Happy Memorial Day!

I hope you enjoy the day. Please take a moment to remember the women and men in uniform for whom this holiday exists. As information professionals, please also take a moment to think about how our work is relevant to veterans and military families, whether it be unveiling the secrecy surrounding military activities and their aftermath (think Agent Orange), or providing professional help: Infopeople has scheduled a webinar called "Operation Health: Resources for Veterans and Their Families." It’s June 13, 12-1pm. Details and registration: http://infopeople.org/training/operation-health-resources-veterans-and-their-families.

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Take Action!

Require free access over the Internet to scientific journal articles arising from taxpayer-funded research.

The highly successful Public Access Policy of the National Institutes of Health proves that this can be done without disrupting the research process, and we urge President Obama to act now to implement open access policies for all federal agencies that fund scientific research.

The petition is here: https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/require-free-access-over-internet-scientific-journal-articles-arising-taxpayer-funded-research/wDX82FLQ

Call to Action: Join the Fight Against Cyber Spying Proposals in the Senate

EFF and an array of civil liberties organizations are engaged in a pitched battle against the privacy-invasive legislation Congress is pushing under the guise of promoting "cyber security." Everyone agrees that network security is important, but a thinly disguised mass surveillance bill won’t help address the needs of our country in defending our networks.

Use this online form to contact Congress

More suggestions for action: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/05/call-action-join-fight-against-cyber-spying-proposals-senate

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Open Access

UCSF Implements Policy to Make Research Papers Freely Accessible to Public

The UCSF Academic Senate has voted to make electronic versions of current and future scientific articles freely available to the public, helping to reverse decades of practice on the part of medical and scientific journal publishers to restrict access to research results.

The unanimous vote of the faculty senate makes UCSF the largest scientific institution in the nation to adopt an open-access policy and among the first public universities to do so.

http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2012/05/12056/ucsf-implements-policy-make-research-papers-freely-accessible-public

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Intellectual Property Issues

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing files for bankruptcy

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co., the publisher of authors from Mark Twain to J.R.R. Tolkien, sought bankruptcy protection to eliminate more than $3 billion in debt.

The company, based in Boston, listed assets and debt of more than $1 billion each in Chapter 11 documents filed today in US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

http://www.boston.com/businessupdates/2012/05/21/houghton-mifflin-harcourt-publishing-files-for-bankruptcy/YsYKHm1cGXpDvPDkLna20J/story.html

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Freedom of Information

Court blocks release of CIA interrogation methods

CIA secret interrogation methods — including detention and harsh questioning of suspected terrorists — remain off limits to public release, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
The agency was sued eight years ago to provide details of certain communications describing the use of waterboarding and other direct intelligence-gathering methods of foreign terror suspects. A three-judge panel from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled "intelligence methods" are not subject to a Freedom of Information Act request from the lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/21/us/scotus-cia-interrogations/index.html

Restrictions on WikiLeaks Documents Challenged in Court

The publication of leaked classified documents by WikiLeaks continues to confound government officials and to generate some unusual legal tangles. Last month, attorneys for a Guantanamo prisoner asked a federal court to nullify the restrictions that the government has imposed on access to and dissemination of the leaked records, so that the prisoner can prepare a response to the disclosures contained in them.

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/05/wikileaks_faraj.html

7 Types of Government Information that Would Benefit from Springtime Sunshine

We’ve put together a list of seven types of information generated by the executive branch that could benefit from a little springtime sunshine – and should be made public ASAP. This list isn’t exhaustive, but it’s representative of the kinds of data, documents, records, and other information that we’d like to see prioritized in the President’s open government effort.

http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2012/05/7-types-of-government-information-that-would-benefit-from-springtime-sunshine.html

Bay Area immigration records, destined for dustbin, will be released Tuesday
Tens of thousands of old West Coast immigration records the government once sought to throw away will instead become publicly available on Tuesday at a Bay Area archive. Photographs, letters, health records, interview transcripts and other historical documents were destined for a recycling bin or a remote Midwestern storage facility. "We changed that plan. We’re making them permanent," said spokeswoman Sharon Rummery of U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services. Archivists credit the advocacy of the late U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, and his successor, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, for helping to save the collection. The documents will be housed at the San Francisco National Archives in San Bruno and open to the public beginning Tuesday.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/census/ci_20646026/

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Public Policy

Contracting Government By Cutting Census Bureau Programs


On May 9, 2012, the U.S. House of Representative adopted the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2013. In addition to cutting $20 million from this year’s Economic Census, H.R. 5326 contained an amendment proposed by Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) that would eliminate funding—an estimated $2.5 billion over the 10 years—for the American Community Survey (ACS). As one of the tea-party officials who entered the House in 2010 on a platform to "streamline government and stop wasteful spending," Webster pointed to the intrusive nature of the census questions as his primary rationale for eliminating the program. ACS "hardly fits the scope of what is required by the Constitution," prying into Americans’ lives. Webster’s spokeswoman, Kelly Kwas, said that the Representative felt the survey tramples on personal privacy" and was "wasteful" of taxpayer funds. Recognizing the need for across-the-board budget cuts, the Census Bureau had already cut several strategic publications from its FY2012 budget estimate, including Statistical Abstracts, which has been "rescued" by ProQuest and Bernan Press. In a statement released on May 10, the Census Bureaus said eliminating the ACS would "mark the first time in the country’s history that we would not collect and share vital economic and demographic measures of the country. These cuts would also keep us from conducting the 2012 economic census. Eliminating the American Community Survey would make it extremely difficult if not impossible to contain the costs of the 2020 census."

http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/NewsBreaks/Contracting-Government-By-Cutting-Census-Bureau-Programs-82729.asp

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Digital History

Abraham Lincoln Did Not Invent Facebook: How a Guy and His Blog Fooled the Whole Wide Internet

It started with a headline I saw pinging around Twitter yesterday afternoon. Abraham Lincoln, my friends’ tweets informed me, had invented a 19th-century version of Facebook.
Yes! This previously unknown tidbit, it turns out, was the discovery of a guy in Milwaukee who had happened to take a day off work — and then happened (serendipity!) to visit a circus graveyard in Delavan, Wisconsin — and then happened (serendipity again!) to visit the Lincoln Library in Springfield, Illinois — and then happened (serendipity some more!) to discover that Mr. Lincoln had once filed a patent application for a newspaper that would, via profiles and updates, "keep People aware of Others in the Town."

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/05/abraham-lincoln-did-not-invent-facebook-how-a-guy-and-his-blog-fooled-the-whole-wide-internet/256945/

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International Outlook

Governmental Access to Data in the Cloud – A comparative analysis of ten international jurisdictions

"This White Paper examines the extent to which access to data in the Cloud by governments in various jurisdictions is possible, regardless of where a Cloud provider is located."

a href=”http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/030399.html” target=”_blank”>http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/030399.html

From Canada: Cuts to archives threaten our ability to preserve our precious heritage

On April 30, Library and Archives Canada eliminated the $1.71-million National Archival Development Program and made drastic cuts to its own staffing. These cuts are devastating to the Canadian archival network and to Canadian documentary heritage.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/opinion/Cuts+archives+threaten+ability+preserve+precious+heritage/6655739/story.html

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Privacy Issues

Troves of Personal Data, Forbidden to Researchers

When scientists publish their research, they also make the underlying data available so the results can be verified by other scientists.

At least that is how the system is supposed to work. But lately social scientists have come up against an exception that is, true to its name, huge.

It is"big data," the vast sets of information gathered by researchers at companies like Facebook, Google and Microsoft from patterns of cellphone calls, text messages and Internet clicks by millions of users around the world. Companies often refuse to make such information public, sometimes for competitive reasons and sometimes to protect customers’ privacy. But to many scientists, the practice is an invitation to bad science, secrecy and even potential fraud.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/science/big-data-troves-stay-forbidden-to-social-scientists.html

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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.

This is YOUR opportunity to ask our expert SLA Leadership panel:

• Chief Executive Officer: Janice Lachance
• President: Brent Mai
• President Elect: Deb Hunt

Our prestigious panelists will answer your questions at a very special joint meeting of the San Francisco Bay Region and Silicon Valley SLA Chapters on Thursday, May 31st.

Time will be limited, so please send us your questions NOW to be certain your question will be answered and please register now to attend the dinner and a very lively panel discussion (if you haven’t registered already).

Please send your questions to moderator David Grossman at dgrossman@cityofmillvalley.org.

• Please address your questions to a specific panelist or all three.
• Please indicate if you would like us to announce your name with your question or if you would rather remain anonymous.

We look forward to receiving your questions now!!!

All year I’ve been talking about community, and coming up at the end of this month we have an excellent opportunity to build our community connections as we host our annual joint meeting with Silicon Valley.   You’ll have a chance to meet old friends and learn what your colleagues down in the valley have been up to, in a great location not too far from home.  Delancey Street Restaurant (http://www.delanceystreetfoundation.org/enterrestaurant.php) will have a private room for us with a beautiful view of the bay.  It will be a fine night out.

Socializing is important, but we’ll also have an exceptional speaker panel, including Janice Lachance, SLA’s CEO; Brent Mai, the association’s President; and our own Deb Hunt, President-Elect.  Chapter member David Grossman will lead the panel discussion with our three guests, who will give their perspectives on trends in information industries, as well as the SLA organization.  We’ll be looking for audience participation, so get your questions ready.

Don’t miss out!  Register today on our website: http://sanfrancisco.sla.org/2012/05/joint-meeting-sla-national-leadership/

I also want to update you all on our newsletter, Bayline, which has been conspicuous in its absence.  As I announced in February, we’ve moved Bayline out of PDF and into a web-based format.  Our plan had been to feed new content from the website weekly, and send you all e-mail updates on content approximately once a month.  Unfortunately, our Bayline editor, Alys Tryon, has had to step away from the newsletter for a little while, which has put a crimp in our plans.   We wish Alys the best, and look forward to having her back with us soon.  In the meantime, as news comes in, I’ll incorporate key Bayline updates in my President’s Messages.  In April, we had two posts.

• Ian Palmer looks at content curation technologies: http://sanfrancisco.sla.org/category/bayline/
• Mosaic: What’s Happening With Our Members: http://sanfrancisco.sla.org/2012/04/mosaic-whats-happening-with-our-members/

If you’ve got news worthy of Bayline, please send it along!

Finally I want you all to know that the board has recognized a need to give our members more specific opportunities to get involved with the chapter.  As we’re beginning to look at our plans for next year, and build out our Advisory Council, we’re looking at ways we can provide opportunities beyond these board positions and get our members interacting with each other.  I want to hear from all of you about the kinds of opportunities you’re looking for, and the skills you’d like to develop.

Freedom of Information

Georgia State Copyright Case: What You Need To Know—and What It Means for E-Reserves

One of the most closely watched e-reserve cases in recent memory came to an end – though an appeal is still possible – on May 11, when Judge Orinda Evans of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ruled in Cambridge University Press (CUP); Oxford University Press (OUP); Sage Publications v. Georgia State University (GSU). The case alleged copyright infringement in GSU’s e-reserves, and in essence the judge came down on the side of libraries in a 350-page decision delivered almost a year after she heard closing arguments.

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/05/copyright/georgia-state-copyright-case-what-you-need-to-know-and-what-it-means-for-e-reserves/

Big Business Suing to Stop Notices Informing Workers of Their Right to Organize

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other industry representatives are blocking a new rule that would better inform workers of their legal rights. The rule, issued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in August 2011, would inform employees of their right to organize and bargain collectively. The rule would add to the existing framework of policies to protect workers’ right to know, but business lawsuits are preventing it from taking effect.

http://www.ombwatch.org/node/12081

Two Steps Forward on Improving Public Access to Legislative Information

First, Rep. Honda gave a tantalizing hint of progress on bulk access to legislative data at this morning’s subcommittee markup of the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill. Second, the objections raised by legislative support agencies are not particularly weighty, at least according to a 2008 memo from the Library of Congress to the Committee on House Administration regarding the availability of THOMAS data.

http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/05/18/two-steps-forward-on-improving-public-access-to-legislative-information/

On Censorship, by Salman Rushdie

No writer ever really wants to talk about censorship. Writers want to talk about creation, and censorship is anti-creation, negative energy, uncreation, the bringing into being of non-being, or, to use Tom Stoppard’s description of death, "the absence of presence."

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/05/on-censorship-salman-rushdie.html

Utah Federal Court Protects Free Speech By Restricting Internet Law

People cannot be prosecuted for posting content constitutionally protected for adults on generally accessible websites, and are not required by law to label such content that they do post, U.S. District Judge Dee Benson ruled yesterday. Judge Benson’s order was issued in a lawsuit challenging a Utah law that threatened the free speech rights of online content providers and Internet users.

https://www.cdt.org/pr_statement/utah-federal-court-protects-free-speech-restricting-internet-law

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Privacy Issues

Hearing on the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act

GPS is only one technology for cell location, and while it is the most visible to the end user, GPS is neither the most pervasive nor the most generally applicable cellular phone location system, especially in the surveillance context. More ubiquitously available are techniques that (unlike GPS) do not depend on satellites or special hardware in the handset, but rather on radio signal data collected and analyzed at the cellular providers’ towers and base stations.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/030336.html

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International Outlook

Swedish Telcom Giant Teliasonera Caught Helping Authoritarian Regimes Spy on Their Citizens

According to a recent investigation by the Swedish news show Uppdrag Granskning, Sweden’s telecommunications giant Teliasonera is the latest Western company revealed to be colluding with authoritarian regimes by selling them high-tech surveillance gear to spy on its citizens. Teliasonera has allegedly enabled the governments of Belarus, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Georgia and Kazakhstan to spy on journalists, union leaders, and members of the political opposition.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/05/swedish-telcom-giant-teliasonera-caught-helping-authoritarian-regimes-spy-its

ITU Discussions Must Be Opened

Civil society organizations from around the world are requesting more transparency from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as it considers proposals that could give it power to regulate the Internet.

https://www.cdt.org/blogs/cynthia-wong/1705itu-discussions-must-be-opened

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Internet Access

Dow Jones Announces Twitter Content Incorporated into Factiva

"The curated Twitter content in Factiva covers 31 industries, including energy, financial services and technology, with a focus on the most influential tweeters from around the globe."

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/030334.html

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Public Policy

The Organic Watergate – White Paper – Connecting the Dots: Corporate Influence at the USDA’s National Organic Program

The USDA’s blatant disregard for the requirements laid out in the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 (OFPA), and the intent of Congress, is illegal and has inappropriately favored corporate agribusiness over the interests of ethical businesses, farmers and consumers.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/030347.html

Intellectual Property Issues

Oracle v. Google and the Dangerous Implications of Treating APIs as Copyrightable

There has been no lack of ink spilled on the legal battle between Oracle and Google surrounding Google’s use of Java APIs in its Android OS. And no wonder, what with testimony by both Larrys (Page and Ellison), claims of damages up to $1 billion, and rampant speculation that a ruling in Oracle’s favor could change the way we all use the Internet. Today, we got our first taste of where this all might be heading: the jury came back with a finding that, assuming APIs are subject to copyright, Google has infringed at least some of Oracle’s.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/05/oracle-v-google-and-dangerous-implications-treating-apis-copyrightable

Exercises in democracy: building a digital public library

Most neighborhoods in America have a public library. Now the biggest neighborhood in America, the Internet, wants a library of its own. Last week, Ars attended a conference held by the Digital Public Library of America, a nascent group of intellectuals hoping to put all of America’s library holdings online.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/05/exercises-in-democracy-building-a-digital-public-library/

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Internet Access

Harvesting and Preserving the Future Web

Kris Carpenter Negulescu of the Internet Archive and David Rosenthal organized a half-day workshop on the problems of harvesting and preserving the future Web during the International Internet Preservation Coalition General Assembly 2012 at the Library of Congress.
In preparation for the workshop, a list was put together of 13 problem areas already causing problems for Web preservation.

http://blog.dshr.org/2012/05/harvesting-and-preserving-future-web.html

Should Ambassadors Tweet? U.S. Embassies and Social Media

Twitter has become an important tool for social revolutions and civilian mobilization across the world, from Egypt to London to Iran, and has been increasingly embraced by the U.S. government. A Sunlight Foundation investigation looked at Twitter use by U.S. embassies and found that approximately 69 percent of embassies have official or semi-official Twitter accounts as of March 2012.

http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/05/08/should-ambassadors-tweet-u-s-embassies-and-social-media/

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Privacy Issues

And the privacy invasion award goes to …

Who’s playing fast and loose with your data? The Big Brother Awards, billed as the "Oscars for data leeches" by the hackers and privacy advocates who hand out the prizes, shine a high-intensity spotlight on companies and individuals with poor privacy track records.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/05/and-privacy-invasion-award-goes-to

Myspace Settles FTC Charges That It Misled Millions of Users About Sharing Personal Information with Advertisers

Social networking service Myspace has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it misrepresented its protection of users’ personal information. The settlement, part of the FTC’s ongoing efforts make sure companies live up to the privacy promises they make to consumers, bars Myspace from future privacy misrepresentations, requires it to implement a comprehensive privacy program, and calls for regular, independent privacy assessments for the next 20 years.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/030240.html

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Libraries

The "Pop-Up" Library: A Mini-Movement of Knowledge

This rainy Tuesday in Brooklyn seemed to be starting off in the same fashion. I left home walking to the subway to head into Manhattan when I passed two people under a bus stop giving away free books and coffee. As a resident of New York City I have grown accustomed to keeping my head down, walking at a fast pace with the unmitigated intent of getting to my destination. However, the bright colors of the furniture filled with books along with the friendliness of these two individuals made me stop and do a double-take. I was glad I did.
Margaret, an unemployed librarian, and Adam, an architect looking for work, decided to create the "pop-up" library.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ryan-mack/the-pop-up-librarya-mini-_b_1470544.html

Are Public Libraries "Permanently F***ed?" Maybe Not

Jessa Crispin arrived at the 2012 Public Library Association Conference in Philadelphia in March with high expectations. And by high, we mean abysmal.
"Secure in the knowledge that libraries are now permanently fucked," wrote the editor-in-Chief of the popular "litblog" Bookslut. Surely librarians would crumble before her, the harsh fiscal realities having reduced the bibliognosts into heaps of despair, wailing about furloughs and nonexistent arts grants.
But the whole affair seemed rather … hopeful.
"I was not sensing any anxiety that day, and it was pissing me off," Crispin says.

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/exhibitionist/2012/05/public_libraries_future.php

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Freedom of Information

Frank Zappa on CNN’s Crossfire (1986)

In 1986, Frank Zappa appeared on CNN’s Crossfire to discuss rock lyrics and censorship. Let’s just say the exchange got a little heated.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6526525473785351949

NSA Declassifies Secret Document After Publishing It

The National Security Agency last week invoked a rarely-used authority in order to declassify a classified document that was mistakenly posted on the NSA website with all of its classified passages intact. Among other things, the NSA’s abrupt declassification of the the document shows that the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel needs to recalibrate its document review procedures.

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/05/nsa_secret.html

Shareholders: The Next Transparency Advocates

A new breed of transparency advocate is making itself heard this week, taking to the streets and to corporate boardrooms to demand transparency from corporations that use shareholder money to engage in political activities. These corporate transparency advocates also inundated the Securities and Exchange Commission with more than 178,000 letters in support of a rule mandating disclosure. The growing discontent among shareholders may be a result of learning that corporations are spending their money on positions the shareholders disagree with.

http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/05/09/shareholders-the-next-transparency-advocates/

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International Outlook

Database on transnational company agreements

The database contains all transnational company agreements and texts identified and catalogued by the European Commission. It also contains sheets with details on every company and agreement.

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=978&langId=en

A Very Special Joint Meeting of the
The San Francisco Bay Region and Silicon Valley Chapters

An Evening with SLA International Leadership:

Janice Lachance, Brent Mai, and Deb Hunt

Thursday, May 31, 2012, 5:30 – 8:00 pm

Delancey Street Club

San Francisco

Please join us for dinner and a panel discussion featuring CEO Janice Lachance, President Brent Mai, and our very own President-Elect Deb Hunt!

Our panel will be moderated by longtime SF Chapter Member David Grossman. David will be posing questions submitted by chapter members, so start thinking about what you’d like to hear from our leadership! Submit questions to tlandolt@reprintsdesk.com or hschiral@library.berkeley.edu by Friday, May 25.

Our annual joint chapter meeting is an excellent opportunity to network not only with your Bay Area colleagues, but also with SLA leadership. Don’t miss the chance to talk with SLA’s current President, President Elect, and CEO, all at the same time. Learn more about where the organization is going, and get their perspectives on trends in our profession. The evening will include networking time (with no host bar) and a plated dinner (chicken, salmon, or vegetarian), followed by the panel discussion.

When: Thursday, May 31, 2012, 5:30 – 8:00 PM

Agenda:

5:30 PM – 6:15 PM Check-in and networking

6:30 PM – 7:00 PM Dinner

6:45 PM – 8:00 PM Panel discussion

Cost: $30 for SLA members, $60 for non-members, and $25 for students, retired, and between jobs members.

Registration Deadline: Friday, May 25, 2012 – CLOSED

Registration Form: Mail-in Registration

Thank you to IEEE for their generous sponsorship of this meeting.

Intellectual Property Issues

As An Author, Why I Truly Hate Ebook DRM

As an author of multiple technical books, and a prolific online writer, I care a lot about intellectual property issues as they pertain to my content. On one level, you might think I would be extremely concerned about people stealing and re-using my content. And don’t get me wrong… I am concerned. I choose distribution licenses carefully and I have pursued those who have scraped my content to simply wrap it in ads.
But I do NOT see "DRM" as the answer.

http://www.disruptiveconversations.com/2012/05/as-an-author-why-i-truly-hate-ebook-drm.html

Hathi Trust, Library Associations Dispute Author’s Guild Motion

On April 20 the Hathi Trust filed a motion opposing the Author’s Guild’s latest move in the ongoing lawsuit between the two, in which the Guild filed for partial judgment on the pleadings on February 28.
The Trust said the Guild’s argument defied common sense as well as Congressional intent in denying that libraries, like anyone else, can mount a fair use defense to an allegation of copyright infringement as well as one based on Section 108. The Trust also argued that the Guild has not shown that there is no issue of fact or law for the court to decide, which is the standard for partial judgment on the pleadings.

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/04/copyright/hathi-trust-library-associations-dispute-authors-guild-motion/

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Open Access

20 years of cowardice: the pathetic response of American universities to the crisis in scholarly publishing

When Harvard University says it can not afford something, people notice. So it was last month when a faculty committee examining the future of the university’s libraries declared that the continued growth of journal subscription fees was unsustainable. The accompanying calls for faculty action are being hailed as a major challenge to the traditional publishers of scholarly journals.
Would that it were so. Rather than being a watershed event in the movement to reform scholarly publishing, the tepidness of the committee’s recommendations, and the silence of the university’s administration, are just the latest manifestation of the toothless response of American universities to the "serials crisis" that has plagued libraries for decades.

http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=1058

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Freedom of Information

DOJ Mulls Response to Request for Watergate Wiretap Records

A historian of the Richard Nixon presidency wants to review sealed wiretap materials stemming from the 1972 burglary at the Watergate hotel and subsequent criminal prosecutions.
"Without these materials, we cannot hope to understand why the break-in occurred in the first place, which resulted in a White House cover-up, the greatest constitutional crisis since the Civil War and the only resignation of an American president."

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2012/05/doj-mulls-response-to-request-for-watergate-wiretap-records-.html

John Lydon: Olympics wanted to censor the Sex Pistols

The Olympics organisers wanted to censor the Sex Pistols, John Lydon has claimed in explanation of the band’s decision to snub the closing ceremony on 12 August.
"Censorship mattered more than the content of the Pistols," Lydon told Billboard. "If you’re going to be celebrating what is great about Britain, the honesty of the Sex Pistols is one of those things. If you censor the words of any one song, you’re killing the honesty and I couldn’t tolerate that. We didn’t want nothing to do with them."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/may/04/john-lydon-olympics-sex-pistols?newsfeed=true

EPA Improves Public Access to Geographic Information Systems Tools

On April 26, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency publicly released a collection of web-based tools to enhance access to environmental information and encourage public participation in taxpayer-funded projects. The NEPAssist website provides tools for users to analyze environmental and geographic data and evaluate the potential environmental and public health impacts of proposed federal projects. More specifically, the website displays environmental and demographic data from many locations and sources on an interactive map.

http://www.ombwatch.org/node/12068

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Public Policy

CDT to FCC: Wireless Shutdowns Are Never the Right Choice

From Baghdad to Balochistan province to the Bay Area, governments around the world are increasingly turning to the tactic of shutting down wireless communications networks to silence political protest. While the Bay Area Rapid Transit officials’ actions this past August may have been more limited in scope than, say, the Internet shutdown ordered by former Egyptian President Mubarak a year ago, it still has the potential to set troubling precedent for wireless interruption in the US. CDT joined a coalition of other civil liberties groups in filing comments yesterday responding to the FCC’s inquiry.

https://www.cdt.org/blogs/emma-llanso/0105cdt-fcc-wireless-shutdowns-are-never-right-choice

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Privacy Issues

DOJ Official: Any Privacy Protection is Too Much Privacy Protection for Cell Phone Tracking

Jason Weinstein, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s criminal division, told a panel at the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee’s "State of the Mobile Net" conference yesterday that requiring a search warrant to obtain location tracking information from cell phones would "cripple" prosecutors and law enforcement officials. We couldn’t disagree more.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/05/easier-gov-access-cell-phone-records-cripples-privacy

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International Outlook

Federal libraries, archives shutting down

The [Canadian] federal government is eliminating a series of libraries and archives throughout different departments as part of the latest budget cuts.
Library and Archives Canada alone has received or will still receive more than 400 affected notices and the department announced 20 per cent of its workforce would be let go.
The cuts to the government’s archival collections stretch beyond just one department, though. Libraries at the transport, immigration and public works departments will be eliminated.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/05/02/ottawa-libraries-archives-closing-budget-cuts.html

Kuwait Prepares to Crack Down on Social Media

Kuwait’s Information Minister, Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, announced last week that Kuwait plans to pass new laws regulating the use of social networking sites such as Twitter in order to "safeguard the cohesiveness of the population and society." The Information Minister’s announcement reflects growing panic over comments in social media deemed to incite the mounting sectarian tension between Sunnis and Shi’ites throughout the region.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/05/kuwait-prepares-crack-down-social-media