From Library Journal Academic Newswire:
Librarians today are set to ring in the New Year with the nation’s first ever public access mandate. Both the House of Representatives and Senate this week approved the revised Labor Health and Human Services (LHHS) appropriations bill which leaves intact a directive for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) requiring [...]
Archive of entries posted on December 2007
Success! NIH Provision Remains Intact
Bush Secret Shredding Soars
From Radar Magazine:
Behold, the Bush Administration in chart form: Federal spending on paper shredding has increased more than 600 percent since George W. Bush took office. This chart, generated by usaspending.gov, the U.S. government’s brand spanking new database of federal expenditures, shows spending on “contracts for paper shredding services” going back to 2000. Click here [...]
50-State Agency Database Registry Launches Historical Materials
From Free Government Information:
The 50-State Agency Databases Registry, which I coordinate, has launched a new set of subject-focused database collections under the heading of history:
* Biographical Databases – Databases that provide biographical sketches of authors, state officials, famous state residents, etc.
* Historical Media Databases – Databases that provide online access to photographs, video, or audio.
* [...]
Put Me In Touch with Democracy!
From the Sunlight Foundation:
Boing Boing highlights CommitteeCaller.com, a new app that allows people to easily call an entire congressional committee to express their views. Consider it speed dial for congressional committee members. The site was built by Fred Benenson, a master’s degree student at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, as a final project for [...]
Congress Directs EPA to Re-Open Its Libraries — Omnibus Appropriations Bill Earmarks Money for Restoration of Library Services
From Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility:
Buried within the omnibus appropriations bill Congress sent this week to President Bush is a Christmas present for the beleaguered library network of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Congress ordered EPA to restore library services across the country and earmarked $3 million for that purpose, according to Public Employees for [...]
Richardson Responds to Sunshine Campaign Survey – Democrat Says He Will Roll Back ‘Obsessive Secrecy’
From Sunshine Week:
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Democratic candidate for president, says he supports open government and as president “would ensure that the obsessive secrecy of the Bush administration will be rolled back.”
Richardson, responding to the Sunshine Week 2008: Sunshine Campaign Questionnaire, noted, “The public must and will have access to information about what its [...]
Classification Reform Bill Introduced in House
From Secrecy News:
Speaking of classification reform, Rep. Jane Harman and 13 Democratic colleagues this week introduced “The Reducing Over-Classification Act of 2007.”
The legislation focuses on the Department of Homeland Security and aims to make the Department a model of judicious information policy by curtailing classification and other restrictions on disclosure.
“Foreign Relations of the U.S.” Not Published in 2007
From Secrecy News:
This week marks one full year since publication of the latest print volume of the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series, the official documentary record of U.S. foreign policy which dates back to the Abraham Lincoln Administration.
Publication of FRUS is required by law (Public Law 102-138) and is supposed to occur [...]
Johnston hunting for books to remove
Somehow I don’t think this is what the ALA had in mind for the use of its lists. . .
From The News & Observer:
After banning a popular coming-of-age tale, Johnston County school officials are scouring library shelves for other potentially offensive books to remove.
The district review was prompted by a parent challenge to “How the [...]
NARA Seeks to Speed Processing of Presidential Records
From Secrecy News:
The National Archives says it is exploring new methods to accelerate the disclosure of records at Presidential libraries.
Archivists “decided to undertake an in-house study in the spring of 2007 to review ways to achieve faster processing of Presidential records,” stated Emily Robison, acting director of the Clinton Presidential Library, in an October 2 [...]