Printing office to keep on printing
National Journal (subscription required) 02-26-2005 Executive Brief "Printing Office to Keep on Printing" Good news for insomniacs: The Government Printing Office appears to have backed down from a plan to stop printing bound copies of congressional hearings and other "nonessential" government publications. GPO Superintendent of Documents Judy Russell set off a firestorm in January with comments she made at the American Library Association winter meeting, where she suggested that the GPO was planning to decrease the number of documents it routinely makes available to libraries in paper format, as part of its transition to the digital age. The change wouldn't affect an "essential titles" list of about 50 critical documents -- budget books, Congressional Records, and the like -- that would still be sent to hundreds of libraries across the country that are part of the Federal Depository Library Program. But for congressional hearings, maps, geological information, and other items, libraries would have to make a special request to have a print copy made, would have to "pay" for the printing -- with vouchers provided by the GPO up to a limit -- and would get a paper version of sufficiently low quality that it would be readable for only 20 years, according to several people who heard the presentation. Continue reading
Congress hears about over- and pseudo-classification
Christopher Shays (R-CT), Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations, convened an oversight hearing on March 2, 2005 to examine the proliferation of categories of information that are not classified but are withheld from public disclosure. Rep Henry Waxman wrote a letter in support of Shay's hearing. Waxman's letter cites more than a few occasions that govt information has been improperly classified to block its release and cover up "potentially embarrassing facts rather than to protect legitimate security interests." Here is one little tidbit from testimony of Thomas Blanton, Director, National Security Archive:
national security secrecy is skyrocketing, but like the ballistic missile defense system, it cannot tell the real threat from the decoys. Let’s start with the core statistics, or least the most recent ones available, provided by ISOO in last year’s report to the President. New classification decisions are up from 9 million in 2001, to 11 million in 2002, to 14 million in 2003. If you look at that ISOO data all the way back to the first year in which it was collected – 1980 – you will discover that the 2003 number of new secrecy decisions is the highest ever recorded, higher even than the peak years of the Cold War in the mid-1980s. Continue reading
GPO Position on FDLP Distribution — Judith Russell
Through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), and in partnership with more than 1,250 libraries nationwide, the U.S. Government Printing office has an abiding commitment to providing public access to the most comprehensive body of official Federal Government information possible. Since 1996, GPO has been transitioning the FDLP to a predominately electronic basis in full cooperation and consultation with the library community. This initiative has resulted in an exponential expansion of effective public access to Government information without substantial increases in funding, and today more than 1 million documents a day are retrieved from GPO Access (www.gpoaccess.gov
GPO will continue to expand electronic information offerings through the FDLP and will continue to provide for dissemination of tangible products to depository libraries in accordance with existing policy, in full consultation with the library community. GPO will ensure that the necessary resources are applied to these tasks for FY 2005 and 2006 without requiring additional resources beyond those that have been approved and requested. All ongoing work on improvements to GPO's electronic information dissemination systems-including those projects associated with the authentication, preservation, and establishment of standards for electronic information products-will continue. GPO's Superintendent of Documents will actively seek the guidance and input of the library community in planning for and implementing changes in the dissemination of Government information products in either electronic or tangible formats.
Continue readingGPO “clarifies” its position
Printing Office to Keep on Printing. by Paul Singer, National Journal, 02-26-2005, page 606. [subscription required]
When GPO Superintendent of Documents Judy Russell suggested that the Government Printing Office was going to stop distributing all but 50 titles to Federal Depository Library Program libraries, she "set off a firestorm." This National Journal article says that, "GPO officials would neither discuss this story nor provide a copy of Russell's remarks" but that "Russell issued a statement Wednesday to 'clarify' her January remarks."
Russell posted a message to the govdoc-l mailing list on 3/1/2005 with more information. Unfortunately, while speaking of the importance of "electronic documents" this message still only mentions "dissemination of tangible products" to depository libraries. The message also says that GPO will "expand electronic information offerings through the FDLP" -- apparently confusing GPO (which has electronic information content) with FDLP libraries (into which GPO will not deposit electronic documents).
Continue readingA plea to make public records retention digital
Real-Time Sunshine Government Technology, March 2005 By Paul W. Taylor.
Open records laws -- driven by citizen initiatives at the ballot box three decades ago as government accountability measures -- were intended to prevent the last scandal from happening again, tens of thousands of exemptions notwithstanding. Erring on the side of caution, paper, microfilm, microfiche and digital records on various media are put in archival boxes, never to be seen again....
The public record is effectively lost to obscurity at a time when real advances are being made to broaden the circulation of literature and library holdings by bringing the world of wood pulp to the World Wide Web....
There is still time and considerable urgency to make the unique, authoritative public record held by government a primary source online. Citizens expect it, the historic values of transparency demand it, and government will be conspicuous in its absence if it fails to make it so....
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