New FirstGov Search Coming…
GCN reports that "The General Services Administration is taking a new approach to pump up FirstGov.gov’s weak search capabilities, and it should be in place by next February." GSA’s FirstGov RFQ shows plan to switch to Web-based searches By Jason Miller, Government Computer News, July 8, 2005. Continue reading
Several new GPO documents to peruse
GPO has recently released several new documents, including ID73 "Harvesting Federal Digital Publications", Digitization Specification 3.0, and three additional segments of the Spring 2005 Depository Library Council meeting in Albuquerque, NM. Please have a look and let us know what you think. Additionally, the GPO is asking for comment on the digitization specification by Monday, August 8, 2005. Comments should be sent to jrussell@gpo.gov, AND ALSO to Ted Priebe, tpriebe@gpo.gov. I will also add these documents to the FGI library.
- ID 73: "Harvesting Federal Digital Publications for GPO's Information Dissemination (ID) Programs." This policy governs both manual and automated harvesting of publications from Federal agency web sites for inclusion in the Federal Depository Library and National Bibliography Programs.
- GPO's Digitization Specification 3.0. This document will be used to Continue reading
“Non-optimal” digital access
GPO's strategic plan creates a mission of providing "free and ready public access" to electronic documents while distributing electronic documents "on a cost recovery basis." The following article, while addressing issues raised by the Google library project, gives a publisher's view of making content available for free and for sale at the same time. Presses Have Little to Fear From Google By MICHAEL JENSEN. Chronicle of Higher Education Section: The Chronicle Review, July 8, 2005 Volume 51, Issue 44, Page B0 (Subscription Required) Jensen is director of publishing technologies for the National Academies Press (NAP) and director of Web communications for the National Academies. The key points that I believe are relevant to our discussions of the future FDLP, GPO's strategic plan, and the Future Digital System are:
- He notes that "The functional differences in how a book is made available online are profound, with varying levels of ease of reading, copying, repackaging, extracting, storing, and using as an archival copy." Continue reading
FOIA compliance
The Washington post reports that Sens. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.) will push legislative proposals for penalizing agencies that ignore Freedom of Information Act requests. They also propose an ombudsman for FOIA -- "who would help referee conflicts between the public and the government while requiring departments to provide more information on how quickly they process requests." More... . If you need to register, go to Bug Me Not and get random users/passwd for the Washington post (as well as other online newspapers). Continue reading
Help us locate government podcasts!
We've just started a new directory page for podcasting done by government agencies and elected officials in the US state and federal governments. Please have a look around and let us know what we are missing. Please either leave a comment on the Government Podcasts page or send an e-mail to dnlcornwall AT alaska.net. Continue reading