Pennsylvania survey of access to public records
A series of articles about access to public records in Pennsylvania:
Obtaining public records can be a challenge By FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS Bucks County Courier Times, phillyBurbs.com May 22, 2005
Government offices wrongly giving public less access than press By MARK SCOLFORO, phillyBurbs.com, May 22, 2005.
Survey finds barriers to public records _ and ways to overcome By MARK SCOLFORO, phillyBurbs.com, May 22, 2005.
"Many government offices in Bucks County and across Pennsylvania treat requests for basic public records and documents with suspicion, hindering or even denying prompt access, a survey of almost 700 government offices found."
Continue readingIMLS invites proposals on government information access
PROGRAM SOLICITATION for a Cooperative Agreement to STUDY USER SATISFACTION WITH ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT INFORMATION AND SERVICES AT PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND PUBLIC ACCESS COMPUTING CENTERS Issued by Institute of Museum and Library Services Office of Library Services
"The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) invites proposals for a project to conduct a research study on how the part of the population with limited access to Internet resources (individuals who do not have broadband access from home, work, or school; who choose to access government services and information from locations other than home, work, or school; or who do so through traditional means of access) accesses federal, state and local government services and information, and whether such users are satisfied with the information and services they are able to access. Additionally, the study shall examine the ways that public libraries and public access computing centers provide assistance (e.g., reference services, tutorials, classes, training) to users seeking federal, state, and local government information and services."
Continue readingOPEN Gov’t Act: Bipartisan Bill Strengthens Open Government
Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced the OPEN Government Act (S. 394) to reinforce openness in the federal government. The bill requires agencies to pay legal costs when they face with a lawsuit over improperly withheld records. The purpose of the bill is to make agencies more accountable for fulfilling public requests for documents under the Freedom of Information Act. The bill was introduced on Feb. 16 and a Judiciary Committee hearing was held March 15. The companion bill in the House, H.R. 867, now has 6 cosponsors. The OPEN Government Act of 2005: A Summary Continue reading
An Arizona model for web access and preservation
When I was in Baltimore last week, I learned about the An Arizona model for web access and preservation written by Richard Pearce-Moses. The document is still under development and is currently 52 pages long but still well worth reading. Arizona is one of several states (including Alaska) trying to harvest state publications from agency web sites and store them on library servers. I think this paper does a great job of explaining the challenges involved. For instance, although they are collecting electronic documents, they don't fool themselves into thinking that preservation is accomplished:
This model does not address long-term problems of keeping bitstreams alive or software obsolescence. Preservation, for the purposes of this model, means capturing documents so that they are within the control of the repository in hopes that, when those long-term problems are solved, there is current content that can be migrated into the future.Continue reading
American Chemical Society vs NIH’s PubChem
According to the Open Access News:
"The American Chemical Society is calling on Congress to shut down the NIH's PubChem, a freely accessible database on small organic molecules. PubChem is an important component of NIH's Molecular Libraries Initiative, which is a key element of the NIH "road map" for medical research. ACS claims that PubChem competes with Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS). In reality, PubChem and the Chemical Abstracts Service databases are complementary, not duplicative."Patrice McDermott has written an excellant overview of the issues. How many of these excellant services are going to be lost or sold off to the private sector before people catch on? PubScience, Eric, now PubChem. Agricola? National Weather Service? OUR government information systems are being sold off or shut down because of bogus competition claims. And this isn't a recent phenomena. See The Scientist, November 20, 2002. Continue reading