Freedom of Information
Senators Take a Pass on Electronic Filing. Again.
“By an overwhelming majority, Senators passed the STOCK Act, a bill Majority Leader Reid described as, “a critical step toward restoring Americans’ faith in Congress” but failed—in fact actively prevented—to allow a vote on an amendment that would have required Senators and Senate candidates to electronically file their campaign finance reports.”
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/02/07/senators-take-a-pass-on-electronic-filing-again/
Freedom of Information Act Portal Would Boost Responsiveness, Improve Efficiency
“An interagency project underway could revolutionize implementation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and significantly improve transparency and efficiency. The project to develop a government-wide portal for FOIA requests, a goal long supported by the open government community, could deliver as soon as this fall.”
http://www.ombwatch.org/node/11973
Building a Better Energy.gov: How DOE Can Take Steps Towards Achieving the Principles of Open Government
“The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists recently took to task Energy.gov, the newly relaunched webT presence of the Department of Energy (DOE). Science writer Dawn Stover detailed her difficulties finding an important 2002 document about the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, concluding that Energy.gov may be more visually pleasing than it is useful. DOE responded the following week with a new page for Yucca Mountain and improved search functions for the related documents. While the agency said it’s proud of the new Energy.gov, it admitted that it’s not done migrating documents to the new site and making them searchable. Making it easy for the public to find documents online is certainly a good step. But this whole exchange reminded POGO of just how much DOE information isn’t even publicly available in the first place.”
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2012/02/building-a-better-energygov-how-doe-can-take-steps-towards-achieving-the-principles-of-open-governme.html
DoD Inspector General Takes on Classification Oversight
“In a move that can only strengthen and improve oversight of the national security classification system, the Department of Defense Inspector General has begun a far-reaching review of Pentagon classification policy. Among other things, the Inspector General review will focus on “efforts by the Department to decrease over-classification.””
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/02/dodig_class.html
Read the Inspector General memorandum
SC Bill would limit fees charged for Freedom of Information requests
“A bill sponsored by S.C. Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Aiken, would make it cheaper and faster for citizens to get copies of public documents using the state Freedom of Information Act, officials from the S.C. Press Association said.”
http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/0209-bill-taylor-legislation–3777220
The CIA’s Covert Operation Against Declassification Review and Obama’s Open Government
“This very important Document Friday features a very obscure document, just two pages (59033 and 59034) that the Central Intelligence Agency printed in the Federal Register on Friday, 23 September 2011 –without a notice for public comment. These regulations, which the CIA began enforcing in December, are a covert attack on the most effective tool that the public uses to declassify the CIA’s secret documents, Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR).”
http://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/the-cias-covert-operation-against-declassification-review-and-obamas-open-government/
House Democrats Introduce DISCLOSE 2012
“House Democrats unveiled The DISCLOSE 2012 Act (HR 4010) today, a crucial step toward transparency to address the corrupting influence unlimited, secret corporate and union money is having on our elections and our elected officials.”
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/02/09/house-democrats-introduce-disclose-2012/
Public Policy
Goodbye, state funding for California libraries
“The bad news is that state funding for California libraries has been completely eliminated. There’s not really any good news about that except that it was expected. This past July, state library funding was sliced in half, and there was a trigger amendment attached to the budget that would eliminate state funding for public libraries at midyear if the state’s revenue projections were not met. Needless to say, they weren’t.”
http://kalw.drupal.publicbroadcasting.net/post/goodbye-state-funding-california-libraries
Digital History
Yes We Scan Again! The Archives chats with voters on a “We the People” teleconference
“On January 10th, I blogged about the “Yes We Scan” petitions proposed by Carl Malamud’s PublicResource.org on the White House’s We The People petition platform. “Yes We Scan” calls for a national strategy, and even a Federal Scanning Commission, to figure out what it would take to digitize the holdings of many federal entities, from the Library of Congress to the Government Printing Office to the Smithsonian Institution. I have been delighted to see the many ideas discussed in response to that blogpost. I encourage you to keep them coming! Following that initial post, I worked with the White House Director of New Media, Macon Phillips, and the Director of Online Engagement, Katelyn Sabochik, to set up a conference call, inviting those who voted for the Yes We Scan petition (about 2,500 signers total) to further discuss this important issue and hear your ideas on how to move forward.”
http://blogs.archives.gov/aotus/?p=3965
Archivist Ferriero’s opening comments for the teleconference
SD State archives going digital
“The South Dakota State Historical Society’s Archives has gone digital. The State Archives, in the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre, collects, preserves, and makes available manuscript collections, South Dakota state, county and local government records, photographs, maps and other archival materials which have permanent historical and research value. Now, the South Dakota Digital Archives, an online resource that went live in January, makes these collections more accessible to the public, as well as to protect the originals.”
http://www.argusleader.com/article/20120210/NEWS/302100016/State-archives-going-digital
New Montana state librarian leads digitization
“Not that long ago, the Montana State Library, in charge of making state documents available to the public, circulated just a few hundred publications outside its walls each year. Now, in just the past three months, the library has circulated some 18,000 digital documents, and what’s available is vast: state agency reports going back years, and data-rich natural resource and geographic information resources covering everything form moisture levels to property ownership to oil and gas leases.”
http://helenair.com/news/local/new-state-librarian-leads-digitization/article_c1fee8f6-5216-11e1-a8d5-0019bb2963f4.html
Open Access
Why scientists are boycotting a publisher
“The scientific community finds itself at the beginning of its own Arab Spring. At stake are values that all Americans hold dear: the free flow of information and the continued betterment of human life. Success is by no means guaranteed, but it’s an important protest movement in which Boston should play a special role.”
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2012/02/12/why-scientists-are-boycotting-publisher/9sCpDEP7BkkX1INfakn3NL/story.html
Congressman Doyle Introduces Bill to Ensure Public Access to Federally-Funded Research
“U.S. Representative Mike Doyle (D-PA) today introduced bipartisan legislation that directs federal agencies to encourage open public access to federally funded scientific research. . . The Federal Research Public Access Act would require federal agencies with an extramural research budget of $100 million or more to make federally-funded research available for free online access by the general public, no later than six months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal.”
http://doyle.house.gov/press-releases-1/2012/02/doyle-introduces-bill-to-ensure-public-access-to-federally-funded-research.shtml
Intellectual Property
Golan v. Holder: A Farewell to Constitutional Challenges to Copyright Laws
From a summary of the recent Golan v. Holder decision by the Supreme Court written by attorney Jonathan Brand for the Library Copyright Alliance:
“On January 13, 2012, the Supreme Court by a 6-2 vote affirmed the Tenth Circuit decision in Golan v. Holder. (Justice Kagan recused herself, presumably because of her involvement in the case while she was Solicitor General.) The case concerned the constitutionality of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), which restored copyright in foreign works that had entered into the public domain because the copyright owners had failed to comply with formalities such as notice; or because the U.S. did not have copyright treaties in place with the country at the time the work was created (e.g., the Soviet Union). The petitioners were orchestra conductors, musicians, and publishers who enjoyed free access to works removed by URAA from the public domain. The Court in its decision made clear that constitutional challenges to a copyright statute would not succeed so long as the provision does not have an unlimited term, and does not tread on the idea/expression dichotomy or the fair use doctrine. Justice Breyer wrote a strong dissent that contains many interesting observations concerning the economic theory of copyright; how the URAA reflects a European rather than American approach to copyright; orphan works; and the causes of infringement. The American Library Association (ALA), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) joined an amicus brief written by Electronic Frontier Foundation in support of reversal. This brief, referred to as the ALA brief, received significant attention in both the majority and dissenting opinions.”
http://www.librarycopyrightalliance.org/bm~doc/golan_summary_06feb12.pdf
Don’t Let the U.S. Pressure Canada into Repeating The Same Mistakes
“In countries across the world, content copyright industries have been lobbying for laws that would break the Internet in the name of copyright enforcement. Such regulations could terminate user access to the Internet on an allegation of copyright infringement, enact website blocking powers that would make parts of the global Internet disappear from view, and impose digital locks laws that stifle online innovation and restrict the ability to use lawfully acquired digital content. Canada is the latest target. With Canada’s Copyright Modernization Act (Bill C-11) returning to committee in the Canadian Parliament, now is the time for Canadian netizens to take action to protect the free and open Internet by signing the petition jointly supported by OpenMedia.ca and the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC).”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/02/don%E2%80%99t-let-us-pressure-canada-repeating-same-mistakes
International Outlook
Iran Ratchets Up Its Internet Censorship
“This week has seen a marked increase in the blocking and filtering of certain kinds of Internet traffic in Iran. The Iranian government has not openly acknowledged these new measures, but they are widely thought to be preliminary steps towards a nation-wide Halal Internet that would cut off a majority of citizens from the global web and replace it with one that would effectively block all foreign sites and only allow state-controlled content to e accessed within Iran. Starting February 7th, Internet users in Iran began reporting that they were having difficulty reaching certain websites outside of the country using HTTPS, the secure, encrypted version of the HTTP protocol used to transfer the data you see in your web browser. Many websites, including banks, many Google services, Twitter, Facebook, and Microsoft Hotmail, employ HTTPS to protect their users’ private data from eavesdropping and government surveillance.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/02/iran-ratchets-its-internet-censorship
How Open Society Grantees Are Advancing Access to Public Information in Latin America
“Since the landmark legal decision Marcel Claude Reyes and Others v. Chile of the Inter-American Human Rights Court in 2006, the right to access public information has increasingly been recognized by Latin America’s governments as a human right. Fourteen of the region’s nineteen countries have access to public information laws, more than any other developing region in the world.”
http://blog.soros.org/2012/02/how-open-society-grantees-are-advancing-access-to-public-information-in-latin-america/
From the UK: Library Closures Inquiry Begins
“MPs have begun hearing evidence at a Select Committee inquiry on library closures. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has been requesting views on the service since November. Witnesses giving evidence on Tuesday said closures would have a negative impact on local communities.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16924333
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The Intersect Alert is a newsletter of the Government Relations Committee, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Special Libraries Association.
