From the Pasadena Weekly:
Getting public records from the feds has grown more difficult, but efforts are being made to increase access
. . . The fact is, say scholars and experts in the field, reporters with daily and weekly newspapers typically rely instead on their respective states’ open records statutes to do their jobs, mainly because [...]
Archive of entries posted on January 2007
Public Matters
Google’s Moon Shot – The quest for the universal library
From The New Yorker:
Every weekday, a truck pulls up to the Cecil H. Green Library, on the campus of Stanford University, and collects at least a thousand books, which are taken to an undisclosed location and scanned, page by page, into an enormous database being created by Google. The company is also retrieving books from [...]
China’s Hu vows to ‘purify’ Internet
From News.com:
Chinese Communist Party chief Hu Jintao has vowed to “purify” the Internet, state media reported Wednesday, describing a top-level meeting that discussed ways to master the country’s sprawling, unruly online population.
Hu made the comments as the ruling party’s Politburo–its 24-member leading council–was studying China’s Internet, which claimed 137 million registered users at the end [...]
Petition for guaranteed public access to publicly-funded research results
You may sign this petition to register your support for free and open access to European research and for the recommendations proposed in the EU’s ‘Study on the Economic and Technical Evolution of the Scientific Publication Markets of Europe’.
The sponsoring organisations are JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee, UK), SURF (Netherlands), SPARC Europe, DFG (Deutsches Forschungsgemeinschaft, [...]
Filmmaker needs examples of orders from the government to destroy documents in libraries
From LibraryLaw Blog:
A documentary filmmaker just contacted me, looking for examples of libraries that have received govt requests to destroy information:
For a documentary film on the nature of government secrecy and information, I am looking for copies of “withdraw and destroy” notifications.
If you can help him, put a comment on this post and I will [...]
Feds: Details of ISP snooping haven’t been decided
From News.com:
The Bush administration hasn’t settled on what data it would like Internet service providers to retain about their subscribers or for how long, a U.S. Department of Justice attorney said Tuesday.
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales made it clear last fall that he planned to seek national legislation requiring the controversial practice known as data [...]
China’s Baidu receives license to provide news
From News.com:
Chinese Internet search leader Baidu won approval to become an online news portal, government and industry sources said on Tuesday, heating up a rivalry in the world’s second-largest Web market.
China’s State Council Information Office (SCIO), granted Baidu an Internet news content service license last week, a government source said, allowing Baidu.com–often referred to as [...]
Internet usage in China hits record high
From News.com:
The number of Internet users in China made its highest recorded jump to reach 137 million at the end of 2006, a state information center said Tuesday.
Notes on a Scandal
The folks at Free Government Information are posting their notes from several ALA Midwinter sessions with EPA representatives.
ALA Committee on Legislation Subcommittee on Federal Libraries Session
ALA Washington Office Briefing
Inter-American Court of Human Rights Decision On-line
An English translation of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights decision in the case Claude Reyes et al v. Chile is available at the Court’s website. In this case the Inter-American Court upheld that the right to access to information is a human right under the American Convention.