Federal agencies are tracking visits to U.S. government Web sites
CNET news has done some innovative investigation of government web sites and reports their findings in a new story. "To detect which agencies engage in electronic tracking, CNET News.com wrote a computer program that connected to every agency listed in the official U.S. Government Manual, and then evaluated what monitoring techniques were used." Their findings:
Dozens of federal agencies are tracking visits to U.S. government Web sites in violation of long-standing rules designed to protect online privacy, a CNET News.com investigation shows.... The expiration dates of the cookies detected ranged from 2006 to 2038, with most of them marked as valid for at least a decade or two.
Update on Mass. Open Document Format Issue
An update on the issue of the plans by the state of Massachusetts to adopt OpenDocument-based productivity suites says that they will continue with the plan despite the resignation of their chief information officer.
CQ Researcher examines government secrecy
Those people in libraries lucky enough to own CQ Researcher should check out the Vol. 15 Issue 42, December 2, 2005 issue on government secrecy. Issue includes a bibliography and items on selective disclosure of classified information, as well as a look at federal whistleblowing. Continue reading
Docs Librarian vs. Google: Number of Schools in Alaska
Today we start an occaisional series "Docs Librarian vs. Google" where I will take actual reference questions (or slightly tweaked to protect patron privacy) and try to show why it makes more sense to talk to a documents librarian than do a Google search if you are looking for specialized information. The Google searches I'll construct are ones that I believe your average user would make. If you don't find my examples fair, provide your own down in the comments. Today's question is "How many private and public schools are in Alaska? I need the latest figures available." Let's start with Google. A reasonable beginning searcher might try something like: 1) - how many public and private schools are in alaska? Nothing helpful appears on the first page of results. On the second page there is a undated FAQ page from the Alaska Department of Education showing "approximately 500 public schools" but offering no figure for private schools. Nothing helpful appears on the third page. Continue reading
Shhh!!: Keeping Current on Government Secrecy
Full disclosure: FGI got a favorable mention in the resource list that accompanies this article. Shhh!!: Keeping Current on Government Secrecy is an article by Laura Gordon-Murnane that appears in the January 2006 issue of Searcher. This article provides a thoughtful look at the expense of government secrecy, both in terms of money and lost opportunities to protect the country. Ms. Gordon-Murane also catalogs numerous removals of government publications and other information, showing once again why a simple "If you post it to your web site, consider it published" policy is a bad idea. Almost as valuable as the article itself is the attached "list of Web sites, blogs, listservs, and newsletters that could help clients needing access to government documents but who might experience difficulty locating that information." There are some sites I wasn't familar with and will spend some time exploring. Continue reading