005). He concludes:
In light of the administration's record of excessive secrecy, what are we to make of the new executive order on FOIA? In my judgment, the executive order is window dressing. It is another ploy to distract attention from how the administration consistently denies the public the information it has a right to see.Continue reading
Keeping current on government secrecy
Shhh!!: Keeping Current on Government Secrecy. by Laura Gordon-Murnane. Searcher Magazine, Vol. 14 No. 1 — Jan 2006. This is a very thorough article that includes a hefty list of govt watchdog groups concerned with FOIA and issues of govt secrecy -- including FGI!! For example, I hadn't seen OpenTheGovernment's well-researched and documented Secrecy Report Card 2005: Quantitative Indicators of Secrecy in the Federal Government (PDF).
Since September 11, 2001, several important trends have affected access to federal documents and information. First and foremost, the federal government is keeping more information away from the public. In July 2005, The New York Times reported that the government in a single year (2004) classified more than 15 million pages, while declassifying only 28 million pages. Not surprisingly, the increased secrecy is very expensive and costly. The Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) issued its 2004 Report on Cost Estimates for Security Classification Activities and found that "the total security classification cost estimates within Government for FY 2004 is $7.2 Billion." This represents an "11 percent increase above the cost estimates reported for FY 2003." Furthermore, in its 2004 Report to the President, ISOO warned that "over classification, besides needlessly and perhaps dangerously restricting information sharing, also wastes untold dollars." Secrecy is also costly in terms of sharing information and being prepared to deal with threats to national security. The 9/11 Commission identified over-classification of documents and the "need to know" culture as one of the serious problems that led to a failure of imagination. Continue reading