Freedom of Information

Maryland Register reverses decision to charge consumers for real-time information
“The Maryland Register, a state news publication that provides updates on state regulations, legal opinions and hearings, has reversed a decision to charge consumers for its real-time, online news. The policy reversal came after two articles and a legislative inquiry highlighted a new annual fee for consumers to view information the same day it was published.”
http://marylandreporter.com/2011/11/21/maryland-register-reverses-decision-to-charge-consumers-for-real-time-information/

Global Studies Highlight U.S. Transparency Strengths, Weaknesses
“Several recently published studies compare the policy and practice of transparency in the United States and other countries. Such studies provide useful measures of U.S. openness relative to real-world conditions, in addition to highlighting global best practices and alternative approaches. The U.S. ranked in the middle range in the studies, demonstrating how other countries have met the challenges of 21st-century transparency while the U.S. has lagged in some areas.”
http://www.ombwatch.org/node/11918

White House inaction stalls FOIA recommendations
“Recommendations for improving how agencies handle governmentwide Freedom of Information Act requests have been awaiting approval at the Office of Management and Budget for more than nine months, the director of the office that wrote the recommendations told Nextgov.”
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20111121_1823.php

Public Policy

Toronto library board leaves room for more staff cuts
“Earlier this week, the Toronto Public Library Board made clear its opposition to reducing hours and closing branches, but left itself open to additional staff, collection, and programming cuts.”
http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/2011/11/24/toronto-library-board-leaves-room-for-more-staff-cuts/

Internet Access

Anti-piracy bill meets Web-freedom backlash
“A bill moving through Congress is intended, on its surface at least, to do something relatively simple: Crack down on the illegal pirating of movies, music and other copyrighted material. But a major online backlash has evolved, with everyone from lawmakers to Web-freedom advocates to some of technology’s biggest players calling it a greedy and dangerous overreach that could have a chilling effect on free speech and innovation.”
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/18/tech/web/sopa-online-privacy-backlash/index.html

Intellectual Property Issues

Why SOPA and PROTECT-IP Are So Hard to Kill
“Last week an unprecedented coalition of tech companies, internet users, and public-interest groups came together to fight legislation that would give corporations and the government new powers to censor the internet. The numbers are impressive — in just one day more than one million emails were sent to Congress and 88,000 phone calls were placed to representatives. But despite this viral, grassroots effort, the special interests behind the bills are still winning. They have spent years working behind the scenes on Capitol Hill to assemble an extensive, bipartisan network of powerful lawmakers, and they are perfectly positioned to see the bills be approved and signed into law this session.”
http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/2434-Why-SOPA-and-PROTECT-IP-Are-So-Hard-to-Kill

WIPO: Great progress at library days
“Three additional working days of WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) ended yesterday in Geneva with great progress made regarding copyright limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives. Delegates from WIPO’s 184 Member States committed themselves to a thorough examination of the problems facing for libraries and archives, and ended with an agreement for further work.”
http://www.ifla.org/en/news/wipo-great-progress-at-library-days

International Outlook

Libya welcomes banned books
“Libya marked the end of the Gadhafi-era blacklist Monday with a ceremonial unbanning of books in the former regime’s most storied public library.”
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1086951

South African Bill Poses Grave Threat to Press Freedom
“Today, the South African parliament is expected to pass one of the most draconian secrecy bills in world. Known as the “Protection of Information bill”, its main purpose seems to be protecting government officials from scrutiny while preventing the public from accessing important information.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/11/south-african-bill-poses-grave-threat-press-freedom

Northern Exposure: Unmasking Online Spying in Canada
“The Canadian national anthem proudly honors “The True North strong and free!” Yet Canadians face an imminent round of frightening online spy proposals that threaten long held civil liberties and privacy rights. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has insisted that he won’t budge in his support of online spying legislation despite heavy criticism from privacy watchdogs. We last discussed the former online spying bills (C-50, C-51 and C-52) Canada’s majority Government sought to advance in October. Collectively called the “lawful access” bills, these measures are essentially a backdoor for law enforcement to easily access personal information. While Public Safety Canada has defended the bills, stating they would enable authorities to protect Canadians from “criminal and terrorist activities” without “infringing on the rights of law abiding Canadians,” the outcry over this legislative mandate has been considerable.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/11/northern-exposure-unmasking-online-spying-canada

Brazil Takes Steps on Truth, Human Rights, and the Right to Know
“On November 18, 2011, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff signed two major pieces of legislation: the Law of the Truth Commission (Lei da Comissão da Verdade) and the Law of Access to Public Information (Lei da Acesso à Informaҫão), making Brazil the 89th country in the world to enact a freedom of information law. These laws are interconnected and mark an important step in bringing Brazil into the modern world by finally opening a window of public scrutiny on its dark past.”
http://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/brazil-takes-steps-on-truth-human-rights-and-the-right-to-know/

From the UK: MPs to investigate library closures
“As campaigners up and down the country fight to keep their local libraries open, the Culture, Media and Sport select committee has announced the launch of an inquiry into library closures. The library inquiry, the first since 2005 when the committee highlighted “a service in distress”, will investigate whether planned library closures across the UK are compatible with the 1964 Libraries and Museums Act and the Charteris report. The libraries act requires councils as part of their statutory duty to provide a “comprehensive and efficient” library service, while the Charteris report was a government-initiated investigation which found that Wirral council’s plans to close libraries in 2009 breached its statutory duties.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/24/mps-library-cuts-select-committee

European Commission will adopt measures for an open data strategy
“The European Commission will adopt on the 29 November an Open Data Strategy which means a set of measures aimed at increasing government transparency and creating a €32 billion a year market for public data. The measures include a modification of the existing Directive on the re-use of public sector information and the deployment measures such as a creation of open data portals at European level.”
http://blog.okfn.org/2011/11/24/european-commission-to-adopt-open-data-strategy/

Statistics Canada to make all online data free
“All of Statistics Canada’s standard online products, including the census, socioeconomic and geographic data, will be offered to the public for free starting February 2012, Embassy has learned. . . The letter acknowledged the impact the change would have on businesses. But the purpose of making all these products free, it said, is “to provide users with maximum benefit from statistical information about Canada’s economy and society.””
http://embassymag.ca/dailyupdate/view/statistics_canada_to_make_all_online_data_free_11-24-2011

 
Please feel free to pass along in part or in its entirety.

The Intersect Alert is a newsletter of the Government Relations Committee, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Special Libraries Association.

Freedom of Information

CIA Sees “Little Likelihood” of Finding Docs on Secrecy Reform
“There is “little likelihood” that the Central Intelligence Agency will be able to produce any records documenting the CIA’s implementation of the Fundamental Classification Guidance Review that each classifying agency is required to conduct, the Agency said last week. The Fundamental Classification Guidance Review (FCGR) was ordered by President Obama in his December 2009 executive order 13526 (section 1.9) as a systematic effort to eliminate obsolete or unnecessary classification requirements.  It is the Obama Administration’s primary response to the problem of over-classification, and it has already achieved some limited results at the Department of Defense and elsewhere. But it can’t possibly work if agencies don’t implement it.  And so far there is no sign of any such implementation at CIA, despite the fact that compliance is not optional.”
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2011/11/little_likelihood.html

Broad Spectrum of Interests Urge Super Committee Transparency
“A bipartisan assembly of groups representing a variety of interests—from a conservative government watchdog to a supporter of women’s rights to social security advocates—today sent a letter to the twelve members of the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction asking them to post their recommendations for trimming at least $1.2 trillion from the federal budget online for 72 hours prior to a committee vote. The breadth of groups that joined the letter demonstrates that Super Committee transparency is an issue that matters to every American.”
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2011/11/16/broad-spectrum-of-interests-urge-super-committee-transparency/

Growing Support for Online Release of Agency Reports
“A bill to make federal agency reports to Congress available to the public online has garnered bipartisan support in the House, a companion bill in the Senate, and the thumbs-up from the Government Printing Office and transparency advocates. The Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act would gather together all reports to Congress from federal agencies in one place. It requires that they be published online by GPO in bulk, in open formats, and in a timely fashion, so that people can easily learn about the work of the federal government. As things currently stand, the reports are scattered about online, in the infrequent circumstance when they can be found at all.”
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2011/11/15/growing-support-for-online-release-of-agency-reports/

AP Impact: Right-to-know laws often ignored
“The promise is magnificent: More than 5.3 billion people in more than 100 countries now have the right – on paper – to know the truth about what their government is doing behind closed doors. Such laws have spread rapidly over the past decade, and when they work, they present a powerful way to engage citizens and expose corruption. However, more than half the countries with such laws do not follow them, The Associated Press found in the first worldwide test of this promised freedom of information. And even when some countries do follow the law, the information unearthed can be at best useless and at worst deadly. Right-to-know laws reflect a basic belief that information is power and belongs to the public. In a single week in January, AP reporters tested this premise by submitting questions about terrorism arrests and convictions, vetted by experts, to the European Union and the 105 countries with right-to-know laws or constitutional provisions.”
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/ACCESS_DENIED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Romney staffers wiped out records in ’06
“Just before Mitt Romney left the Massachusetts governor’s office and first ran for president, 11 of his top aides purchased their state-issued computer hard drives, and the Romney administration’s e-mails were all wiped from a server, according to interviews and records obtained by the Globe. Romney administration officials had the remaining computers in the governor’s office replaced just before Governor Deval Patrick’s staff showed up to take power in January 2007, according to Mark Reilly, Patrick’s chief legal counsel. As a result, Patrick’s office, which has been bombarded with inquiries for records from the Romney era, has no electronic record of any Romney administration e-mails, Reilly said.”
http://articles.boston.com/2011-11-17/news/30411090_1_e-mails-andrea-saul-mitt-romney

Justice Department’s New FOIA Regulations: Still Worse than Reported
“Since the last time we wrote about the DOJ’s newly proposed FOIA regulations, as part of signing on to EPIC’s comments on the proposed rule, not a whole lot has changed. The DOJ sent a letter to respond to Congressional concerns about their lying about the existence of records.  The letter hardly paints a clear picture, but basically says that the DOJ will withdraw a section of the proposed regulations, but that their conduct won’t change, and that they’ll continue to mislead requesters about whether records exist or not. Unmentioned in the letter, however, are all the steps backward on FOIA that the DOJ is proposing in their rules. In a package completely at odds with President Obama and Attorney General Holder’s public FOIA rhetoric, the new DOJ rules throw up new roadblocks and hurdles to requesters, and generally make it easier to deny requests.”
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2011/11/18/justice-departments-new-foia-regulations-still-worse-than-reported/

Public Policy

E-gov on the chopping block
“White House officials are urging House and Senate lawmakers to maintain a separate funding account for high-profile Gov 2.0 and “eGov” initiatives such as Data.gov, Federal IT Dashboard and Challenge.gov rather than merging them with other funds as currently proposed. Under the House and Senate budget bills for fiscal 2012, the flagship Electronic Government Fund would be combined with another fund. Both bills also would maintain recent dramatic cuts to the electronic government fund.”
http://fcw.com/articles/2011/11/14/white-house-fights-to-maintain-funds-for-data.gov-and-egovernment-initiatives.aspx

Open Government Leaders Support Funding for Key Transparency Initiatives
“OMB Watch and the Sunlight Foundation today released an open letter to the U.S. Senate supporting continued funding for the Electronic Government Fund’s important transparency projects. The letter echoes the Obama administration’s policy statement issued Nov. 10. The letter calls for full funding for the E-Gov Fund, which pays for flagship projects such as USAspending.gov and Data.gov.”
http://www.ombwatch.org/node/11911

Suburban libraries worry about the effects of Chicago library cuts
“Cuts to the Chicago Public Library’s budget may reverberate through the suburbs, where many Chicago residents use local libraries through reciprocal borrowing privileges. Some suburban librarians expect those cuts, if they go through, to not only reduce the number of hours Chicago branch libraries are open, but also reduce the number of books Chicago libraries buy and the ability to get borrowed books back after Chicagoans return them. All three possibilities could affect how well also-burdened suburban libraries perform, they said.”
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/8856301-418/suburban-libraries-worry-about-the-effects-of-chicago-library-cuts.html

PolitickerUSA is the best way to track politicians’ tweets
“Following politicians on Twitter can be as boring as watching paint dry on some days, but a new app pulls together tweets from both parties, and shows a whole host of trends about what they’re tweeting about. PolitickerUSA is a simple app that displays tweets from every politician that uses the Twitter platform. At the very least, the service is the best social list of every U.S. Senator and Representative on the web. You can watch tweets fly by in real-time, or you can filter them by your favorite politico.”
http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2011/11/17/politickerusa-is-the-best-way-to-track-politicians-tweets/

Digital History

A Year Later, Little Progress on Digitizing Legislative Documents
“A year ago today, Congress’ Joint Committee on Printing directed that three sets of vital legislative and legal documents be published online “as quickly as possible.” We’ve reviewed how well that order was implemented, and the results are not encouraging. Of the three documents, there’s only apparent progress on one. The vital documents are the Constitution Annotated, the Congressional Record, and the Statutes at Large. The Government Printing Office is responsible for publishing them, and shares that responsibility to a certain extent with the Library of Congress and its subsidiary agencies, the Congressional Research Service and the Law Library of Congress. These agencies are custodians of America’s heritage, and have an important obligation to make it available to every citizen. Here’s how they’ve performed.”
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2011/11/16/a-year-later-little-progress-on-digitizing-legislative-documents/

Internet Access

Reports and Prepared Testimony From SOPA (Stop Online Privacy) House Judiciary Committee Hearing & Additional Resources
http://infodocket.com/2011/11/16/live-video-stream-sopa-stop-online-privacy-house-judiciary-committee-hearing-additional-resources/

Intellectual Property Issues

Righthaven Case Ends in Victory for Fair Use
“In a victory for fair use, the publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Stephens Media, filed papers yesterday conceding that posting a short excerpt of a news article in an online forum is not copyright infringement. The concession will result in entry of a judgment of non-infringement in a long-running copyright troll case that sparked the dismissal of dozens of baseless lawsuits filed by Righthaven LLC.”
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/righthaven-case-ends-victory-fair-use

International Outlook

Researchers work to build a national online library to house Canada’s history
“Across Canada, efforts are being made to digitize some of our oldest and more important historical documents so they can be preserved indefinitely and accessed online by anyone across the country, or even around the world. While those working behind the scenes are pleased with the progress to date, they can’t help but look a little jealously at what’s happening down south and across the Atlantic. Governments in the United States and the European Union have committed significant budgets to building online libraries to digitally showcase their most important historical artifacts. Similar work is happening in Canada but it’s being done — with less funding — by researchers, schools and a non-profit group called Canadiana, which is trying to spearhead a national archive.”
http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=e14487580

Please feel free to pass along in part or in its entirety.

The Intersect Alert is a newsletter of the Government Relations Committee, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Special Libraries Association.

SLA-SF Holiday Party

Thursday, December 8, 2011, 5:30-8:00 PM

Thirsty Bear

661 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 94105

Greetings everyone,

If you’re like me, you can’t believe that Thanksgiving is right around the corner. And that means that the SF Bay Area Holiday Party can’t be too far off! Please join your friends, both old and new, as we gather to celebrate the season.

A wide variety of heavy hors d’oeuvres, including vegetarian options, will be served, and a cash bar will be available.

Cost: $20 per person

Registration Deadline: Online registrations and mailed checks need to be received by Thursday, December 1.

Registration is CLOSED

Two additional items:

1. Everyone will receive a ticket for 1 free soft drink, wine, or beer. Add that to the tasty treats that are going to be available and can you really afford NOT to attend?!?

2. We welcome a new sponsor, FirstRain, and would like to thank them for their generous sponsorship of this event.

FirstRain is a B2B software analytics company whose Business Monitoring Engine™ helps Marketing, Sales, Finance and Knowledge Management professionals ensure they never miss critical events impacting their industry, company and business. FirstRain’s patented semantic categorization technology instantly cuts through the clutter of consumer Web content, delivering only highly relevant content from the Business Web to individuals, teams or whole enterprises. Learn more at: www.firstrain.com

Registration Form: 2011 Holiday Party Mail-in Registration Form

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May 2012 – Welcome to the San Francisco Bay Region SLA Chapter!

LET THEM EAT CAKE!

Second Annual New Member Dessert Reception

Thursday, November 10, 2011, 5:30-7:30 PM

The Mechanics’ Institute

57 Post Street, between Montgomery and Kearny, in San Francisco

The event will be free for new and prospective members, students, and for seasoned members who bring along one or more prospective member. The fee for all others is $10.

Deadline for registration is Monday, November 7th

To register as a FREE attendee, please e-mail Amy Dabrowski at akdabrowski@gmail.com and include the information from the mail-in form

Online Registration: Registration for the New Member Dessert Reception

Note: You do NOT need a PayPal account to register through this PayPal-administered site.

Registration Form: Registration for Dessert Reception

View SLA-SF New Member Dessert in a larger map