SLA Government Information Division

EPA Reaches Agreement with Union over Libraries

An 11 August 2008 press release from the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) announces the settlement the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) management has reached with the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238 over the 2006 closing of some EPA libraries. The press release page includes a link to the Memorandum of Agreement.

SLA's public policy office provides background information about the issue on its EPA Update web page.

Inaugural Committee Established

The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies now has an Inauguration Day website. The site has information on the committee, Inauguration Day 2009 events, and historical background. Inauguration of the next President of the United States will take place on Tuesday, 20 January 2009.

NARA to Participate In World Digital Library

NARA announced last week that it will provide digital copies of "significant U.S. documents" to the World Digital Library project, which is slated to debut next year.  According to Federal Computer Week, the digital documents include the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and immigration and naturalization records of well-known Americans.  The Library of Congress is spearheading the project planning, which is being underwritten by a donation from Google.

Would You Ask a Turkey to Mandate Thanksgiving?

Those with an interest in legislatures and legislative information systems will want to read Would You Ask a Turkey to Mandate Thanksgiving? [PDF], a discussion paper by J. H. Snider for the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy. Of particular interest is Paper #1, The Dismal Politics of Legislative Transparency. From the abstract:

New information technology is revolutionizing the economics of legislative information systems. But elected officials have a conflict of interest in using those new technologies to enhance democratic accountability when that might conflict with their own re-election interests. This paper looks at the online accessibility of roll call votes by legislator in 126 legislative branches: the 2 branches of Congress, the 99 branches in the 50 U.S. states, and the 25 branches (city councils) in the 25 largest U.S. cities. It concludes that legislators have a conflict of interest and act on it in making roll call votes accessible. Moreover, this particular conflict of interest is merely the tip of the iceberg of a greater incentive problem elected officials have in designing legislative information systems to make themselves more democratically accountable.

(Hat tip to John W.!)

Senate Votes to Give Emergency Funding to Census

A DGI blog reader alerted us that a previous post reporting that the Senate voted against emergency funding for the 2010 Census was erroneous.  Gautham Nagesh reports in NextGov that the Senate voted against a point of order raised by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) objecting to the emergency spending request, but approved the funding for the Census Bureau.  The previous post on the DGI blog has been deleted, but the original story on Federal Computer Week is still available without correction.

EPA on Library Feedback

Feedback received by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of its National Dialogue on Access to Environmental Information has been posted on a newly updated EPA web page, What We've Learned So Far.

The page includes:

• summaries of "listening sessions" with stakeholder groups such as industry, news media, governments at all levels, and an "educators, researchers, librarians, and students" group;
• key findings from internal "jam sessions" among EPA employees; and
• a summary of comments from the EPA Partner Blog, a blog that was open to the public for comments between 9-13 June 2008 (as mentioned on the DGI blog).

Tell EPA--Friday Deadline!

EPA has established a blog for one week, 9 June - 13 June, as a vehicle for receiving public comments on improving access to EPA information. The EPA Partner Blog is part of the EPA National Dialogue on Access to Environmental Information. The blog is set up to receive responses on five topics:

• Understanding Information: Putting environmental information into context for our customers.
• Finding Information: Making environmental information easier to find or access.
• What Works: What is working for your organization?
• Building to Share: How do we leverage our collective strengths and capabilities?
• Going Beyond the Web: Reaching people who don’t have Internet access.

EPA says: "The information gathered on this site, combined with input gathered through the National Dialogue with EPA’s external partners and the public, will be used to develop a comprehensive multi-year strategy on access to environmental information."

What is the Role of Government in Publishing Government Data?

The draft version of an article scheduled to appear in Yale Journal of Law & Technology has been receiving attention from a number of blogs. The authors of Government Data and the Invisible Hand argue:

If the next Presidential administration really wants to embrace the potential of Internet-enabled government transparency, it should follow a counter-intuitive but ultimately compelling strategy: reduce the federal role in presenting important government information to citizens. Today, government bodies consider their own websites to be a higher priority than technical infrastructures that open up their data for others to use. We argue that this understanding is a mistake. It would be preferable for government to understand providing reusable data, rather than providing websites, as the core of its online publishing responsibility.

The article has provoked thoughtful commentary on several blogs, including:

• Some Thoughts on The Invisible Hand by John Wonderlich on The Open House Project blog,
• Mike W.'s comments to the authors' post on the Freedom to Tinker blog, and
• The Federal Government Must Reimagine Its Role As An Information Provider by jajacobs on FGI.

National Archives Policy News

Catching up with important announcements from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA):

A Controlled Unclassified Information  Office (CUIO) has been established within NARA in accordance with the May 2008 White House Memorandum Designation and Sharing of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). The memo defines CUI as:

...a categorical designation that refers to unclassified information that does not meet the standards for National Security Classification under Executive Order 12958, as amended, but is (i) pertinent to the national interests of the United States or to the important interests of entities outside the Federal Government, and (ii) under law or policy requires protection from unauthorized disclosure, special handling safeguards, or prescribed limits on exchange or dissemination. Henceforth, the designation CUI replaces "Sensitive But Unclassified" (SBU).

NARA has published it Strategy for Digitizing Archival Materials for Public Access, 2007-2016. The strategy succinctly describes NARA's approach, priorities, and principles for partnerships regarding digitization of permanent records in its holdings. To quote:

The strategy applies to a diverse and vast range of permanent records that have been accessioned into the holdings of the National Archives of the United States, including the 14 Regional Archives and the 12 Presidential Libraries, as well as our 2 Washington, DC, area facilities. This document does not address permanent records in our custody that are "born digital." These are being addressed by our Electronic Records Archives (ERA) project.

NARA has submitted to Congress its report The Founders Online: Open Access to the Papers of America's Founding Era (47 pages, PDF) concerning the papers of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington. According to the report,

The plan discussed here would, over several years, help accelerate digitization and online access to 1) copies of all the available original source documents, 2) transcriptions of those documents as they become available, and 3) the existing print volumes that contain annotated and edited transcripts of the documents. In addition, as further volumes are completed, these authoritative editions would then replace the raw transcriptions. This collection would be a kind of work-in-progress that students, scholars, and the general public could use through the Internet.

EU Public Access Policy News

The European Ombudsman, an official who investigates complaints about EU administration, issued a 13 May 2008 press release stating:

In light of the anticipated reform of the EU's rules on public access to documents, the Ombudsman has decided to consult his national colleagues in the European Network of Ombudsmen on how the issue of access to information in databases is dealt with in their respective countries. The Ombudsman himself has already proposed a general obligation for the EU administration to make new databases as easily accessible as possible. He hopes to be informed until the end of May by his colleagues of national "best practices" aimed at guaranteeing maximum public access to information stored in databases.

The action was motivated by "a complaint from a Danish journalist about the refusal of the European Commission to disclose data on beneficiaries of EU agricultural subsidies. The Commission justified its refusal on grounds of confidentiality. Furthermore, it argued that the EU's rules on access to documents apply to databases only if the data can be easily retrieved."

(Hat tip to bespacific.com.)

Internet Archive Fights Patriot Act Order

The Threat Level Blog from Wired Magazine reports on Patriot Act news in its 7 May posting, FBI Targets Internet Archive with Secret 'National Security Letter,' Loses:

The Internet Archive, a project to create a digital library of the web for posterity, successfully fought a secret government Patriot Act order for records about one of its patrons and won the right to make the order public, civil liberties groups announced Wednesday morning.

Wired's report includes a set of links to the relevant court documents.

The story is also covered by Infoworld in their 7 May article, Internet Archive Challenges FBI's Secret Records Demand.

Budget Issues for US National Agricultural Library

A recent article in The Washington Post called attention to the budget threat faced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Library (NAL). The article, A Precious Resource At Risk [registration req'd]  by garden guru Barbara Damrosch, says: "Flat-lined for years, the National Agricultural Library's budget is slated for drastic cuts in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1" (1 May 2008, page H07).

The excellent NAL blog, InfoFarm, describes the budget situation in a 5 May 2008 posting.

National Archives Web Harvest Decision

The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has announced that it will not be recording and archiving a "snapshot" of federal agency websites at the end of the Bush Administration's second term. (NARA had done so at the end of the Administration's first term, and the results are available at NARA's webharvest.gov site.) NARA explains this decision in a 3-page paper posted on 15 April, titled National Archives and Records Administration Web Harvest Background. As NARA states in the paper,

NARA collected web records in 2000 and 2004 in an abundance of caution because we had not yet issued records management guidance to federal agencies on managing their web records in accordance with the Federal Records Act (FRA). In January 2005, however, NARA issued "Guidance on Managing Web Records," which addresses agencies' responsibilities for identifying, managing and scheduling web materials they identify as Federal records. ... Because Congress is not covered by the Federal Records Act, NARA will continue to conduct a web harvest of Congressional web sites for the same reason we did so for Federal agencies before formal guidance was issued.

The January 2005 NARA guidance and other documents are referenced at the end of the paper.

NARA's decision is discussed and debated on the ArchivesNext blog, in its 14 April post titled NARA and the Web Harvest: A Discussion of the Issues and in comments to the post.

(big tip of the hat to jajacobs at FGI)

Oregon Statutes Copyright Debate

A story that had been percolating in the blogosphere has hit the mainstream media. The Washington Times covers a government information and copyright case in its article, Oregon Claims State Law Copyrighted (19 April 2008). A 16 April post on the ars technica blog says,

The State of Oregon takes exception to Web sites that republish the state's Revised Statutes in full, claiming that the statutes contain copyrighted information in the republication causes the state to lose money it needs to continue putting out the official version of the statutes. Oregon's Legislative Counsel, Dexter Johnson, has therefore requested that legal information site Justia remove the information or (preferably) take out a paid license from the state.

The Justia website updates the story with their 19 April post, Cease, Desist & Resist - Oregon's Copyright Claim on the Oregon Revised Statutes. Justia says,

Thursday, we (Carl Malamud, Nolo's Stephen Elias and I) had a pleasant and constructive conversation with Dexter Johnson and his team. The Oregon folks are going to think through some different options. If Oregon comes up with a solution that promotes free and open access to the laws, then we will likely avoid litigation. If not, then we will likely have to ask the courts to determine whether state governments can prohibit others from downloading, reproducing or distributing the laws. I hope that given Oregon's public interest focus, the State will adopt an approach that promotes open access to laws instead of one that maximizes licensing fees. We should know more next week.

The Justia post links to further commentary from legal blogs.

Copyright Law Report for Libraries and Archives

From the March 31 Library of Congress press release:

After nearly three years of intensive work, the independent Section 108 Study Group has issued its report and recommendations on exceptions to copyright law to address how libraries, archives and museums deal with copyrighted materials in fulfilling their missions in the digital environment. The report is available at www.section108.gov. Section 108 is the section of the Copyright Act that provides limited exceptions for libraries and archives so that they may make copies to replace copyrighted works in their collections when necessary, preserve them for the long term and make them available to users.

Executive Summary [PDF, 1 MB]
Full Report [PDF, 2.5 MB]

POPLINE Controversy

POPLINE, a database of reproductive health literature, gained attention in the mainstream media this past week as database administrators admitted to, then reversed policy on, blocking searches on the word 'abortion'. POPLINE is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and managed by the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

For the story, see:

Overreaction to Bush Administration Complaint Prompted Block on 'Abortion' Searches, Threat Level blog from Wired.com, 7 April 2008.

Hopkins Restores Access to Health Site, Baltimore Sun, 5 April 2008.

Statement Regarding POPLINE Database, Johns Hopkins University, 4 April 2008.

U.S. Funded Health Search Engine Blocks 'Abortion', Threat Level blog from Wired.com, 3 April 2008.

EPA Libraries Report to Congress Released

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued its EPA National Library Network Report to Congress (PDF, 8 pages), as required by Congress.

According to the EPA National Library Network News web page, "EPA commits to reestablish physical libraries in EPA Regions 5, 6, and 7, as well as the Headquarters and Chemical libraries by September 30, 2008 to complement existing library services."

From the Report to Congress:

With this report, EPA is stating its commitment to providing publicly available libraries in each Region and at EPA Headquarters. The report addresses how EPA libraries will:

• provide on-site library presence in all Regions and at the Headquarters and Chemical libraries for the public and EPA staff,
• continue to provide and enhance access to the Agency’s library collections,
• continue to provide valuable library services for both the public and EPA staff,
• ensure the availability of environmental information to EPA staff and the public, and
• build upon past successes to strengthen the network of EPA’s libraries.

For information on recent congressional hearings on the EPA library system, see our 13 March blog post, EPA Library Closures Hearing - Webcast. The SLA website has history and background information on its Public Policy: EPA Libraries page.

UPDATE: See this 27 March 2008 SLA press release.

EPA Library Closures Hearing - Webcast

A congressional hearing titled EPA Library Closures: Better Access for a Broader Audience? was held today (13 March 2008) by the House Science and Technology Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

The webcast of the hearing (RealPlayer) is available on the committee's site, as are the prepared statements of the witnesses. Witnesses were:

• John Stephenson, Government Accountability Office
• Charles Orzehoskie, American Federation of Government Employees, Council 238
• Dr. Francesca Grifo, Union of Concerned Scientists
• Mr. Jim Rettig, American Library Association
• Molly O’Neill, Environmental Protection Agency

The committee site also has opening statements from Rep. Bart Gordon and Rep. Brad Miller.

Sunshine Week - Register for Free Webcast

SLA is one of the sponsors of the Sunshine Week event Government Secrecy: Censoring Your Right to Know, 19 March 2008, 1:00-2:30pm EDT. The program panelists will discuss:

• The Secret Executive -- What Can Congress and the Public Do?
• Citizen Self-Help: Finding the Information You Need

Individuals can view a webcast of the event free of charge, but should register in advance using this PDF form. For complete information, see the program announcement. (Note: the registration form says the deadline is 7 March; this has been extended to 18 March.)

Senate Hearing on Founding Fathers' Papers

The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary held hearings on 7 February 2008 titled The Founding Fathers’ Papers: Ensuring Public Access to our National Treasures. The committee has posted the witnesses' prepared testimony on their site, including statements by Dr. Stanley N. Katz (Chairman, Papers of the Founding Fathers), David G. McCullogh (historian and author), and Dr. Allen Weinstein (Archivist of the United States).

The Budget and the OPEN Government Act

The OPEN Government Act of 2007 (Public Law No. 110-175) established an Office of Government Information Services with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) with responsibilities for FOIA policies and dispute resolution. As reported in the Washington Post article Is Ombudsman Already in Jeopardy? and in other sources, the Administration's fiscal year 2009 budget proposal seeks to move the new office to the Justice Department.

The relevant language is in the Budget Appendix section for the Justice Department, under "General Provisions":

SEC. 519. The Department of Justice shall carry out the responsibilities of the office established in 5 U.S.C. 552(h), from amounts made available in the Department of Justice appropriation for ‘‘General Administration Salaries and Expenses’’. In addition, subsection (h) of section 552 of title 5, United States Code, is hereby repealed, and subsections (i) through (l) are redesignated as (h) through (k). (Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008.)

Other coverage:
Administration Defends Proposed FOIA Change, GovExec.com
Journalists Criticize FOIA Bill Change, Broadcasting & Cable

Washington Post Covers OMB's Budget Wiki

In today's Washington Post, "Federal Diary" columnist Stephen Barr's latest article, "Agencies Share Information By Taking a Page From Wikipedia," discusses how the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) set up a wiki to compile a list of earmarks Congress added to the federal budget.  In 10 weeks, federal agencies used the wiki to create a list of 13,496 earmarks.

Washington Post On OMB and GAO Moving Away From Print

Washington Post "Federal Diary" columnist Stephen Barr recently wrote an article, "OMB, GAO to Go Digital on Key Reports," about the Government Accountability Office and the Office of Management and Budget both deciding to release key publications only in electronic formats.

The OMB will not distribute print copies of this year's publication of the president's budget to members of Congress.  White House IT Administrator Karen Evans said that the move will save $1 million annually.  She also said noted that the latest electronic budget will have better search capabilities than previous editions.

Meanwhile, the GAO will no longer be distributing print copies of most of its reports to Congress, a change that Director of Continuous Improvement Michael Motley said would save $350,000 a year.  Important reports will still be available in hard copies, and Congressional offices can request print copies if absolutely necessary.

DGI member Sabrina Pacifici linked to this story on her blog beSpacific.

EPA Libraries Budget Info

A major U.S. government relations topic for library associations in 2007 was the closing of several Environmental Protect Agency (EPA) libraries, including the headquarters library, with little notice or information about the deaccessioning of the collections. In December 2007, Congress passed favorable legislative language as part of the huge fiscal year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations bill, H.R. 2764 (Public Law No, 110-161).

SLA Policy Chief Doug Newcomb recently sent a helpful email to the DGI and Government Relations email lists explaining some of the legislative details.  Due to the great interest our members had in this topic last year, we're copying Doug's email here to reach members who may read our blog but don't read the list. DGI will continue to keep you up-to-date with help from Doug Newcomb.

From Doug Newcomb, SLA HQ:
The FY08 EPA budget, approved in the omnibus budget bill, allocates $1 million to restore EPA’s network of libraries. In communications with EPA staff, SLA has received clarification that this $1 million is additional money, above the budget requested by the EPA, and is specifically to restore the network of regional EPA libraries which were recently closed or consolidated by the Administration in 2007.

There has been some confusion, as well as inconsistencies reported by the press, as to the amount of money earmarked for restoration of libraries and services in the FY08 EPA budget. This confusion stems from reports of an earlier bill, proposed by the Senate, which included $2 million above the EPA budget request for libraries. SLA received clarification from EPA staff on January 10, 2008, that the amount is indeed $1 million above the FY08 EPA budget request for libraries, in addition to the EPA libraries operating budget for 2008.

The EPA’s budget is complex. What is unclear, as of early January, is the amount of the entire 2008 budget for EPA libraries. There is not a single line item for libraries; the libraries funds are broken up across multiple areas in various EPA office budgets. SLA will provide additional information as it becomes available on the amount of the total budget for libraries.

According to the Appropriations Report EPA reports, “The amended bill includes $1,000,000 above the request to restore the network of EPA libraries recently closed or consolidated by the Administration, instead of $2,000,000 as proposed by the Senate. The Agency is directed to submit a report to the Committees on Appropriations regarding actions it will take to restore publicly available libraries to provide environmental information and data to each EPA region within 90 days of enactment of this Act.”

LIBRARY LANGUAGE is on page 35 OF THIS 141 PAGE DOCUMENT:
http://www.rules.house.gov/110/text/omni/jes/jesdivf.pdf

WHICH CAN BE FOUND AT:
http://www.rules.house.gov/110_fy08_omni.htm
Select Division F: Joint Explanatory statement on Dept of Interior (includes EPA)

In early 2006, the EPA budget proposed cuts of $2 million that would affect its network of 26 libraries and information centers. SLA vehemently opposed this decision and took action—and continued communications stressing the importance of access to the unique information managed by the EPA’s network.

SLA EPA Library History Link: (http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/advocacy/EPA/epaupdate.cfm)

 

U.S. Presidential Records' Mammoth Preservation Challenge -- Gov Exec.com Article

Jill Aitoro's article for Government Executive.com looks at the challenges facing the Bush Administration in transitioning all presidential records to the National Archives by January 2009, as mandated by the 1978 Presidential Records Act.  The White House, she says, has a "mammoth project on its hands."  In addition to the sheer volume of information, it must deal with properly handling e-documents, and identifying and centralizing pertinent records. 

According to Aitoro, recent letters sent to the U.S. Archivist and the President's Counsel by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, have raised concerns about the White House's systems for managing and preserving records.  The Committee has requested that the National Archives and Records Administration, and the White House, provide an update on their records' transition preparations by February 1. 

NIH Access Policy Becomes Law

As we previously blogged, the U.S. House and Senate have approved appropriations language for the National Institutes of Health stating:

The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.

The provision is part of the much larger 2008 Consolidated Appropriations bill (H.R. 2764) signed into law by President Bush on 26 December 2007.

For further information, see the Alliance for Taxpayer Access (ATA) press release. SLA is a member of the ATA.

EPA Libraries in Omnibus Appropriations

The 2008 Omnibus Appropriations bill (H.R. 2764), just passed by the House and Senate, retains funding for the re-opening of the six closed EPA libraries. For basic information, see this December 21 Library Journal article. We'll have more later, after the holiday break...

(Hat tip to bespacific.)

FOIA Bill & RegInfo.gov

Today's Washington Post featured a brief article by Elizabeth Williams about Congressional efforts to improve federal FOIA requests.  The OPEN Government Act of 2007, which passed on Tuesday in the Senate, would speed up compliance by assigning requests tracking numbers.  If an agency does not respond within the 20 days required by law, it will no longer be allowed to charge for research or duplication costs.  In addition, an office will be established within NARA to oversee non-compliance complaints.

In other government information news, the new website RegInfo.gov offers the entire federal regulation agenda online.  Although an electronic version of the agenda has been available since 1995, this is the first time it has been exclusively published in a digital format.  Cindy Skrzycki notes in her article about the site that RegInfo.gov has the past two editions of the agenda, but that next year 25 years worth of items will be available.

Article on USAspending.gov in Washington Post

Elizabeth Williamson wrote an article for The Washington Post about USAspending.gov, a new OMB website tracking government spending, which was developed by OMB Watch.  That a leading critic of the OMB worked with the agency to create the site is a story in and of itself:

"'OMB Watch spends a great deal of its efforts criticizing what I do the rest of my day, trying to improve program performance, [so] my level of interest in cooperating with them was very low,' [OMB associate director Robert] Shea said."

E-Gov 2.0: Senate Hearings on Dec. 11

The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs will be holding a hearing at 10:00 a.m. (EST) on Tuesday, December 11th, titled E-Government 2.0: Improving Innovation, Collaboration, and Access. Announced witnesses are: Karen Evans, Office of Management and Budget; J.L. Needham, Google; Ari Schwartz, Center for Democracy and Technology (OpenCRS); and Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia.

Hearings from this committee are often available on live webcast. The committee also makes many of its webcasts of past hearings available.

SLA Public Policy News

SLA headquarters has posted the November 2007 issue of Public Policy Connections. This issue covers the status of the Sandia National Labs research library, public access to NIH-funded research, European Commission information policy actions, and more. The Government Information Division gets some PR in this issue as well. It mentions our October program with the ALA Government Documents Round Table on the topic of how journalists find and use government information.

Interested SLA members can subscribe to the Public Policy Connections newsletter via the SLA E-Newsletters page.

GovernmentDocs.org Debuts

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), in collaboration with other government watchdog groups like the Sunlight Foundation, have launched a new government documents database called GovernmentDocs.org.  From CREW's press release:

"The database will house Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) responses, and other government documents, from a number of organizations, that can be browsed, searched and reviewed."

The documents included in the database have been scanned using optical character recognition.  On his Sunlight Foundation blog, Bill Allison writes, "CREW ... uses OCR technology to make the images word-searchable; the results aren't always perfect but they do make the documents easier to navigate."

In addition, the press release reports, "Citizen reviewers can add information to each document page and highlight important findings, allowing for more robust and targeted searches."  To do so, one needs to register to use the site.

SLA Letter to Sandia Labs

SLA CEO Janice Lachance sent a letter to Sandia National Laboratories on October 23rd protesting recent changes to the Sandia Lab Technical Library. SLA has just posted a press release about the letter on the SLA website; a link to the text of the letter is at the end of the press release.

More information on the changes is available in this Albuquerque Journal article, as carried by the Web site for ASM, the materials engineering association.

As stated in the SLA press release, "Sandia is a government-owned/contractor operated (GOCO) facility. Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, manages Sandia for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration."

NIH Public Access News

Last night the Senate passed the Labor/HHS Appropriations bill with the NIH Public Access provisions intact. The Alliance for Taxpayer Access, of which SLA is a member, provides background information on the policy and the current status of the legislative proposal in today's press release, Mandate for Public Access to NIH-Funded Research Poised to Become Law.

Measuring Access to Knowledge (A2K)

Some professional reading for those interested in national and international information policy:

Defining and Measuring Access to Knowledge: Towards an A2K Index, by Lee Shaver, Yale Law School. Yale Law School Student Scholarship Series. September 13, 2007.
The author offers a definition and measure for "Access to Knowledge" (A2K), a concept that assumes knowledge is a resource essential to human development and well-being. Shaver states, "the importance of access to knowledge for human development is increasingly recognized by international development agencies, national policy-makers, academic researchers, and non-governmental organizations.

The article begins with a quote from Lord Kelvin: "If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it." The proposed A2K index includes measures of information literacy, access to the global knowledge commons,  access to knowledge goods, the legal and policy framework (freedom of expression and intellectual property rights), and effective innovation systems.

[Hat tip to Law Librarian Blog.]

MT State Library "Going Digital"...Only?

Library-oriented blogs have been asking lately about the status of the Montana State Library. The reason for concern is an AP article that has appeared in the Billings Gazette and other places. The article seems to make it clear that the library is shutting its doors to finance digital-only access. The Montana State Library now has a page on its website seeking to clarify the situation. Montana State Library Responds to Recent News Articles, by the State Librarian, says in part:

While it is true that the Montana State Library has a few changes on the horizon, we are not closing our doors as you may have read in recent news articles. The Montana State Library will remain open to the public while working to significantly increase access to state archives by digitizing documents and making them available online for Montanans to more easily and quickly access...
To offer our entire collection digitally, we may need to implement a few changes to the way we do business. It may be necessary to change the way we use some of our physical space and reassign some staff. But, rest assured our building will remain open to the public...

Please read the full statement for complete information.

Anyone from Montana care to comment?

International Right to Know Day 2007

Today, September 28, is International Right to Know Day. The day is used to promote awareness of the individual’s right of access to government information. The FOIAnet website has information on activities around the world to mark the day.

FOIAnet is the website of the Freedom of Information Advocates Network. According to the website:

International Right to Know Day was established to mark the founding on 28 September 2002 of the global Freedom of Information Advocates Network. It was first celebrated on 28 September 2003, and 2007 will see the 5th International Right to Know Day.

Open Access News in Canada

"The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the federal government's health research granting agency, unveiled a new open access policy for the research that it funds." Read more about it in the September 10th article New Research Policy a Victory for 'Open Access' in the Toronto Star online.

The CIHR policy is described in a September 4th press release, Open Access to Health Research Publications: CIHR Unveils New Policy. The full Policy on Access to Research Outputs is also posted on the CIHR site.

Hat tip to the always helpful and Canadian Internet News feed.

EPA Libraries Seek Feedback

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has posted its Future Direction of the EPA Library Network plan and a Library Network Feedback Form for your input on the plan. (Thanks to SLA member Robyn Hutson for spreading the news.)

SLA HQ provided a legislative update on EPA Libraries in the latest Public Policy Update. SLA has also posted an Action Alert.

Update on NIH Public Access Legislation

From Information Today's NewsBreaks service:

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a measure directing the National Institutes of Health (NIH; www.nih.gov) to provide free public online access to agency-funded research findings within 12 months of their publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The House passed the provision as part of the FY2008 Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriations Bill. A similar measure has been approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee and will be considered by the full Senate later this summer.

Read more about it in the Alliance for Taxpayer Access July 20th press release.  The NewsBreak item also refers to opposition from the Association of American Publishers (AAP), as expressed in a June 25th letter on the topic from the AAP Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division.

The House bill is H.R. 3043. The Senate bill is S. 1710.

Power of Information - UK Government Report

Anyone interested in the use and re-use of government information will want to review a new British government report: The Power of Information (57 pages, PDF).

While many of the recommendations are specific to the British government, the authors do an excellent job of describing the current online information environment and how it relates to public sector information.

Quoting from the report:

[This report] recommends a strategy in which government:

• welcomes and engages with users and operators of user-generated sites in pursuit of common social and economic objectives;
• supplies innovators that are re-using government-held information with the information they need, when they need it, in a way that maximises the long-term benefits for all citizens; and
• protects the public interest by preparing citizens for a world of plentiful (and sometimes unreliable) information, and helps excluded groups take advantage.

The report is a commissioned external review by Tom Steinberg, Director of mySociety, and Ed Mayo, Chief Executive of the National Consumer Council. Important caveats: "The arguments and recommendations are those of the authors only, and do not reflect government policy"; and "The review is about information created both by citizens and government and is not about individuals’ private information, such as medical or credit records."

In the press release from the Cabinet Office, which commissioned the report, Tom Steinburg is quoted as saying:

Around the world, the first phase of Government use of the internet is coming to an end with public services and information largely online. We are now at the start of a new era, where Government starts to learn how to support citizens' own ways of making, finding and re–using information online.

Personally, I am not sure about the "public services and information largely online" part, but we are getting there.

(Hat tip to Law Librarian Blog.)

Shedding Some Light on EPA Library Moves

GovernmentExecutive.com has posted this article on EPA libraries and the ALA wiki:

Librarians use 'wiki' for Updates on EPA Consolidation

The article states: "No further changes are being made until EPA has reviewed its methods for delivering library services."

For more information, see these previous postings on our blog:

SLA Update on EPA Libaries

Wiki from ALA for Federal Libraries

SLA Update on EPA Libraries

For the latest update on the status of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Libraries, see this March 9th press release from SLA HQ:

Special Libraries Association Continues Dialogue with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Library Closures; SLA Obtains Clarification from EPA Surrounding Recent Media Reports on Closures
http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/pressroom/pressrelease/07pr/pr2712.cfm

The press release includes the news that an EPA representative will be on hand "to address the recent reports as well as share future plans with SLA members in three weeks at The 2007 SLA Annual Conference, June 3-6 in Denver, Co. He is scheduled to provide a status update on the EPA's plans for its library network on Tuesday, June 5, 2007 9-10:30 a.m. as one part of SLA ’s Public Policy Update."

New GAO Report on FOIA

The GAO has published a new report on FOIA called "Processing Trends Show Importance of Improvement Plans." [PDF]  It is an analysis of the plans of 25 government agencies to improve their FOIA response methods as per Executive Order 13392.

Public Policy Connections from SLA

SLA HQ has posted the March 2007 issue of its Public Policy Connections newsletter. Articles in this issue include:

• New FAIR USE Legislation Introduced
• Proposed Amendments to the U.S. Presidential Records Act
• U.K. Trying to Close Disclosure?
• and more ...

If you'd like to receive Public Policy Connections via email, sign up on the SLA E-Newsletters page.

Info Outlook Reports on EPA

The March 2007 issue of SLA's Information Outlook magazine features an article on SLA's work to address concerns about the EPA library network downsizing. The article, "SLA Seeks Study on EPA Library Cutbacks" by John T. Adams III, appears on pages 25-27 of the issue. Members who have not yet received a copy of the issue in the mail can read it online at http://www.sla.org/content/Shop/Information/thisissue.cfm .

The EPA developments are also addressed in  "Hostile Environment for Documents," a column in the March 2007 edition of The Scientist (Volume 21, Issue 3, Page 26). Subscription required for full text access. Thanks to FGI for the tip.

Agency Websites "Cyber-foot-dragging"

The Washington Post ran a piece today by Elizabeth Williamson entitled "Government Sites Aren't FOIA-Friendly" about the new National Security Archive report "File Not Found: 10 Years After E-FOIA, Most Federal Agencies Are Delinquent."  As the title suggests, the NSA found that only one in five of the 149 federal agencies have put online records required to be posted by the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 1996.  In addition, just six percent of websites offer information on how to make a FOIA request for the information that is not online, while one in four sites provide an electronic FOIA request form.

Thanks to DGI Communications Committee Co-Chair Priscilla Lujan for providing this article.

Janice Lachance on EPA Libraries

SLA Chief Executive Office Janice Lachance has posted an update on SLA's advocacy efforts for EPA Libraries. See her Info-X blog posting EPA: The Fight Continues .

EPA Libraries NewsBreak

Information Today's online NewsBreak site has posted EPA Libraries: Where Do They Stand Now?, February 12, 2007, by SLA member Barbie Keiser. The article summarizes EPA actions over the past year, including the recent congressional hearings.

SLA Press Release on EPA

SLA has issued a press release on the EPA libraries issue. The release headline is "Public Health and Safety Imperiled by Slashing of EPA Library Services, Information Professionals Association Warns U.S. Senate Committe." The press release was issued on the day of U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearings on this and other EPA issues. A webcast of the hearing is available at the committee website ( http://epw.senate.gov/ ), in the hearings section.

Senate Hearing on EPA Libraries Planned

From the January 2007 SLA Public Policy Connections:

EPA Puts Brakes on Closures – Senate Hearing Scheduled for 6  February  2007

The EPA has put a halt to shutting down more of its libraries and has ceased destroying duplicative research materials until it answers questions from Congress, according to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Jessica Emond, the deputy press secretary at the EPA, said the agency has rescheduled “the recycling” of EPA materials that are duplicates or obsolete.

SLA has expressed grave concerns with the actions of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as they moved to begin closing its network of 27 EPA libraries and information centers across the United States . SLA denounced the proposal to close EPA Libraries  immediately when we heard the news in February 2006.  SLA members are encouraged to contact their representatives to voice their opinions through SLA’s Legislative Action Center.   In August 2006  SLA publicly denounced EPA’s decision to close libraries before Congressional action, and met twice with EPA officials in January 2007. 

The first hearing about the EPA Library closures by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee  will be held on 6 February 2007. SLA continues to voice its strong opposition to the proposed library closures and will report on our progress.  In the meantime, we urge you to contact your Representatives and/or members of this Committee to express your opinion.

SLA Public Policy Connections is available on the SLA Advocacy page on the SLA website. The January 2007 issue was not yet posted on the site as of January 31, but should be available online shortly.

Participate in SLA meeting with EPA

SLA's Chief Executive Officer Janice R. Lachance is meeting with EPA staff members to discuss the closure of regional EPA libraries and the transition to electronic access. This meeting is tentatively scheduled to take place during ALA's Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, WA from January 19-24, 2007.

If you will be attending the ALA Midwinter meeting and have an interest in participating in a discussion with the EPA regarding EPA Library closures and next steps, please contact:

Douglas Newcomb
Chief Policy Officer, SLA
331 South Patrick Street
Alexandria, VA  22314   USA
Tel. 1-703-647-4923 (Direct)
Tel. 1-703-647-4900
DNewcomb@sla.org

EPA HQ Library to Close Oct 1

Read about it at the Free Government Information blog:
http://www.freegovinfo.info/node/646

This press release from PEER.org provides background information and a link (at the end) to the Federal Register notice:
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=751

SLA has joined other major library associations to oppose the Bush Administration proposal to close the network of libraries and information centers operating within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). See the news releases at:
http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/advocacy/otherinitatives.cfm
Items regarding EPA libraries appear on:
* 13 September 2006
* 29 June 2006
* 24 February 2006

Update on EPA Libraries

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility issued a press release on August 21 titled  EPA Begins Closing Libraries Before Congress Acts on Plan . The press release provides an update on the situation and links to key documents.

Support for Federal Research Public Access

Check out this August 9 post  on  Law Librarian Blog  about support for the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006 - S. 2695 .

SLA issued a  letter supporting the bill  as part of a library association coalition.

Transportation Libraries News

DGI member Jerry Baldwin had posted this message to the blog as a comment, which can easily missed. Moving it up to a full-fledged blog entry, here is Jerry's post. Note that the deadline for comments on the DOT plan Jerry describes is August 9. Please address any questions directly to Jerry at jerry.baldwin@dot.state.mn.us .

>>>>

Transportation librarians, most of whom are employed in government agencies within the USDOT, state DOTs or transit agencies are seeking support in attempting to develop library services in a field that has long neglected them. Within USDOT, the newly formed Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA http://www.rita.dot.gov ) has responsibilty for the National Transportation Library (NTL http://ntl.bts.gov ).

RITA has drafted a "Strategic Research, Development and Technology Plan" and is seeking comments on the plan (http://dmses.dot.gov/docimages/pdf97/403174_web.pdf ). I have submitted comments on the draft regarding its failure to address library and information issues (http://dmses.dot.gov/docimages/pdf97/406384_web.pdf ). We would appreciate any additional comments, especially from anyone familiar with government library services and networks and their role in research programs. Instructions for submitting comments are at http://dmses.dot.gov/docimages/pdf97/405173_web.pdf .

OA in the UK: Open Access News

Those interested in government policies on access to publicly funded research should check out the July 10 Information Today newsbrief  RCUK Releases Long-Awaited OA Policy  by Robin