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Well, I’ve got the Unofficial Access to Government Information Interest Group (AGIIG) blog up and running and announced. I’ve already had some good feedback. I’m hoping the blog will act as a means to discuss issues facing gov pubs and gov pubs librarians. While we all know there are issues, it’s difficult for all of us to come together and talk about what’s happening and what we need to do. What better use of a blog is there!
Free Government Information (FGI) has created a news aggregator. It’s a great way to get gov docs news in one easy spot. Feeds are divided into 1 of 4 categories: government documents blogs, government technology, information focused government blogs, organizations of interest to FGI.
When maps, gov pubs, and other librarians heard that the Canadian government was going to stop the production of paper maps and go digital only, there were protests. It seems their protests, along with others, have been heard. The Conservative Government has scrapped plans to close the Canadian Map Office! Great news for map lovers and users!
As I try to catch up on the backlog of rss feeds in my Bloglines account, I came across this and thought I would share (for all those gov pubs enthusiasts - and I know you think it’s your dirty little secret but it’s time to be proud of your love for gov pubs). FirstGov now has a list of many of the US government RSS feeds. A nice neat place to sign up for feeds. I’ll pass on any other neat things that I may have missed over the summer.
As I do collections in gov pubs, am I very interested in figuring out what to do with e-gov pubs, especailly when it comes to access and preservation. Two reports have been released from the University of Albany’s Center for Technology in Government. Guess what I’ll be reading over the next while. I’ll pass on any good hints and tips. I’m still intrigued by the use of Internet Archive for documents and will continue to mull over this.
I’m sure many have posted on this, but as a Canadian, this was the first time I took a look at the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) in the States (House Resolution 5319). If passed, it will force schools and libraries to block anything that allow users to post profiles, personal information and allow communication among users or lose federal internet subsidies. This could be a terrible blow to the Web 2.0 movement and seems to be mostly backlash at MySpace. I understand the need to prevent predator’s from approaching children, but educating children on proper use of the web may be the most important step. Despite this being an American resolution, I will be keeping my eye on it, just in case Canada feels the need to follow our neighbours to the south. For more info, check out the post from Techcrunch, which offers links to other sites talking about DOPA.
Well, now that you’ve probably everything you ever wanted to read about the major conferences this year, I’m finally able to put in my two cents worth. Today I’ll be concentrating on CLA.
I actually only attended 1 day of the Canadian Library Association Annual Conference in Ottawa, but what a day to go. I attended the Government Information Track, sponsored by the Access to Government Information Interest Group (more news on this group in a moment). The day consisted of 3 panel discussions.
What are you talking about? Interpreting, understanding and answering government reference questions
This panel included Mike McCaffrey, Ian McDonald and George de Zwann. Mike went over the types of questions (bibliographical, directory/services, statutory/regulatory, legislative/political, administrative, statistical and historical) and stated that the road to improvement incorporates literacy (political, arithmetic or statistical, legal), literature in the field, a systematic study of your collection and library schools and colleagues. Ian highlighted the activities of the Library and Archives of Canada (LAC), including the recent merge with the Archives of Canada. George followed with the activities of the Archives of Canada. This was the best attended session, despite it’s early time slot. This highlights librarians ill-ease with government publications and the need to know more about them. With libraries losing gov docs librarians, seeing gov doc reference desks merged with reference desks, and the increasing number of gov docs on the web, it’s not surprising that interest in gov docs reference help is high.
Preservation of Web-based Government Information
John Stegenga, Annemarie Toth-Waddell, and Julie Schwartz formed this panel. All three gave examples of different approaches to preserving web-based gov pubs. John noted LAC’s use of a more homegrown approach. Annemarie of the Ontario Legislative Library spoke of her library’s use of a commercial software. Julie, of the Connecticut State Library, shared her experiences of using a more supported commercial service (OCLC Digital Archive). All stressed the importance of partnerships for the future of web-based gov pubs.
The Future of Accessing Government Publications
Gay Lepkey, Liz McKeen, and Nancy Brodie tackled this daunting topic. A number of problems were highlighted, including the need to keep better statistics for gov pubs use. Statistics will make it easier to fight to keep these important documents. They also highlighted what is being done, particularly by LAC.
Well, a very brief overview of what happened in the panels. As usual, while the sessions were enlightening, I found many of the conversations held between the sessions particularly useful. Conferences are essential to keeping connections and sharing knowledge.
I mentioned CLA’s Access to Government Information Interest Group (AGIIG) as the sponsor of the above track. In addition to teaching a distance course on reference this fall, I have also agreed to become the new Convenor for AGIIG. I’ve got some big shoes to fill and hope I can forward this group further in their work. Wish me luck!
Free Government Information wrote a little piece on the Library of Parliament in Canada. Questions have been raised about preservation. The response is that print is still important. I believe in this whole-heartedly. Electronic is a great medium for access but preservation of electronic information leaves a lot to be desired yet. I'm heading a group at my library to try to figure out what can be done with electronic government publications. The issues are enormous, preservation is just one. I'm also concerned with accessing the many of hidden government documents. More to come on that when solutions are found.
Ok, I promise I'll try not to write too much more on this topic, as it does seem to be dominating lately. However, according to a New York Times article, it seems that 1/3 of the items that were withdrawn and reclassified since 1999 from the National Archives in the Staes did not contain sensative material. The remaining 2/3 could technically be justified but often held old secrets that are known. It begs the question, why were they withdrawn then? I have no answer for you.
Well, I just can't seem to get away from secrecy issues, so much so in fact that I've created it as a new tag. I blame part of this on account of my government publications duties. Here's some more about the National Archives and the CIA (from the Chronicle Of Higher Education, may need a subscription). The archivist, who claims he only found out about the agreement recently, agrees with what I said in my previous post: such an agreement goes against everything they stand for. He has stated that he will not be entering any secret agreements in the future. Update: Here's a link for background info on NARA and MOUs. Be Spacific also has a good posting on the recent couple of secrecy issues at NARA.
Papers from Jack Anderson have been donated to George Washington University. Great, except that the FBI want to look at them first and take out any classified documents. According to CNN, his family has refused to let the FBI look through the papers.
The National Archives in the States has admitted to removing items from their shelves and secretly reclassifying them. While I blogged on this before, the shocking part of this is to me that they would agree to secretly remove items that has formerly been available to researches. In a profession that is supposed to uphold access to information it seems counter-intuitive. The memorandum was obtain through a Freedom of Information request and has since been posted on their website. At least they are admitting to their acts now.
Well, it's that time of year here. I'm getting ready for my annual review. It's a great way to look back at the year, examine what was accomplished and what has yet to happen. I've managed to accomplish quite a bit this year but it's rather overwhelming when I consider the number of things I still want to accomplish.
Not only are there a number of things to actually get done, there's lots to contemplate in the ever changing world of librarianship. Top on my list of considerations:
The state of government information - There are so many issues when it comes to government publications, especially electronic gov pubs. We're creating an e-gov pubs working group to try to get a handle on some of the issues.
Library 2.0 - yes, more library 2.0. I'll definitely keep following this and consider how we can apply it here. Luckily, we've got a couple of experts in this area already.
Information Literacy - this almost goes hand-in-hand with another concern of mine, liaison work. I think it's incredibly important to reach out to both faculty and students in the form of liaison work. This year the library's trying to get more involved with student orientation and I'm playing a role in it. Hopefully our relationship with both students and faculty will become stronger over the next year.
The year ahead holds many challenges and opportunities. Bring it on!
There has been a lot of free information lately. ArchiveGrid has been discussed in a number of library blogs. This site allows free access to historical documetns from around the world.
Statistics Canada has announced that they will make all electronic publications found on their website (http://www.statcan.ca) free as of April 24th.
Exciting news from my library. We’ve hired Jeffery Trzeciak as our new UL. His presentation was Library 2.0 oriented. Can’t wait to see what we do!
The New York Times (may require registration) reports that the American government is apparently reclassifying documents which were previously offered to the public. One wonders how this can be done, since researchers already have copies of many of the documents. This news comes after a recent article that stated that the US government was releasing the largest amount of documents by the end of the year.
Government documents have been taking a beating in the past few years. Electronic versions of documents provided nightmares for gov docs librarians. The issues in preservation and access are astounding and yet more and more gov pubs end up as online versions only. The Bush administration is the most secretive administration yet. Gov pubs librarians are trying their best to address the problems but it seems an uphill battle. I could rant on about the problems facing gov pubs in the next while, but sufficit to say, I’m looking forward to my upcoming conferences (CLA, ALA), both of which have gov pubs tracks. It will be nice to talk about these issues with others who have the same concerns. I’ll keep you posted of any solutions on the horizon.
Yes, I have been delinquent. I was previously preparing for my first professional conference presentation. I survived! I presented “How Do I Teach That? Connecting Government Documents and Information Literacy in Academic Libraries” at the OLA Super Conference in Toronto.
Conferences are a great way to rejuvinate passion for my work. There’s nothing better than being able to talk to others who understand and love what you do too. It is heading up to conference season and perhaps I’ll see a few of you at CLA or ALA. There are some great programs lined up. Now, to find the time and the money…
Internet Archive has introduced a new subscription service that allows you to create your own archive called Archive-it. This has some wonderful applications for government information, which is increasingly finding its way online and can move off of it just as easily. It is aimed at libraries and institutions and allows you to archive up to 100 pages. This may be an easy way to see if your institution wants to step into the world of web archiving in a fuller manner. Check it out at: http://www.archive-it.org/learn-more.html
