From Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility:
The brave new world of electronic libraries at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is turning into a nightmare, according to librarian complaints released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). With nearly one third of its library network now closed, internal and external researchers are frustrated by being forced [...]
Archive of entries posted on January 2007
EPA Library System in Shambles — On-Line System Unworkable After Physical Collections Dispersed
Soil scientists renew the call for broader access to publicly funded research
From The Alliance for Taxpayer Access:
The National Society of Consulting Soil Scientists, which represents 156 private soil consulting firms in the U.S., has declared its support for the Federal Research Public Access Act. The society is the first to publicly announce its support for the Act.
FBI turns to broad new wiretap method
From News.com:
The FBI appears to have adopted an invasive Internet surveillance technique that collects far more data on innocent Americans than previously has been disclosed.
Instead of recording only what a particular suspect is doing, agents conducting investigations appear to be assembling the activities of thousands of Internet users at a time into massive databases, according [...]
Tech firms urge Washington to confront China on Net censorship
From the Mercury News:
American technology giants urged the U.S. government Tuesday to do more to confront China and other countries about Internet censorship.
Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc. also defended themselves against accusations that they have helped governments such as China’s crush dissent in return for access to booming Internet markets.
ALA President Leslie Burger to Testify on EPA Library Closings to Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
ALA Press Release:
On February 6, ALA President Leslie Burger will testify at an oversight hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on the impact of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) library closings.
British Library and US Department of Energy to collaborate on global science gateway
Press Release from the British Library:
Dr. Raymond L. Orbach, Under Secretary for Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), has signed an agreement with Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library, to collaborate on the development of a global science gateway. The gateway would eventually make science information resources of many nations accessible [...]
PR’s ‘pit bull’ takes on open access
From Nature:
Now, Nature has learned, a group of big scientific publishers has hired the pit bull to take on the free-information movement, which campaigns for scientific results to be made freely available. Some traditional journals, which depend on subscription charges, say that open-access journals and public databases of scientific papers such as the National Institutes [...]
Government Secrecy vs. Freedom of the Press
From the First Amendment Center:
A new First Amendment Center report examines the rising conflicts between the federal government and the press over matters of secrecy, leaks and threats to prosecute journalists for espionage or treason for reporting classified information.
Government Secrecy vs. Freedom of the Press, by Geoffrey R. Stone, a University of Chicago law professor, [...]
NAPC Digitizing ERIC’s Document Backfile
From Information Today:
The National Archive Publishing Co. (NAPC) has announced a 2-year project by which they will digitize a backfile of microfiche reports in ERIC (Education Resources Information Center). All documents date from 1966 to 1992—about 340,000 documents or 40 million pages. Due to a conservative interpretation of contract language used until 1993 for submitting [...]
Men in New York and Georgia cleared by DNA evidence to be freed from prison Tuesday
From the Boston Herald:
. . .Brown, 46, was convicted of stabbing and strangling Sabina Kulakowski. He was found guilty mostly on the strength of bite marks on her nude body that a prosecution witness linked to Brown.
After appeals were rejected, Brown filed a Freedom of Information request four years ago and paid $28.50 for copies [...]