(AK) Help with locating Taft Administration executive orders
I helped a patron locate a few Taft Administration executive orders from 1912. I helped him from the publication CIS index to presidential executive orders & proclamations and its associated microfiche. The patron did not know where to start, but rightly thought a documents librarian would! Daniel Cornwall Alaska State Library Continue reading
(LA) Support of Senator’s staff
We have a standing agreement with one of our Senators' staff members to notify him whenever we receive a new copy of the Report of the Secretary of the Senate. This publication, which lists the receipts and expenditures of the Senate and tends to be quite hefty, seems to consistently arrive in print several weeks before it shows up on the Web. In this case, the depository copy beats the Web edition in both timeliness and usability. Lori Smith Government Documents Department Head Southeastern Louisiana Univ., Sims Library Continue reading
The Dangerous Comfort of Secrecy
New York Times editorial (July12), The Dangerous Comfort of Secrecy, states that "The Bush administration is classifying the documents to be kept from public scrutiny at the rate of 125 a minute. The move toward greater secrecy has nearly doubled the number of documents annually hidden from public view - to well more than 15 million last year, nearly twice the number classified in 2001..." More... Continue reading
Barbara Quint on CRS Reports
Congressional Research Service Documents — Free or Fee? by Barbara Quint. Information Today Newsbreaks, July 11, 2005. An up-to-date report on CRS reports. Quint notes that "the reports—if you can find them—are public domain" but that free internet copies of CRS reports still cannot match the comprehensiveness of some fee-based services. Continue reading
Government Accuracy in the Internet Age
July 14, 2005 / Leave a comment
Two stories this week bring up questions about accuracy of government web sites. The Los Angeles Times reports that Representative Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) is urging Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt to remove the website www.4parents.gov from the Internet, because it has inaccurate data on sex issues.
- Waxman Urges End to 'Misleading' Health Website, By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Los Angeles Times, July 14, 2005.
BeSpacific reports the links to documents posted on the Minority Office website of the Government Reform Committee. The Minority Office quotes scientific experts who say that 4parents.gov is "seriously flawed and likely to backfire, providing erroneous and incomplete information about sexually transmitted diseases, the effectiveness of contraceptives, and sexual orientation." Continue reading →Continue Reading →