NHRPC and NARA slated for budget cuts
This was originally posted on the Moving Image Archivists list by Lance Watsky, Preservation & Media Specialist, The Georgia Archives. >>>>>>>>>> On Monday, the President of the US released his FY2006 budget recommendations which slash or eliminate more than 150 federal programs. In that budget, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) has been targeted to receive NO funding. This includes no funds for the grants program and no funds for staffing to support the NHPRC programs. In addition, the overall budget for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has significant decreases in other areas of importance. The relevant section for NHPRC specifically and sparsely states: "National Historical Publications and Records Commission Grants. This program provides funding for grants that the Commission makes, nationwide, to preserve and publish records that document American history. The Budget proposes no new grants funding for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission in 2006." Continue reading
Trademark filings now available on the web
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is now offering documents in the official trademark application file, including all decisions made by trademark examining attorneys and their reasons for making them. Here is more from the press release:
Trademark Document Retrieval (TDR) offers the public an advanced electronic portal to PDF viewing, downloading and printing of an array of information and documents for more than 460,000 trademark applications totaling more than eight million document pages. As new applications are filed, they will be added to the database. It is expected that more than 300,000 application files will be added annually. Over the next five years, the remaining paper files of approximately 1.2 million active trademark registrations will be converted into digital format for TDR access. “Trademarks help consumers distinguish among products and services and are often an organization’s most valuable asset,†noted Jon Dudas, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO. “The TDR system improves our ability to provide timely and useful information to business owners as they develop their marks and prepare to file trademark applications.†The TDR system builds on the USPTO’s First Action System for Trademarks (FAST), which replaced paper files and is now used by all trademark examining attorneys to review applications. All federally registered and pending trademarks are available to the public on the USPTO’s Web site (www.uspto.gov), where status information is also available. The trademark data includes nearly 2 million pending and registered trademarks dating back to 1885 and represents more than 100 years of marketing creativity.
Thanks to beSpacific
Continue readingGPO eviscerates FDLP
The Government Printing Office (GPO) has decided to gut the federal depository library program. For 150+ years, the federal government has been legislatively mandated to distribute *at no cost* information produced by the federal government to a distributed system of libraries (called the Federal Depository Library Program or FDLP) so that citizens will have access to that information and therefore be better able to participate in our democratic system. The GPO has been in charge of that distribution system. They have decided that, starting October 1, 2005, they will only distribute the titles on their Essential Titles List. Anything else and libraries will now have to pay. Oh, they're setting up a print on demand (POD) allowance ($500/yr for selective depositories and $1500/yr for regional depositories). However, that will barely make a dent. Take for example UCSD. We're a selective depository, but we receive thousands of titles in paper besides what's on the essential titles list. Continue reading
Chamber of Commerce: Scientific Experts?
OMB Watch - Industry Challenge Prompts Removal of EPA Database
OMB Watch reports that "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has removed one database from its public website and slightly altered another due to a Data Quality Act (DQA) challenge submitted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce." The Chamber claims some of the data are erroneous, inconsistent and contradictory.
The Data Quality Act is less than half a page in a public law of more seven hundred pages (Public Law 106-554 Sec. 515; Statutes at Large volume 114, pages 2763A-153 to 2763A-154, available online as plain text and as pdf). The Act is nominally about requiring the government to set standards for the accuracy of scientific information, but is controversial because it was supported and largely written by industry-backed groups which have are using it to challenge government data. Successful challenges such as this one can result in the data being withdrawn from publication and withdrawn from government web sites.
Continue readingFBI is fighting in court to limit document searches
FBI is fighting in court to limit extensive searches for electronic documents requested under Freedom of Information Act. If FBI wins, "people could have a diminished chance of getting documents from the nation's most famous law enforcement agency, open records experts said." FBI Fights for Limited Document Searches Continue reading