Freedom of Information

Administration folds in immigration FOIA fight, admits error
“The Obama Administration has quietly thrown in the towel in a long-running battle to prevent disclosure of internal legal memos about its plans to force local law enforcement agencies to participate in the controversial immigration-enforcement system known as Secure Communities. The government also admitted it made an embarrassing mistake by giving a federal judge false information last year about the circulation of one of the documents. With much of official Washington shut down between Christmas and New Year’s, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security released the long-sought memoranda on Dec. 28 to three immigrants’ rights groups that filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for the documents.”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2012/01/administration-folds-in-immigration-foia-fight-admits-110124.html

Small Wins for Transparency in 2012 Spending Package
“The fiscal year 2012 spending package signed by President Obama on Dec. 23 included some good news for government transparency and right to know. Many of the worst provisions of the bill were removed from the final compromise, but open government advocates remain concerned.”
http://www.ombwatch.org/node/11943

Agencies plan for governmentwide FOIA portal
“Three federal agencies are creating a common web portal for Freedom of Information Act requests with the intention of launching it in fall 2012. The $1.3 million portal, being built mostly with funds from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Commerce Department, with some participation from NARA, could save the federal government $200 million over 5 years were it to be adopted governmentwide, according to a NARA blog post.”
http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/agencies-plan-governmentwide-foia-portal/2012-01-10

The EPA Shines a Light on Transparency: Makes Greenhouse Gas Data Publically Available for the First Time
“On Jan. 11, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released greenhouse gas (GHG) data to the public for the first time. Through an online tool, the public will be able to access critical air pollution data. With this new data, the public can hold industry accountable to ensure that emitters take responsibility for the way they are contributing to climate change. The online tool presents 2010 GHG data from 6,700 large facilities around the country in nine industry groups, including suppliers of certain fossil fuels and industrial gases. The public will be able to use the data to analyze sources of GHG pollution in their areas, compare facility and industry performance, and eventually track trends.”
http://www.ombwatch.org/node/11951

House Launches Transparency Portal
“Making good on part of the House of Representative’s commitment to increase congressional transparency, today the House Clerk’s office launched http://docs.house.gov/, a one stop website where the public can access all House bills, amendments, resolutions for floor consideration, and conference reports in XML, as well as information on floor proceedings and more. Information will ultimately be published online in real time and archived for perpetuity.”
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/01/13/house-launches-transparency-portal/

Public Online Information Act Inspires Transparency Advocacy in California
“Transparency advocates in California are drawing inspiration from the Public Online Information Act (POIA) to pursue disclosure improvements in California. POIA was introduced this Congress by Rep. Steve Israel in the House and by Sen. Jon Tester in the Senate. The new transparency organization govUNLEASHED has chosen the California Public Online Information Act (CPOIA) as its first major initiative. The proposed legislation would require any information that “reveals government agency operational conditions and their capacity to consistently deliver cost-effective public services to U.S. taxpayers” be posted online.”
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/01/13/public-online-information-act-inspires-transparency-advocacy-in-california/

Public Policy

Authentication of Primary Legal Materials and Pricing Options
“The recent passage of the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act (UELMA) has brought to the forefront the issue of costs of authenticating primary legal materials in electronic format. This white paper briefly reviews five methods of electronic authentication. These methods are based on trustworthiness, file types, effort to implement, and volume of electronic documents to be authenticated. Six sample solutions are described and their relative costs are compared. The white paper also frames the legal landscape and background of authentication for primary legal materials in electronic format, and provides context and points to applicable resources. The aim of this collective effort is to promote the understanding of costs related to authentication and invite further discussion on the issue.”
http://www.mnhs.org/preserve/records/legislativerecords/docs_pdfs/CA_Authentication_WhitePaper_Dec2011.pdf

Internet Access

FCC to Explore Helping Low-Income Americans Afford Internet Access
“FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced Monday that he will be ordering sweeping changes to the Lifeline low-income telecommunications connectivity program. The Lifeline program was formed to help low-income Americans pay for telephone connectivity. Lifeline subscribers have been able to receive as much as $10 off their monthly telephone bills for either a landline or mobile phone. But high-speed Internet has been replacing the telephone as the main connectivity choice for Americans, and the FCC recognizes that shift.”
http://mashable.com/2012/01/09/fcc-broadband-internet/

Intellectual Property Issues

Geeks to Testify (Finally!) About SOPA Blacklisting Implications
“Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California), a major opponent of the Stop Online Piracy Act, announced Monday he is bringing in the techies to hold a public hearing highlighting the online security implications of a proposed bill that would force changes to internet infrastructure to fight online copyright infringement. The announcement came three weeks after a markup of SOPA in the House Judiciary Committee was abruptly postponed amid concerns over its blacklisting element, which lets the attorney general order changes to core internet infrastructure in order to stop copyright infringement. The fight pits the big donors of Hollywood against Silicon Valley, relative newcomers to the world of influence peddling. Hollywood argues that millions of jobs are lost a year due to pirate websites, while the tech world argues that the open nature of the internet has created millions of jobs and that copyright holders already have tools to fight illegal downloaders.”
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/geeks-sopa

Obama Administration Responds to We the People Petitions on SOPA and Online Piracy
“The White House has responded to two petitions about legislative approaches to combat online piracy. In their response, Victoria Espinel, Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator at Office of Management and Budget, Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Technology Officer, and Howard Schmidt, Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator for National Security Staff stress that the important task of protecting intellectual property online must not threaten an open and innovative internet.”
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/14/obama-administration-responds-we-people-petitions-sopa-and-online-piracy

ARL Response to White House RFI on Public Access to Scholarly Publications
“Thank you for the opportunity to comment on “Public Access to Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Publications Resulting from Federally Funded Research.” These comments are submitted on behalf of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). ARL is an Association of 126 research libraries in North America. These libraries directly serve 4.6 million students and faculty and spend $1.4 billion annually on acquiring information resources, of which 62% is invested in access to electronic resources. Enhancing public access to federally funded research results is a priority for ARL and its member libraries because such policies are integrally tied to and support the mission of higher education and scholarship. ARL believes that extending and enhancing public access policies to federally funded research to other science and technology agencies will drive scientific discovery and innovation, and promote economic growth. Extending enhanced public access policies to other federal agencies is long overdue.”
http://www.arl.org/pp/access/accessfunded/rfi-access-to-pubs-8jan2012.shtml

International Outlook

From the UK – The Demise of the Public Library
“A couple of years ago, after a reading in Karachi, I told off a young man who was asking me to sign a pirated copy of one of my books. Piracy is destroying publishing in Pakistan, I told him. He said he understood but added that because pirated books are cheaper he could buy more of them. It’s not as if Karachi is filled with public libraries, he said. A few weeks later, back in London, I walked into my local library and felt immensely grateful for how easily available books were — crime-free. I had no idea then of the crisis facing British libraries. Over the last year or two, you’d have had to be living under several rocks not to notice.”
http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/the-demise-of-the-public-library/

Iran cracks down on Internet as parliamentary elections near
“As Iran nears its March 2 parliamentary elections, Tehran is adding new surveillance measures over its citizens’ Internet freedoms. In a briefing on Friday, the Department of State, said that the move will cut Iranian citizens off from the “global conversation.” The announcement comes as Iranian authorities work to develop a national intranet, which would effectively replace the World Wide Web for Iranians.”
http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/09/iran-cracks-down-on-internet-as-parliamentary-elections-near/

Malaysia National Archives Digitising Historical Materials
“The National Archives is in the process of digitising all historical records and materials to make it easier for the public to obtain information, National Archives deputy director-general (research and development) Daresah Ismail said. The digitisation process, carried out under the National Key Economic Area (NKEA), would also endear the public to an institution responsible for safeguarding the country’s history, she said.”
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v6/newsindex.php?id=639418

UK’s WhatDoTheyKnow.com’s public archive now contains 100,000 Freedom of Information requests
“Some time in the middle of last night, our Freedom of Information site WhatDoTheyKnow.com was used to send its 100,000th FOI request. It was a simple one, made to the Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.  WhatDoTheyKnow was launched in February 2008, with these aims: to make it easy to file a FOI request, and to keep a public archive of the requests and (more importantly) the responses received from public bodies. The Freedom of Information Act had been in force since 2005, but we wanted to make it fully accessible to people who were not journalists, lobbyists or professional operatives – it is a law that gives us all a right, not just those experts.”
http://www.mysociety.org/2012/01/12/whatdotheyknow-com%e2%80%99s-public-archive-now-contains-100000-freedom-of-information-requests/

Library use in Toronto surges in 2011, new figures show
“As city councillors spend the next week mulling reductions to branch hours, libraries across the city have just tallied up their busiest year ever. New user stats released to the Globe and Mail show that the Toronto Public Library system circulated 33 million books, e-books, DVDs and other items in 2011, up one million from 2010. The number of people borrowing those items also surged by one million, from 18 million in 2010 to 2011 last year. Those are record figures for the third year in a row, according to TPL spokeswoman Anne Marie Aikins.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/library-use-in-toronto-surges-in-2011-new-figures-show/article2300109/

Take Action!

AALL ACTION ALERT: Take Action to Oppose H.R. 3699, a Bill to Prevent Public Access to Taxpayer-funded Research
“Please take a moment to respond to our important new action alert in opposition to H.R. 3699, the Research Works Act. This bill, which was introduced on December 16 by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA-49) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY-14), would reverse the National Institutes of Health’s popular Public Access Policy, which AALL strongly supports, and prevent other Federal agencies from developing similar policies to provide timely public access to taxpayer-funded research.”
http://aallwash.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/aall-action-alert-take-action-to-oppose-h-r-3699-a-bill-to-prevent-public-access-to-taxpayer-funded-research/

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