I’m happy to introduce the SF Bay Region Chapter’s first annual Conference Buddy Program!

Are you going to the conference in San Diego as a first-timer or relative novice? If you’re feeling a bit new at all this, or would like to be introduced to other SLA members, sign up today! We’ll pair you with a buddy to help you navigate the programs, INFO-Expo Hall, and receptions. Once you have a familiar face or two at the conference, you’ll be amazed at how often you’ll see them in the halls!

Are you a more experienced conference-goer with several years under your belt and a heavy weight of conference pins for your lanyard? Sign up to mentor a chapter member with less experience, and gain a chance to see this year’s conference through fresh eyes.

We’ll be pairing up first-timers with veteran conference-goers for as much advice, mentoring, and familiar-face-at-networking-events as is desired. Mentor buddies will be asked to contact their mentees before the conference in order to help answer any pre-conference questions that come up. Buddies can attend an open house or reception together, grab something to drink during a break, hit a dine-around, or whatever works for the pair. The experienced buddy can introduce the newbie to other SLA members and provide tips on how to best tackle the conference.

Please sign up for the Conference Buddy Program by Monday, April 22nd. We’ll match up buddies and email you so that you can make plans for the conference, and maybe meet first at the chapter program on May 22nd!

Of course, the first tip is to catch that worm! If you haven’t already registered for the conference, stop delaying! The Early Bird rate is only available through April 12th; on April 13th, the full member rate rises from $529 to $699. Student registrations are just $190!

Freedom of Information

Sunshine Week in Review
“As Emily recently shared, last week marked the ninth annual Sunshine Week, a time to reflect on the state of public access to government information and work together to make our government more transparent. In addition to the release of two new reports to which AALL contributed, we were busy celebrating Sunshine Week at events across Washington, DC.  Read on for event recaps and a few exciting legislative developments.”
http://aallwash.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/sunshine-week-in-review/

NASA Technical Reports Database Goes Dark
“This week NASA abruptly took the massive NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) offline.  Though no explanation for the removal was offered, it appeared to be in response to concerns that export controlled information was contained in the collection. “Until further notice, the NTRS system will be unavailable for public access. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and anticipate that this site will return to service in the near future,” the NTRS homepage now states. NASA Public Affairs did not respond yesterday to an inquiry about the status of the site, the reason for its suspension, or the timeline for its return.”
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2013/03/ntrs_dark.html

One Step Forward, One Step Missed: House Committee Approves Limited FOIA Improvements
“Yesterday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform approved the FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act (H.R. 1211), sponsored by the committee’s chair and ranking member, Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Elijah Cummings (D-MD). The bill would take steps to improve agency compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and require agencies to post more public information online. However, more reforms will be needed to address fundamental flaws in the current FOIA system.”
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.113hr1211 http://www.foreffectivegov.org/one-step-forward-one-step-missed-house-committee-approves-limited-foia-improvements

Tester offers e-filing amendment to budget bill
“Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., has this evening introduced an amendment to the Senate budget bill that would require senators to electronically file campaign finance reports, the Center for Public Integrity has learned. The move comes a month after Tester re-introduced legislation toward the same goal. Senate campaign committees are the only federal political committees not required to file their financial disclosure reports electronically with the Federal Election Commission. As a result, it can take weeks, if not months, to get detailed information about who is bankrolling senators and Senate hopefuls.”
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/03/22/12377/tester-offers-e-filing-amendment-budget-bill

Congress Makes a Law and the Pentagon Redacts It
“National Security Archive staffers have seen all sorts of responses from U.S. government agencies, often routine, sometimes extraordinarily helpful, but once in a while absurd. A recent Pentagon mandatory declassification review action falls into the “absurd” category: Pentagon reviewers censored language from a U.S. public law and a unclassified report to Congress.”
http://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/congress-makes-a-law-and-the-pentagon-redacts-it/

Intellectual Property

German Parliament Votes To Protect News Snippets From Republishing
“A controversial update to German copyright law providing for an auxiliary protection for tiny extracts from press articles has been finally passed by the German Upper House (“Bundesrat”). What has been characterised and campaigned against as a “lex Google” not only by Google, but also by Germany’s industry associations, journalist associations and activists alike shall prevent internet platforms from using publishers’ content without licensing (and payment) except for “single words” or “minimal extracts”.”
http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/03/22/german-parliament-votes-to-protect-news-snippets-from-republishing/

Copyright Office Calls for Major Reforms To Copyright Law
“Could the copyright policy debate be turning another significant corner? For years, the dominant focus of the debate has been enforcement of current law – essentially, a debate about how to catch, punish, and deter “pirates.” The fight over SOPA and PIPA started out as a stark example of the single-minded pursuit of copyright enforcement. It ended up, however, as a powerful demonstration that copyright law has a much wider circle of stakeholders than just rights holders and pirates. Now, Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante has issued a call for Congress to launch a fundamental review aimed at modernizing copyright law for the digital age. In a recent speech and congressional testimony yesterday, she suggests a broad agenda, including possible reforms aimed at challenges facing not just major copyright holders, but other stakeholders and the public as well. There’s no guarantee that Congress will heed the call, but it’s a potentially significant development.”
https://www.cdt.org/blogs/david-sohn/2103copyright-office-calls-major-reforms-copyright-law

Updating the Copyright Act? It’s up to all of us.
“On Wednesday, the head of the U.S. Copyright Office is going to testify to Congress and call for an update to U.S. copyright law. If Congress takes up the challenge, supporters of free expression and the promise of digital technology will have a great opportunity to forge a copyright law that reflects our fundamental values. Of course, a major reform of copyright law could lead the other way – back towards SOPA and beyond to a world of more centralization, censorship, and technology regulation.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/03/updating-copyright-act-its-up-to-all-of-us

Library Copyright Alliance Statement on Supreme Court Decision in Kirtsaeng v. Wiley—Total Victory for Libraries and Their Users
“Today the US Supreme Court announced its much-anticipated decision in Kirtsaeng v. Wiley, a lawsuit regarding the bedrock principle of the “first sale doctrine.” The 6-3 opinion is a total victory for libraries and our users. It vindicates the foundational principle of the first sale doctrine—if you bought it, you own it. All who believe in that principle, and the certainty it provides to libraries and many other parts of our culture and economy, should join us in applauding the Court for correcting the legal ambiguity that led to this case in the first place. It is especially gratifying that Justice Breyer’s majority opinion focused on the considerable harm that the Second Circuit’s opinion would have caused libraries.”
http://www.arl.org/news/pr/lca-statement-on-supreme-court-decision-kirtsaeng-v-wiley.shtml http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/11-697_d1o2.pdf

Privacy Issues

Victory for Transparency: Microsoft Releases Report on Law Enforcement Requests for User Data
“In January of this year, EFF was part of a coalition led and organized by Nadim Kobeissi that called for Microsoft to release publish a report on government requests for Skype user data. The letter pointed out that with 600 million users worldwide, Skype is effectively one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies. Many users rely on Skype for secure and private communications and for some of them—whether they’re activists working in states governed by authoritarian regimes or journalists communication with sensitive sources—the stakes are high. We are pleased to see that Microsoft has not only answered that letter on behalf of Skype, it has answered on behalf of the entire company.  Yesterday the company released its first transparency report, which covers all law enforcement requests and court orders received in 2012 related to all of their online and cloud services, including Hotmail/Outlook.com, SkyDrive, Microsoft Account, and Messenger.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/03/victory-transparency-microsoft-releases-report-law-enforcement-requests-user-data

Senate “Dream Team” Introduces ECPA Reform Bill
“Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) today introduced a bill that would reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). This Senate “Dream Team” will give ECPA reform a strong boost: Leahy, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and original author of the 1986 ECPA, is joining forces with Mike Lee, a Tea Party favorite, and a strong voice for Constitutional rights when the Committee marked up a nearly identical bill last year. The Leahy-Lee bill would amend ECPA to require government officials to obtain a warrant in order to require ISPs or other online service providers to disclose the private communications of their users (except, of course, in emergency cases).”
https://www.cdt.org/blogs/greg-nojeim/1903senate-dream-team-introduces-ecpa-reform-bill

Tell your Representative to Oppose CISPA
“The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives (H.R. 624) and contains the same dangerous provisions that would allow companies to liberally share sensitive personal information with the government for purposes unrelated to cybersecurity and without meaningful oversight. Last year, CISPA passed the House of Representatives but was not taken up in the Senate. The White House threatened to veto CISPA in 2012. AALL has joined a coalition of groups dedicated to government openness and accountability to encourage Congress to oppose CISPA. Please write your Representative today and urge him/her to oppose CISPA, which would create a gaping new exemption to existing privacy law.”
http://aallwash.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/tell-your-representative-to-oppose-cispa/

International Outlook

From Canada – Federal librarians fear being ‘muzzled’ under new code of conduct that stresses ‘duty of loyalty’ to the government
“Federal librarians and archivists who set foot in classrooms, attend conferences or speak up at public meetings on their own time are engaging in “high risk” activities, according to the new code of conduct at Library and Archives Canada. Given the dangers, the code says the department’s staff must clear such “personal” activities with their managers in advance to ensure there are no conflicts or “other risks to LAC.” The code, which stresses federal employees’ “duty of loyalty” to the “duly elected government,” also spells out how offenders can be reported.”
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/03/15/library-and-archives-canada/

Library and Archives Canada Code of Conduct
“The Canadian Library Association urges Library and Archives Canada to revisit its Code of Conduct in order to strike a more even balance between the duty of loyalty to the Government of Canada that all public servants have and the freedom of expression that is imperative to the work of librarians in a strong democracy.”
http://www.cla.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=News1&CONTENTID=14028&TEMPLATE=%2FCM%2FContentDisplay.cfm

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.

Taxonomies: What are they and how are they useful

with Marjorie M.K. Hlava, President and Chairmanof Access Innovations, Inc.

An SLA-SF Professional Development Webinar

By Lisa Ngo

Margie Hlava makes the world better one search term at a time. If you’ve ever conducted a search online or tagged a photo in social media, you’ve likely taken advantage of our friend the Taxonomy. Taxonomies make information findable and direct users to consistently relevant search results, and Margie Hlava is one of SLA’s resident experts in taxonomies.

Margie, President and Chief Scientist at Access Innovation, was also founding Chair of the SLA Taxonomy Division. She took time from her busy schedule on March 12th to present an SLA-SF Professional Development Webinar on taxonomies, educating us on how to build and implement them, as well as the international standards applicable to developing taxonomies.

Though many of us may remember learning about them in library school, unless you work with them on a daily basis, you probably never think twice about taxonomies when you execute a search. But did you know that they’re now used for image databases, in data mashups, data visualizations, web crawlers, spam filters, and social networking sites? Margie explains that, at their core, taxonomies help us leverage our data and make it discoverable and findable, and are defined as “a collection of controlled vocabulary terms organized into a hierarchical structure” (ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005).

So how do you build and implement a taxonomy?

First, you should know that there are standards that govern taxonomies; the ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005 standard is one reference, but there are also standards from ISO and W3C.

Margie explains that it’s not scary at all to build a taxonomy; in fact, you may not even need to build it from scratch. There are term registries and taxonomy warehouses where you can find a base for the taxonomy you need and build out from there. You can also mix and match existing taxonomies; in the process, you need to organize and fill in gaps, and then flesh out and interrelate terms.

Margie has great advice about how to determine terms – for instance, be unambiguous with your vocabulary and only use one term for each concept. Relationships between terms are also important and need to be considered when building your term hierarchy. When you think you’re done, you’re not done! You must edit, test, edit, and test some more; taxonomies should evolve with usage and need to be maintained for them to remain relevant.

Lastly, taxonomies can be implemented in a myriad of ways, with search and websites being the most popular.

I am sure I have done Margie a disservice with my incredibly brief recap of her talk, but fear not. Margie is presenting an in-depth “Introduction to Taxonomies” workshop in June at SLA in San Diego – get your tickets now.

Thanks go to Information Express for their generous sponsorship of this event.

Freedom of Information

Sunshine Week: In Celebration of Open Government
“As President Barack Obama has stated, “Openness will strengthen our democracy, and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.” This week, we celebrate Sunshine Week — an appropriate time to discuss the importance of open government and freedom of information, and to take stock of how far we have come, and think about what more can be done.”
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/03/11/sunshine-week-celebration-open-government

Sunshine Week: A Round-up of EFF’s Year in Transparency
“This week, EFF once again joins a coalition of national and local transparency and press organizations in celebrating Sunshine Week as a way to bring attention to the importance of public records and the need to remain vigilant despite government push-back. Forty-seven years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) into law, giving the public the right to access records pertaining to government activities. Pronounced “foy-yah” by those who regularly employ it, the law serves as a sort of citizen subpoena process; if you ask for a record that doesn’t fall under a confidentiality exemption, the government has to produce it. Each day this week, EFF will be sharing details about our efforts to hold the government accountable using this crucial tool, including our successes and challenges. To kick it all off, here’s a breakdown of our greatest transparency hits since the last time Sunshine Week rolled around.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/03/sunshine-week-year-transparency

Open States: Transparency Report Card
“Today we’re making available our Transparency Report Card, a byproduct of the work we did in producing Open States. In the course of writing scrapers for all 50 state legislatures, our Open States team and volunteers spent a lot of time looking at state legislative websites and struggling with the often inadequate information made available.  Impossibly difficult to navigate sites, information going missing and gnarly PDFs of tabular data have become daily occurrences for those of us working on Open States. People are always curious to know how their state stacked up compared to others — in fact one of the most frequent questions we have been asked has been “so which state was the worst?”  That question got us thinking:  How could we derive a measure of how “open” a state’s legislative data was?”
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/03/11/openstates-report-card/ http://openstates.org/reportcard/ http://openstates.org/

Governor Cuomo Launches Open.NY.Gov Providing Public Unprecedented User-Friendly Access to Federal, State and Local Data
“Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today launched “open.ny.gov,” a new and comprehensive state data transparency website that provides – for the first time – user-friendly, one-stop access to data from New York State agencies, localities, and the federal government. The website, featuring economic development, health, recreation, and public services information, was unveiled today during Sunshine Week, a nationwide initiative designed to raise awareness about the importance of open government.”
http://www.governor.ny.gov/press/03112013open-data http://open.ny.gov/

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): Background and Policy Options for the 113th Congress
“This report provides background on FOIA, discusses the categories of records FOIA exampts from public release, and analyzes statistics on FOIA administration. The report also provides background on severla legal and policy issues related to FOIA, including the release of controversial records, the growth in use of certain FOIA exemptions, and the adoption of new technologies to improve FOIA administration. The report concludes with an examination of potenital FOIA-related policy options for Congress.”
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/R41933.pdf

Bipartisan Bill Aims to Beef Up FOIA Compliance
“The Republican and Democrat sitting atop Congress’ top watchdog panel unveiled joint proposed legislation Tuesday that would mandate a single online portal for all Freedom of Information Act requests across government. The 2013 FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act would direct officials to look closely at FOIA Online, a 5-month old joint FOIA Portal for the Commerce Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and a handful of other agencies. It would leave the door open for the governmentwide FOIA system to be built elsewhere, though, according to a press release from sponsors Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.”
http://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2013/03/bipartisan-legislation-aims-beef-foia-compliance/61821/

Freedom of Information Act Performance, 2012: Agencies Are Processing More Requests but Redacting More Often
“A building block of American democracy is the idea that citizens have a right to information about how their government works and what it does in their name. However, citizen access to public information was only established by law in 1966 with the passage of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The law has since been strengthened and improved over the years, and FOIA currently requires federal agencies to formally respond to requests for information within 20 working days or potentially face a lawsuit. While there are exemptions that agencies can use to avoid the disclosure of sensitive information or information that violates privacy rights, agencies processed over half a million FOIA requests in 2012. In about 41 percent of these cases, the information requested was released “in full” with no parts “redacted” – i.e., clean, complete documents with no blacked-out parts were provided to the person who requested the information. How does this compare to past years and past administrations? How well has President Obama met his goal of being the most transparent administration in history with regard to access to public information? This report examines the processing of FOIA requests from 25 major federal agencies in 2012 and reviews the processing of FOIA requests by agencies since 1998.”
http://www.foreffectivegov.org/freedom-information-act-agencies-are-processing-more-requests-but-redacting-more-often

Whither whistleblowing: Where have all the leaking sites gone?
“More than two years ago, a flurry of new WikiLeaks clones sprung up around the world inspired by the world’s most famous transparency-driven organization. They had all kinds of names: QuebecLeaks, BaltiLeaks, EnviroLeaks, and more. PirateLeaks (based in the Czech Republic), BrusselsLeaks (Belgium) and RuLeaks (Russia) all did not respond to Ars’ requests for comments. HonestAppalachia’s Jimmy Tobias wrote to Ars to say the group was “active indeed, and working on a variety of projects.” To date, HonestAppalachia has yet to publish anything, despite receiving a $5,000 grant from the Sunlight Foundation nearly a year ago. Most of these clones never got very far and appear to have all but shut down. Balkanleaks seems to be just one of a handful still actively receiving and publishing new documents. “I think this points to the fact that what WikiLeaks did was fairly unique and probably a few years ahead of its time,” said Trevor Timm, co-founder of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. So how does Balkanleaks thrive where others haven’t?”
http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/03/whither-whistleblowing-where-have-all-the-leaking-sites-gone/

Aaron Swartz to receive posthumous ‘Freedom of Information’ award for open access advocacy
“Internet activist and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz is slated to receive posthumous recognition in Washington for his efforts promoting free access to taxpayer-funded research. The James Madison Freedom of Information Award is administered by the American Library Association, and recognizes “individuals who have championed, protected and promoted public access to government information and the public’s right to know national information.”"
http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/13/4099792/aaron-swartz-to-receive-posthumous-freedom-of-information-award-for

Senator Tester Champions Government Transparency; Reintroduces POIA
“Today, Senator Jon Tester reintroduced The Public Online Information Act (POIA) a bill that would take already public government information out of file cabinets and put it online in user friendly formats.”
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/03/12/senator-tester-champions-government-transparency-reintroduces-poia/

National Security Letters Are Unconstitutional, Federal Judge Rules
“A federal district court judge in San Francisco has ruled that National Security Letter (NSL) provisions in federal law violate the Constitution. The decision came in a lawsuit challenging a NSL on behalf of an unnamed telecommunications company represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). In the ruling publicly released today, Judge Susan Illston ordered that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) stop issuing NSLs and cease enforcing the gag provision in this or any other case. The landmark ruling is stayed for 90 days to allow the government to appeal.”
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/national-security-letters-are-unconstitutional-federal-judge-rules

Shining a Light on FOIA Practices
“In celebration of Sunshine Week, a number of organizations released Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reviews. These reviews, conducted by National Security Archives, the Center for Effective Government, Cause of Action, Associated Press, and OpenTheGovernment.org, indicate how agencies measure up when it comes to providing the public with information. Although the studies indicate that agencies on the whole increased their responses to FOIA requests in 2012, disparities remain between agencies on things like response time, compliance with the 2007 Open Government Act and 2009 Guidance from the White House, cost of responding, fee waivers, and backlog reductions. A majority of responses to FOIA requests in 2012 were only partial responses, and use of exemptions to withhold or redact information increased. The following snapshots contain some of the highlights of each review.”
http://www.pogo.org/blog/2013/03/20130315-shining-a-light-on-foia-practices.html

Public Policy

2013 World Press Freedom Index: Dashed hopes after spring
“After the “Arab springs” and other protest movements that prompted many rises and falls in last year’s index, the 2013 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index marks a return to a more usual configuration. The ranking of most countries is no longer attributable to dramatic political developments. This year’s index is a better reflection of the attitudes and intentions of governments towards media freedom in the medium or long term.”
http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2013,1054.html

National Archives to Help Launch the Digital Public Library of America’s Pilot Project
“Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero announced today that the National Archives, as a leading content provider to the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), will help launch its first pilot project. The DPLA is a large-scale, collaborative project across government, research institutions, museums, libraries and archives to build a digital library platform to make America’s cultural and scientific history free and publicly available anytime, anywhere, online through a single access point.”
http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2013/nr13-72.html

Open Access

IMLS Director Susan Hildreth Supports Broad Access to Federally Funded Research
“The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced today its continuing commitment to expanding public access to IMLS funded research. In a February 22 memorandum, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy directed agencies to develop plans to increase access to federally funded scientific research and improve the management of research data. The following is a statement from IMLS Director Susan H. Hildreth.”
http://www.imls.gov/imls_director_susan_hildreth_supports_broad_access_to_federally_funded_research.aspx

Intellectual Property

What Librarians Need to Know about the New Copyright Alert System
“Late last month, the Center for Copyright Information (CCI) launched its Copyright Alert System, creating a new effort by rights holders (including the Recording Industry Association of America and Motion Picture Association of America) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as Comcast, Verizon, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable) to curb online copyright infringement.”
http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/03/new-copyright-alert-system-what-librarians-need-to-know/

Privacy Issues

Wimberly, Jasey Introduce “Reader Privacy Act” Bill Upgrading NJ Book Privacy for the Digital Age
“The rise in popularity of digital book purchasing, borrowing and concerns for individual privacy protections has prompted Assembly Democrats Benjie E. Wimberly and Mila M. Jasey to introduce legislation that would place readers and purchasers of books and electronic books –”e-Books”– under similar protections as library records by expanding reader privacy law. Wimberly and Jasey note the invention of digital books and e-readers has raised questions around the country about privacy and broadening protections to include new literary mediums. California enacted similar legislation in 2011 extending library privacy laws to include digital book records.”
http://www.politickernj.com/64006/wimberly-jasey-introduce-reader-privacy-act-bill-upgrading-nj-book-privacy-digital-age
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2012/Bills/A4000/3802_I1.HTM

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.

A favorite chapter tradition, Neighborhood Dinners, will take place in April. See the Neighborhood Dinners webpage for information on how to host or attend a dinner. The list of upcoming dinners will be updated periodically, so check back often to learn about new dining and networking opportunities!

It’s Sunshine Week!

Celebrating Sunshine Week 2013
“Sunshine Week, a nationwide initiative highlighting the importance of open government and accountability, will be held this year from March 10-16. Created by journalists in 2002, Sunshine Week is designed to educate people on their right to access public information in understandable, user-friendly formats to participate more effectively in democracy and to use such information to protect and improve their communities. Sunshine Week coincides with James Madison’s birthday on March 16. Madison is considered the “Founding Father of Freedom of Information.” During the week, news media, government officials, educational institutions, libraries, nonprofit organizations, individuals, and anyone with an interest in open and transparent government can take part in a variety of events and activities. Shedding new light on the latest developments in freedom of government information, these events will include conferences, panel discussions, and workshops. Here are some notable events that will take place in Washington, D.C., throughout the week”
http://www.foreffectivegov.org/blog/celebrating-sunshine-week-2013

Freedom of Information

It’s Time to Give the Public Access to CRS Reports
“Today, Representatives Leonard Lance (R-NJ) and Mike Quigley (D-IL) reintroduced legislation that will make it easier for the public, the media, and government employees to better understand the important policy matters facing Congress. The bipartisan “Public Access to Congressional Research Service Reports Resolution of 2013″ would ensure that these reports, which are often cited by courts and the media and sold by third parties for $20 per copy, are freely available to the public on a website maintained by the House Clerk.”
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/03/07/its-time-to-give-the-public-access-to-crs-reports/

Data transparency advocates register lobbyist
“An upstart data transparency group run by a former congressional counsel has registered its first lobbyist, new U.S. Senate filings show. Hudson Hollister, a Republican who until last year served as counsel to the U.S. House’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, will lobby on behalf of the Data Transparency Coalition, which wants the federal government to institute “greater efficiency and better transparency by deploying consistent data standards.”"
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/03/06/12277/data-transparency-advocates-register-lobbyist

Google Transparency Report Highlights Just How Much We Don’t Know About National Security Letters
“In an unprecedented win for transparency, yesterday Google began publishing generalized information about the number of National Security Letters that the company received in the past year as well as the total number of user accounts affected by those requests. Of all the dangerous government surveillance powers that were expanded by the USA PATRIOT Act, the National Security Letter (NSL) power provided by five statutory provisions is one of the most frightening and invasive. These letters–the type served on communications service providers such as phone companies and ISPs and are authorized by 18 U.S.C. 2709–allow the FBI to secretly demand data about ordinary American citizens’ private communications and Internet activity without any prior judicial review. To make matters worse, recipients of NSLs are subject to gag orders that forbid them from ever revealing the letters’ existence to anyone.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/03/new-statistics-about-national-security-letters-google-transparency-report

In Maine, ‘sunshine’ law’s fate looks dim
“The public’s access to government information is under attack in Maine. The Legislature will take up several bills this session that would further puncture the state’s open-government law, snatching from public view information that is now considered part of the public’s right to know. If approved, the measures will reinforce Maine’s national reputation as a place where transparency and government accountability rank behind privacy and other powerful interests.”
http://www.pressherald.com/politics/sunshine-laws-fate-looks-dim-in-maine_2013-03-03.html

Obama’s Legacy of Transparency is Unfinished
“In a report released today, the Center for Effective Government (formerly OMB Watch) examines the Obama administration’s progress on open government during the president’s first term. The review finds that the administration has issued important policy reforms, but that the implementation of White House policies has been inconsistent across federal agencies. The report, titled Delivering on Open Government: The Obama Administration’s Unfinished Legacy, reviews activity in three main areas relating to government transparency: creating an environment that supports transparency, improving the usability of government information, and reducing secrecy related to national security.”
http://www.foreffectivegov.org/obamas-legacy-of-transparency-is-unfinished
RSVP for a related Sunshine Week panel discussion and webcast on Tuesday, March 12, 2013, at 1 p.m. Eastern Time!  The webcast will also be archived at: http://www.youtube.com/foreffectivegov

Public Policy

GPO Celebrates 152 Years of Keeping America Informed
“Today is the 152nd birthday of the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). The agency first opened its doors for business on March 4, 1861, the same day Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the 16th President, with a mission based on the requirement in Article I, section 5 of the Constitution that “each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings and from time to time publish the same.” Since Lincoln’s time GPO has produced the official version of every great American state paper and an uncounted number of other Government publications, forms, and documents, including the Emancipation Proclamation, Social Security cards, Medicare and Medicaid information, census forms, tax forms, citizenship forms, military histories ranging from the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion to the latest accounts of our forces in Afghanistan, emergency documents like the ration cards and the “Buy Bonds” posters used during World War II, the Warren Commission Report on President Kennedy’s assassination, the Watergate transcripts, the 9/11 Commission Report, Presidential inaugural addresses, Supreme Court opinions, and the great acts of Congress that have shaped American society.”
http://gpo.gov/pdfs/news-media/press/13news08.pdf

Open Access

NIU Libraries launches Open Access Fund
“NIU Libraries has launched a pilot Open Access Fund that will provide small grants to faculty and graduate students to help defray the upfront costs associated with open access publishing. Grappling with the costs for expensive journal subscriptions, a number of universities nationwide, including Harvard and MIT, are promoting open access publishing. It provides unrestricted online access to peer-reviewed journal articles, thus broadening access to scholarly research. The NIU Open Access Fund seeks to advance the use of open access as a means of distributing the research and creative work of the Northern Illinois University community.”
http://www.niutoday.info/2013/03/04/niu-libraries-launches-open-access-fund/

Intellectual Property

Library Copyright Alliance Submits Reply Comments to Copyright Office on Orphan Works
“On March 5, the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA, of which the American Library Association is a member) filed reply comments (pdf) to the US Copyright Office in response to the office’s October 22, 2012, Notice of Inquiry about the current state of play with orphan works and mass digitization.”
http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/03/library-copyright-alliance-submits-reply-comments-to-copyright-office-on-orphan-works/

Google Says Authors Guild Lawsuit Could Shred Modern Card Catalog
“A victory for the Authors Guild in its copyright infringement case against Google would do nothing less than destroy the “modern version of the card catalog,” the search company argues in new court papers filed this week. “This case is about whether Google’s modern version of the card catalog — a search tool that allows anyone with access to the Internet to search among millions of books — can continue to exist,” Google says. Google’s sweeping rhetoric comes in its latest round of papers stemming from its book digitization effort, which involves scanning library books and displaying snippets of some of them in its search engine, in response to queries. The company is currently appealing an order by U.S. Circuit Court Judge Denny Chin allowing the Authors Guild to proceed with its case as a class-action lawsuit.”
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/195268/google-says-authors-guild-lawsuit-could-shred-mode.html#axzz2N6diKY28

Privacy Issues

CISPA is Back: FAQ on What it is and Why it’s Still Dangerous
“The privacy-invasive bill known as CISPA—the so-called “cybersecurity” bill—was reintroduced in February 2013. Just like last year, the bill has stirred a tremendous amount of grassroots activism because it carves a loophole in all known privacy laws and grants legal immunity for companies to share your private information. EFF has compiled an FAQ detailing how the bill’s major provisions work and how they endanger all Internet users’ privacy.”
https://www.eff.org/cybersecurity-bill-faq

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.

In late November of last year, the San Francisco Bay Region and Silicon Valley Chapters of SLA hosted a joint chapter tour of the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.  This was a special behind-the-scenes tour, showcasing the museum’s archives, collection storage, and other areas seldom seen by the public.

Our tour guide, Patience Young, presented us with a thorough history of the museum along with an overview of its operations day to day.  We got to see where future exhibits are designed and put together, where Japanese swords and Mediterranean pottery are stored and kept safe from earthquakes and the elements, and where the entire collection is being digitally photographed, one piece at a time.   As a participant on the tour, I was struck by the commonalities between museums and archives.   The techniques used to store and preserve items, and the use of digital tools to document them brought me back my days as an intern at the Society of California Pioneers’ archive and research library.

The Cantor Center has been an integral part of Stanford University since its founding.  Its original purpose was to make the Stanford family’s art collection available to students and the general public.  The Stanford family, including Leland Jr., collected art as they traveled around the world, and this formed the basis for what was to become the Cantor Center.  The museum now boasts a collection spanning more than 5,000 years of art history and including the largest collection of Auguste Rodin sculptures outside of the Musée Rodin in Paris.

After the tour, many of us gathered in the museum’s Kool Café for dinner and networking.  It was wonderful to see that the tour was attended by members based throughout the Bay Area, from Danville to the San Jose area.  Some of us also took some time to wander about the museum, taking in some of the exhibits after getting a sense of the work involved in creating them.  This was a very memorable tour, and I think everyone who attended was thankful to the Cantor Center for giving us such an in-depth look behind the scenes.

By Kim Ewart

Freedom of Information

White House Regulatory Office Too Quiet About Its Activities, Study Finds
“A notable portion of meeting records, oral communications and public comments related to agency rulemaking are absent from the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs website, according to a new study that faults OIRA for less-than-full transparency during the last 12 years.”
http://www.govexec.com/management/2013/02/white-house-regulatory-office-too-quiet-about-its-activities-study-finds/61536/

Senator Tester Keeps Fighting the Good Fight for Transparency
“Today, Senator Tester announced that once again he has introduced the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act, (not yet online) a bill that would bring the Senate into the 21st Century by requiring senators and Senate candidates to electronically file their campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission.”
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/02/26/senator-tester-keeps-fighting-the-good-fight-for-transparency/

Public Policy

E-rate’s looming Fiscal Cliff
“While Congress and the White House debate how to prevent the looming across-the-board budgets cuts known as sequestration, those of us in the E-rate world are worrying about our own “fiscal cliff.” For the past several years E-rate applicants have been biting their nails waiting to see what totals are going to be requested from the capped fund and if there will be enough money to fund their applications. In 2012, we heard a collective gasp when the school and library applications showed that for the first time in the 15 years of the program there was not going to be enough money to cover all the priority one requests, with a shortfall of some $2.8 billion. After shaking out the couch cushions and emptying the penny jars, USAC was able to make up the deficit so that all of these applications could receive funding and the first tier of priority two applications would also receive funding.”
http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/02/e-rates-looming-fiscal-cliff/

Open Access

SLA Supports Open Access to Federally Funded Research
“SLA, along with 11 other library, publishing, research and advocacy organizations, wrote a letter thanking U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden for introducing legislation titled “The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act” (FASTR). This bill, introduced on February 13, will provide an important mechanism to ensure that manuscripts of peer-reviewed scientific articles reporting on research funded by the U.S. Government can be freely accessed and fully used by all American taxpayers – including researchers, teachers, students and businesses.”
http://slablogger.typepad.com/sla_blog/2013/02/sla-supports-open-access-to-federally-funded-research.html

Internet Access

Internet Governance, Policy Up for Debate at UNESCO Meeting in Paris
“This week, Internet governance experts and advocates gather in Paris to start preparing for the ten-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2015. This week’s meeting is hosted by the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); CDT’s Leslie Harris and Matthew Shears will be appearing on several panels addressing questions of privacy, free expression, and cybersecurity – key issues in Internet policy that will shape governance debates over the next few years. The WSIS+10 event will give government, industry, civil society, academics, and the technical community an opportunity to continue conversations about Internet governance and policy that were features of the WCIT debates.”
https://www.cdt.org/blogs/emma-llanso/2602internet-governance-policy-debate-unesco-meeting-paris

Digital History

Building the Digital Public Library of America
“The Digital Public Library of America will launch on April 18 after two and a half years of careful planning and preparation. The project known as DPLA is the first national effort that seeks to aggregate existing records in state and regional digital libraries so that they are searchable from a single portal. Up until now, the documents that tell the story of our nation’s history and cultural heritage have largely been siloed in state and local libraries, museums, and archives. Some institutions have the ability to digitize those valuable materials and put them online, but strained budgets mean that most do not. The project’s funding will also allow it to work with local communities to digitize their cultural-heritage—preserving them for the future and bringing them online as part of our first national digital library.”
http://www.knightfoundation.org/blogs/knightblog/2013/2/28/building-the-digital-public-library-america/

Intellectual Property

Copyright Alert System Launching Today
“The long-discussed Copyright Alert System (CAS) is launching today — but don’t expect any immediate fireworks.  It’s going to take some time to see how the system operates in practice; all that will happen this week is that some Internet users may receive initial informational alerts. Under the CAS, ISPs will send warning notices to subscribers that copyright holders have identified as engaging in copyright infringement on peer-to-peer networks.  In the optimistic scenario, this notification-centric approach will serve a largely educational purpose, informing users that their file sharing activity may be both illegal and observable by rightsholders.  Some users may not have been fully aware of that.  And in some cases, notices may clue parents in to illegal behavior they weren’t aware of, such as file sharing by the household teenager.  This is why CDT has said that the CAS has the potential to help reduce peer-to-peer copyright infringement while sidestepping the serious concerns raised by approaches that involve (for example) government mandates or the adoption of new snooping or filtering technologies. There are risks, however.”
https://www.cdt.org/blogs/david-sohn/2502copyright-alert-system-launching-today

New German Law Will Allow Free “Snippets” By Search Engines, But Uncertainty Remains
“The good news for search engines like Google is a proposed German copyright law won’t require them to pay to show short summaries of news content. However, uncertainty remains about how much might be “too much” and require a license. The new law is expected to pass on Friday.”
http://searchengineland.com/new-german-law-will-allow-free-snippets-by-search-engines-but-uncertainty-remains-150131

Privacy Issues

Supreme Court Dismisses Challenge to FISA Amendments Act; EFF’s Lawsuit Over NSA Warrantless Wiretapping Remains
“Yesterday, the Supreme Court sadly dismissed the ACLU’s case, Clapper v. Amnesty International, which challenged the FISA Amendments Act (FAA)—the unconstitutional law that allows the government to wiretap Americans communicating with people overseas. Under the FAA, the government can conduct this surveillance without naming individuals and without a traditional probable cause warrant, as the Fourth Amendment requires. The court didn’t address the constitutionality of the FAA itself, but instead ruled that the plaintiffs—a group of lawyers, journalists, and human rights advocates who regularly communicate with likely “targets” of FAA wiretapping—couldn’t prove the surveillance was “certainly impending,” so therefore didn’t have the “standing” necessary to sue. In other words, since the Americans did not have definitive proof that they were being surveilled under the FAA—a fact the government nearly always keeps secret—they cannot challenge the constitutionality of the statute.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/02/supreme-court-dismisses-challenge-fisa-warrantless-wiretapping-law-effs-lawsuit

International Outlook

German National Data Portal Launched
“Wednesday saw the launch of the German national data portal. While the portal had been longtime expected, in the last days before the launch the German open data community has been vocal in its criticism of the introduction of a newly created national license framework, which includes the option to limit re-use to non-commercial use forms. The portal will also hold non-open data as well as data in closed formats. This in the expectation that once data is published in some shape or form the pressure on the data holder will rise to provide the data as really open data as well.”
http://epsiplatform.eu/content/german-national-data-portal-launched

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.

Way back what seems like ages ago, but is, in reality, only 3 weeks past, I was in Dallas for SLA’s 2013 Leadership Summit. Many thanks to the Texas Chapter for all of their hard work and their big Texas welcome! For those unfamiliar with the event, this annual meeting brings together the SLA Board, HQ staff, and chapter and division Presidents/Chairs and Presidents/Chairs-Elect to discuss the state of the Association, the challenges we face, and the plans for the road ahead.

This was my first Summit – my trip last year as President-Elect was cancelled at the very last minute due to some personal drama – so I was very excited to be able to attend this year. In spite of the fact that I spent two full days in a hotel conference room, it was a wonderful experience and I encourage anyone interested in getting involved in leadership positions with SLA, or who is just interested in the inner workings of the association, to attend. You do not have to be a current unit Board member to go. While there are obviously plenty of opportunities to meet people at the Annual Conference, the Leadership Summit provides a more intimate setting, bringing together folks with SLA-famous Twitter handles for the common goal of making our Association more vital and relevant to members and potential members everywhere.

Some of the highlights of this year’s Summit include:

In his Treasurer’s Report, new SLA Treasurer John DiGilio emphasized the “we are all one SLA” theme, and introduced specific plans for enhanced openness. He has started a new discussion list for unit Treasurers to more easily share information and ideas, and has committed to sending financial reports to unit leaders throughout the year. I will be sharing this information with the chapter as it arrives. John also reported that SLA broke even in 2012, and is projected to do so again in 2013. However, he noted an ongoing trend – over the last four years, SLA has managed to decrease expenses to keep in line with decreasing revenue, resulting in a balanced budget. This has led to some projects being deferred and, as we all know, a reduction in SLA HQ staff. They are running a very small, tight crew in Alexandria right now. There isn’t much fat left to cut, so the key issue going forward has to be bringing that downward revenue line on the graph back up. John also noted that 63% of SLA’s revenue comes from the annual conference, while conference expenses represent 43% of our outflow. So, everyone, register for the conference in San Diego!

SLA’s new Strategic Agenda was emphasized throughout the Summit. All leaders are being encouraged to consider how the decisions and actions we take in our chapters and divisions can support one of the five tiers of this program. For those unfamiliar with the agenda items, they include:

1. Strengthening and Improving the Annual Conference
2. Providing Professional Development Opportunities for Our Members Throughout the Year
3. Creating Richer Volunteer Experiences to Help Members Develop In-Demand Skills
4. Opening New Markets through Collaboration
5. Growth through Diversification of Information Professionals

Your chapter Board and Advisory Council will be exploring ways to promote and incorporate these ideas into our chapter activities going forward.

Chris Zammarelli, Chair of the First Five Years Advisory Council, announced a plan to hold a focus group at the 2013 conference to explore what our colleagues who are newer to the profession would find helpful and meaningful through their association membership. Please contact me if you are a newish information professional attending the conference and you would like to participate, or if you know someone who should.

By far, the announcement that received the most excitement, demonstrated by frequent “oohs”, “aahs”, and applause, was the introduction of the new SLA web site. Built on WordPress, the new site not only reflects the unified design aesthetics adopted by the units under Operation Vitality, it also makes things <gasp> easier to find. The site is attractive, intuitive, and functional. Prompted largely by a suggestion made by our own Tony Landolt, the new web site will also feature an association-wide event calendar, allowing members to view the programs hosted by various units throughout the year. You can use the calendar to find webinars in which you’d like to participate, or possibly to find interesting programs to attend and SLA members to meet if you happen to be travelling to another chapter region. The new web site is currently set to launch in early April. I stopped holding my breath a long time ago, but now that I’ve seen what’s coming, I’m virtually breathless with antici. . . (say it, say it) . . .pation.

The Leadership Summit also serves as the official kick-off for planning the 2014 Annual Conference. The conference will be held in Vancouver (June 8-10, 2014), and the theme is Beyond Borders. More changes are in store as SLA explores various ways to make the conference even more relevant to members, including a variety of session time slots lasting 60, 90, and 120 minutes, and 15-minute “Quick Take” slots for hot topics. Three themes were also announced for further consideration by all divisions in spotlight sessions, Sunday: Embedded Information Services, Monday: Digital Content and Big Data, Tuesday: Leadership in the Human Age.

I represented the San Francisco Bay Region Chapter with a presentation on our chapter’s first foray last fall into charging for webinars. The extremely detailed procedures document written by Chris Orr, our Professional Development Chair, proved invaluable in developing the presentation, and the session was well-received. The detailed instructions, lessons learned, and issues to consider going forward seemed to be very useful for the units who have not embarked on this endeavor before. My presentation was also well-matched with that of Rachel Bates Wilfahrt, president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter. Since their chapter sponsored several webinars last year, it was nice to have the perspective of a unit with lots of experience to show what’s possible, as well as that of our chapter which still has our lessons learned so fresh in our heads. The slides from my presentation, as well as all of the other presentations from the 2013 Leadership Summit, are available here: http://www.sla.org/content/resources/leadcenter/LeadershipSummit/13leadsummit/slides.cfm. Note, member login is required for access.

Finally, last, but most certainly not least, the 2013 Fellows and Rising Stars were announced:

2013 Fellows: David Cappoli, Dennie Heye, Martha Foote, Mary Talley, Rebecca Vargha
2013 Rising Stars: Alyson Avery, Kendra Levine, Amy Sarola, Rachel Bates Wilfahrt, Aileen Marshall

A special shout out for San Francisco Bay Region Chapter member Kendra Levine, current Chair of the Transportation Division, for her recognition.

The Summit concluded with a look forward to San Diego, including the introduction of SLA’s “Get on the Beach” Recruitment Campaign, and the enjoyment of the always visionary musical stylings of Richard Geiger and Tim DeWolf. As you gear up to attend the conference, kick your excitement up to 11 with this rousing rendition of a Woody Guthrie classic! You can listen while you register!

By Anne N. Barker
Chapter President